In response to Ron Shirtz' letter from 1/13/2022, Mr. Shirtz appears to be stuck in the echo chamber of blame and false information, or possibly ill-informed, or ignorance.

He stated that we should hold the elected democratic officials in office accountable for a variety of reasons. These reasons have been shown to not be the fault of the elected democratic officials, but rather the idiocy and ignorance of the former administration. Allow me to explain.

1. Mr. Shirtz asked why president Biden quickly left Afghanistan, leaving items behind and abandoning our Afghan allies. Well...news showed that the former president, Mr. Shirtz set up for withdrawal for May of 2021. President Biden and his team set up a massive air lift campaign to get people out of the country and got the withdrawal pushed back to August of 2021. Why did the former president side with the Taliban, a known terrorist organization?

2. Mr. Shirtz asks about the price of gas and food. This is due to inflation, and is part of economics. Inflation is rampant right now due in part to the supply chain ring disrupted due to a worldwide pandemic. The pandemic that the former administration and current republican elected officials vow is fake and beg people to not get vaccinated and have been shown to undermine any progress made to combat the pandemic. It has been shown that the former administration knew how bad the pandemic would be and did nothing and withheld information to the public.

3. So the filibuster is being used to prevent people from voting. The republican officials have used the so called nuclear option to get what they want and the Democratic party are saying that they will do the same. The republican officials across the country are making it harder to vote for everyone, especially minorities, and there needs to be substantial voting rights amendment set up so states can not enact Jim crow-like laws.

4. Covid tests can only be manufactured at the speed the company can make them. They don't magically appear.

5. See point #3. Also remember the voting practice is being chipped away at by republican officials at a state level to ensure that less people are able to vote.

6. It has been shown that many of the capitol police and other law enforcement agencies were told to not be at emergency levels by other officials. Being warned of a massive protest and it becoming an attempted coup are two totally different things, with one being a protest and the other being super violent. The attempted coup on January 6 is being investigated. The chains of command to ensure that people were safe were broken, and not representative Pepsi.

Also, I must ask, why does Trump and Republicans love white nationalists, like the oath keepers who were recently charged with sedition?

Mr. Shirtz needs to leave his echo chamber and realize that one party is gumming up the works, and that is the Republican party. The Republican party is sliding in to fascist ideology pretty fast and it needs to be stopped and held accountable.

Jeffry Wilson
Massena