How ironic to open the Bitterroot Star last Wednesday to read Henry Fowler’s latest apologist letter extolling ‘National Populism’ on the very day that radical extremists assaulted and seized the Capitol building of our great country.
The United States Congress was convened to perform their constitutional duty to certify the States electoral votes, while the mob was being incited by the loser of that recent election, who refuses to acknowledge his loss.
This is exactly what ‘National Populism’ looks like folks, a charismatic demagogue inciting credulous mobs with baseless lies and inflammatory rhetoric, the people in those mobs choosing to believe those baseless lies and being manipulated to destroy the institutions of lawful governance at the direction of the leader who cares only for raw power.
It is the same tactic used by Mussolini in Italy and Hitler in Germany to seize absolute power and destroy representative government. The ‘National Populism’ that Mr. Fowler advocates is based on the darkness of lies, fear, anger and resentment.
It refuses moderation and any hint of flexibility. It cannot accommodate any other point of view except it’s own twisted version of the truth. Democracy is complicated, and sometimes messy. But I think I prefer the rule of law over mob violence, inclusion over exclusion, and the ideals of our nation over the totalitarianism of ‘National Populism’.
Dean Diers
Stevensville