By John J. Duncan Jr.

Thanks to the kindness of the people of East Tennessee, I had the privilege of working in our Nation’s Capital for over 30 years.

I have walked the halls of that Capitol building and have participated in meetings there thousands of times.

So, you can probably imagine my shock at the scenes I watched on national television after the rally by Trump supporters this past Wednesday.

I am sure that the ones who stormed the Capitol and those who even desecrated that historic building were a very small minority of those who attended the rally.

Until now, all the recent violence and looting had come from people on the left-wing fringe of American politics.

Some have said that this latest violence was led by Antifa and similar groups who wanted to embarrass conservatives.

But any Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol should know that they have hurt the country, President Trump, and the conservative cause.  They should be prosecuted.

They have played right into the hands of the socialists and the anti-Trump media and have committed some of the most unpatriotic acts I have ever seen.

One of the greatest things about this country has been our tradition of peacefully transferring power.

I understand the frustration of Trump supporters, because I too, believe there was more fraud in this most recent presidential election than in any election in our nation’s history.

But violence is not the answer.  Breaking into the House and Senate Chambers is not the answer.

I have known since the day after the election that Joe Biden was going to be our next president.

I was and still am disappointed by that.  I will always believe that he ‘won’ this election because of hundreds of thousands of illegal votes secured by his supporters in five swing states.

But Republicans did much better all across the country than anyone predicted and won almost all of the most heavily-contested races.

We should point out all the fraud that was committed in hopes that our leaders can make sure that fraud at such a huge scale never happens again.

I was disappointed that no court ever heard any of the cases the Trump lawyers filed on the merits and instead dismissed them on highly technical grounds.

But over the next couple of years, the state legislatures and congress should pass laws to require voter ID’s, strictly limit mail-in ballots, and purge the voting rolls every year of those who have died or moved out of state.

I did not vote for Joe Biden and really believe he has health problems that mean those closest to him will be running the country and making all the key decisions.

But Mr. Biden has worked with Republicans on some things in the past, and he has been very nice to me every time I have ever been around him.

We all should hope that he survives these next four years, because Kamala Harris has been rated the most left-wing member of the Senate.

We certainly do not need an extremist like her as president.