For more than four years, Americans have been bombarded non-stop from the top of their government by a president who rode into the White House on the shoulders of reaction and hate. His cause and his personal demeanor have been an abomination to fair-minded citizens beginning the year before his election and coming into this, the last week of his regrettable presidency.

One doesn’t have to look far to find the consequences of this on civil society. It has poisoned the minds of millions, activating not the highest angels of our nature, as Lincoln recognized was the key to healing a Civil War-torn nation, but the absolute lowest. Notwithstanding the motives of those who stormed the Capitol, and many were there with a coup on their minds, the disgusting and destructive behavior they exhibited, the foul disregard for the sanctity of the place they were set on ruining constituted a perfect image for us all of the inner workings of Donald Trump, of his enraged and deranged mind.

We know it because of the thousands of tweets he was allowed to rain down on us all, without restraint, and necessarily setting the tone for the nation simply by virtue of the office he held. The ugly language, the contempt for basic truth, the assertion and repetition of countless bald-face lies planted putrid, teeming cesspools in the minds of millions among us.

Extraordinary setbacks for his party have been inflicted in response, starting in Virginia in the fall of 2017 where the popular reaction turned the state government to Blue majorities in the House, Senate and governor’s mansion. They then led to new Democratic majorities in the U.S. government, starting in the House and resulting in the popular firing of this menace by a landslide in November and culminating just this month with the handing over of the U.S. Senate to his opposition. No wonder Mitch McConnell is furious at Trump. He cost him his job as Senate Majority Leader.

But for all this, it took the unplugging of his Twitter account, above all, which has accelerated the public’s repudiation of him because the constant incessant drumming in their ears was brought, at last, to silence. Simply put, sewers contaminate otherwise fresh water.

When the Trump hate mongering began peaking two years ago, driving hate-soaked over so many among us, the News-Press decided to shut it down on its own website, at least. Simply requiring those seeking to comment on our site to identify themselves did it.

The number of hate-filled comments dried up overnight. Some were Russian bots, to be sure, but many more were simply cowards in underwear, spewing hate because they could without being held accountable.

Let us assure our readers that we will continue this practice, and without hesitancy we will boot off anyone’s attempts at incivility and hate. We’ve seen what it’s done to our country, and it has no place in the public discourse.