As some of you may know, I have been protesting Trump since 2016. I had never, ever protested any political candidate. Then this guy, Trump, came along, and I had to.
See, I have been watching him closely since the late 1980s. Some people really started to see him with his show, “The Apprentice.” That was a scripted show to prove to people he was a smart, successful businessman with some ethics. All of it was just nonsense.
When he turned his sights on Atlantic City and gambling is when I really looked at him closely. To be brief, he showed the world then that he would do, say or act out anything to get rich. The problem with him is the people he stepped on in order to make money in Atlantic City — where he went bankrupt — were people like 90 percent of us. An example was a man in my neighborhood who did roof work for him. Trump never paid the bill and forced this man and his family to lose everything, including his home.
I tried to warn people here in The Villages that this was a dishonest man like no other. I said that in 2016 and 2020. But MAGA grew anyway. The people I knew here who voted for him after seeing what he really was bothered me. I moved apart from them. I could not understand them.
Then came Jan. 6, 2021. You all saw what the whole world saw on TV. Yet in 2024, the best candidate the former Republican Party could put up was Trump. The whole world held its breath. You still voted for the mastermind of the attempted treason of Jan. 6, 2021.
Quite simply, if you voted for Trump in 2024, you gave aid and comfort to a U.S. traitor. Just like Benedict Arnold did back in the 1770s. John Andre was hanged Oct. 2, 1780, for giving aid to Benedict Arnold to escape.
If it were in my power to say what should happen to you, I would take your right to vote away for 10 years. You, just like John Andre, helped a traitor escape, so far.
Ed McGinty is a resident of the Village of Hadley.