It is right that Donald Trump is impeached as president after disgraceful scenes in Washington

I watched extensive coverage of the disgraceful riots at the US Capitol.

That deaths and injuries resulted from them is even more harrowing.

The House of Representatives is right to impeach President Trump, where he will now face trial in the Senate and could be barred from ever holding public office again if senators vote to do so.

Even if one accepts Trump did not intend for the riots to happen, any responsible politician will turn down their rhetoric when they see some of their supporters enraged to such an extreme as to actually arm themselves and travel to storm the Capitol Building.

Though, Trump is not a responsible politician. For years, he has pedalled wild falsehoods, paranoia and conspiracy theories.

One cannot be surprised that when this rhetoric is repeated constantly, especially within narrow spaces where it is not challenged, that some will actually believe it and react to it.

Politicians cannot on the one hand rile people up and then step back and disclaim any responsibility of what happens. Words of politicians form the conceptual basis of the ideologies of its adherents.

Many of the rioters chanted Trump’s slogans and used his very same words in relation to political events.

I am reminded of the contrast in character in the 2008 presidential election where the Republican presidential candidate the late John McCain reprimanded nonsensical claims about the citizenship of the Democratic candidate Barack Obama that Trump had been most prominent in propagating.

The Republican Party needs to distance itself from the Trump era and find itself a respectable, moderate conservative voice again that can appeal beyond the base.

Trumpism has impacted on democracies all over the world to its opponents’ delight. For the sake of the Free World, we must move on from Trumpism.

Michael Palmer, Newtownards

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