LETTER: We shouldn’t need to rely on the guardrails

Your Jan. 14 editorial (“Biden repels, so he pounds Trump”) admits that the violence which occurred at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 was a “fiasco” and that Donald Trump behaved “shamefully.” The editorial then incredulously claims that the “guardrails” of American government held that day and prevented the hostile crowd from overturning the results of the 2020 presidential election.

That assertion completely disregards the fact that the violence stopped not because of the alleged guardrails, but only after Mr. Trump reluctantly intervened and told the protesters to leave the Capitol. He did so after acquiescing for three hours while watching the carnage unfold on television and condoning it through his inaction.

It has been said that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” In that light, perhaps Review-Journal readers will realize that it is more prudent to elect someone other than Mr. Trump than it is to elect Mr. Trump again while hoping that “guardrails” would mitigate the harm that he is so capable of infliciting.