Democracy means respecting those who are elected

I wish I could say the things Trump said at a recent rally in Pennsylvania was "the last straw." (The straw that broke the camel's back) But, alas, I fear not.

"People say be nice. Have you heard her laugh?" the former President said about Kamala Harris. "That is the laugh of a crazy person," he said. Trump added that his advisors have urged him to limit the insults.

If this is truly what Trump thinks, he should keep it to himself. Growing up, my father served as a captain in World War II and I was an E-5 photographer in Vietnam. We both believed in respecting those in uniform as well as any elected official serving our nation in Congress, regardless of our personal opinions of them as a person. Democracy means respecting those elected.

If something were to happen to President Joe Biden before his term ends and Kamala Harris were to become president, I would not like nations around the world to think a former president of this nation thought our sitting president was "a lunatic." 

It is unpatriotic and dangerous for Trump to insult the office of an honestly elected official in the top echelon of the office holding guardians of this country including senators and representatives.

I find it almost unbelievable that Trump would say the Medal of Freedom is better than the Medal of Honor because "those guys just got shot and had bullet holes or were dead." The same man who didn't respect John McCain too much because he got captured (and spent more than five years in a North Vietnam prison) but happened to be a Republican senator who didn't buy Trump's act.

JAMES RICHARD JOHNSON

Clark Fork