It is deeply troubling to watch what appears to be the self-inflicted destruction of our American democracy. Two very obvious examples of this are presently on display.

One is GOP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell defiantly proclaiming that he will violate his oath of office to uphold the U.S. Constitution by preventing the Senate from holding hearings and voting on President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee.

This simply continues the thwarting of President Obama, who McConnell has hated since Obama first came into office. McConnell speaks of “the will of the people” being expressed in November 2016. In doing so he nullifies the will of the people who voted to re-elect Obama in 2012. McConnell essentially says my vote and the votes of millions of others in that election are null and void. In my view McConnell and those Republicans who agree with him are undemocratic and unpatriotic, and their actions border on the seditious and treasonous subversion of the U.S. Constitution.

The other example is the rise of Donald Trump to be the leader in the race for the nomination to be the GOP candidate for president in the November 2016 election. Trump is a narcissistic, racist authoritarian demagogue who envisions himself as a “strongman” president along the lines of Russia’s Vladimir Putin and who would do away with constitutional “niceties” when and if they became inconvenient for him and his purposes. It is disheartening to see so many thousands of Americans supporting this dangerous candidate.

Americans must wake up before it is too late. They must stop thinking “it can’t happen here” when it comes to losing our democracy. There are no guarantees. They need to remember Ben Franklin’s words: “a republic…if you can keep it.”

Bruce A. Letsch

Litchfield

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