November 11, 2020
Dear Maria Eugenia,
I care little for others’ opinions. I have enough of my own. I commend Laredo Trump supporters for their zeal and prayers, however misguided, for soon-to-be Former President Donald Trump. All sinners need prayers.
Notwithstanding loud absurdities by evangelicals Kenneth Copeland and Paula White, wrongful claims of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, hateful lies of Texas GOP Chair Allen West (who uses words like “anarchists,” “communists” and “socialists” referring to Democrats, popularly bandied about by persons ignorant of the terms’ definitions), and Senator Ted Cruz’s illogical virulence, it’s unfortunate some people still deny facts, repeating Republican demagogues’ lies about fraud and vote stealing. Praying to an omnipotent and omniscient entity to change the outcome of an election by the free will of good people seems arrogant. Americans are Constitutionally guaranteed freedom of conscience and belief, however, as Ivan Turgeniev wrote, praying is like asking a God make two-plus-two equal something other than four. Many fellow Americans don’t accept that a true democratic republic requires all adult citizens participate in selecting responsible leadership. Rule of the people requires a majority vote; it’s done. Donald Trump and his Republican enablers were leading our nation down the dark path of autocracy. If people failed to see the signs, there are lessons in history, especially 1920s Italy and 1930s Germany and Spain.
Unbelievably, a local banker raising money to allay the cost of Trump’s upcoming lawsuits and trials, while in 2017 a bank officer in Madrid, Spain offered his admiration for our country’s strength and world leadership, asking how we ever allowed Trump become President. Using the term impericidio (a nation’s death), he feared Americans losing hard-won democracy and civil rights. He explained how Spain suffered for 36 years under Francisco Franco’s dictatorship, a man who overthrew his country’s legitimately elected government by civil war. Spain’s Civil War ended in 1939, but the last Spanish political prisoner executed was in 1971. I pray Trump prayer group members read Sinclair Lewis’ pre-World War II novel It Can’t Happen Here and see what occurs when naïve zealots believe demagogues.
I do not pray deities to alter facts, however I hope my fellow credulous citizens put the wellbeing of our diverse country foremost in their intentions.
Peace to all, harm to none.
Carlos Valle Jr.
