If you look at the New York Times article on the Republican legislators who signed on to the seditious attempt to overthrow the presidential election results, you’ll see the final name on the list is the representative from Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District, Tom Tiffany.
In choosing to side with Donald Trump’s lies about voter fraud (not one of which has been proven in court), he has shown himself willing to put power over country. He has shown himself willing to overturn the will of the voters. He has shown himself willing to undermine our Constitution in order to serve his own political gain.
By supporting Trump’s falsehoods about the election and by spreading lies, Tiffany is complicit in the violence that occurred at the Capitol on Jan. 6. Though I’ve no doubt he will clutch at his pearls and decry the mob that descended on Washington, he cannot evade guilt in helping to incite the violence that we all witnessed.
Tiffany is early in his first full term, and there is still time for him to see the error of his position, to turn away from the faction on the right that distorts the truth to serve its own ends. There is nothing wrong with being a conservative; we need a range of viewpoints to make government fully representative. What we do not need is slavish devotion to a would-be tyrant who is willing to incite violence and spread falsehoods to serve his political ends.
Tom Tiffany, you were elected to serve the people of northern Wisconsin and uphold the Constitution. I hope you can grow the backbone to do so, even when it means having to oppose the lies of Donald Trump.
Chris Nollet,
South Range