I'm fully in favor of the general idea of forgiveness. I've always loved those stories of people hiring those felons who would never have a chance at a job otherwise. I really admire you doing that.

But I imagine you agree that exceptions exist. It doesn't feel as though all of Trump's prior actions can be sweepingly cast under a "we shouldn't ostracize people because of what they did in the past" umbrella. The Hitler analogy can often be lazy, but the parallels between Trump's and Hitler's strategies are there. I just don't believe Trump would ever get as far as carrying out mass genocide. But whether Hitler or any other despot of the past, there's a level of ostracization that's deserved.

If Trump had succeeded in any of the anti-democratic actions he tried to carry out following his loss in 2020, my vote wouldn't have counted. If the alternate slate of elector scheme had worked, or if the people he invited to the capital on Twitter had successfully stopped the certification of votes, he would have remained in office despite losing the election. It doesn't feel like something we can fairly refer back to and say, "yeah, but we should let that go and look forward." The felonies are hardly the worst of his offenses. We elected someone to the highest office of our democracy who very much does not believe in democracy or the results of elections that he loses.