May 23, 2022
To:
Kyle Hupfer
Indiana Republican Party
State Chair

Dear Mr. Hupfer:

This afternoon I received an email from you in regard to the “Spring Dinner Keynote Speaker” having hosted a guest at the 2022 Kentucky Derby. I would point out that by protocol the proper way to refer to a former president is reflected in The Louisville Courier Journal article to which your email was linked. There only is one President of the United States, and since January 20, 2021, that person has been Joseph R. Biden, Jr.

In other times this gaffe would be one of etiquette. Today, however, the media carried reports that the individual who occupied the Oval Office from January 20, 2017, to January 20, 2021, re-posted on his social media platform a post that would appear to call for civil war.

His behavior in seeming to foment civil war is despicable. One would suppose that, were his efforts to spark action amongst his “MAGA’ following, he would put on display the same bravado as he demonstrated during the Vietnam War or even during the January 6, 2021, insurrection: none. His incompetence still risks loss of life if people take up arms for slights only imagined. To refer to him by a title that only is rightfully held by President Biden sends a message, however muted, that this former president has a legitimate claim to that office.

Since 1789 ours has been a republic, after George Washington, a great man, shunned efforts of those who sought to make him king. No one carries the title of office of President after leaving office. That a person who recently held office as a Republican has re-posted someone else’s invocation of civil war is reprehensible. President Lincoln took office and sought to keep the Union together. What we face is a modern-day Jefferson Davis trying to steal the Oval Office back. After all, MAGA people carried the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia into the Capitol Building on January 6, 2021.

I hope the email is no more than a scrivener’s error.

Sincerely,

Mark Small.
GOP Precinct Committee Person
Marion County
Washington Township, Precinct 21-01