Talk about hypocrisy

I thought your whisper-behind-thehand endorsement of Donald Trump last October was the most cowardly thing I had ever seen a newspaper do. Now you are in the running for most hypocritical.

Last Sunday’s lead editorial complains that Democrats aren’t offering to share power in the U.S. Senate: “That, apparently, only happens when there is a Republican vice president.” After eight years of having the door slammed in their faces by Senate Republicans, the Democrats are supposed to turn into saints of charity? I wish we all could.

This partisan chauvinism caused me to review your opinions of the previous Wednesday’s assault on Congress by Donald Trump’s supporters. On Thursday morning, the editorial sub-headline was “A tantrum in Washington, D.C.” You had two main points: Security was bad, and Trump acted against his own best interests in stirring his followers’ passions. “Tantrum” is quite an understatement, but OK, it was an early reaction.

However, on Friday, when you’d had time to think, it was “Backfire, boomerang, ricochet,” and your primary point was that the attack would have bad consequences: “So, if you were one of the stormers, what did you accomplish?” This implies that if the rioters had achieved their goal of intimidating Congress, they could claim at least some justification. I hope you didn’t mean that. But on Saturday, you were back to deploring security.

You have not commented even once on the horrifying contempt for democracy displayed, or the insult to our nation’s iconic symbols. You have not decried the threats to life and property justified in Trump’s name, or the continuing danger from his violent supporters now reported to be making plans online.

Instead, you complain that Democrats have not been “extending the hand of friendship.” On reflection, I think you get the most-hypocritical honors as well.

MARY LOWE KENNEDY

Little Rock