The United States and democracy are “legal fictions” — fragile concepts that survive only because people are willing to live by their laws and to die to support their continued existence. These folks are called patriots. When I was a kid, the patriots were the members of the Greatest Generation who defeated a cruel dictator who had convinced his vulnerable people that other ethnic groups were responsible for their woes.

In 1861, a group of people, fearing a threat to their livelihood (the movement to abolish slavery) challenged the unity of the country. Four years and 600,000 deaths later, those patriots who believed in the United States were victorious, but the country was weakened by an undercurrent of resentment that still exists.

Today, an illegitimate fiction, that an election was stolen, has been created by an unscrupulous businessman willing to say anything to regain power, perpetuated by timid politicians who condone the use of violence and intimidation to hold onto their own seats in Congress, and believed by vulnerable people who fear their livelihoods are threatened by other ethnic/racial groups.

Some are extremists, who also call themselves “patriots”, but have used the American flag to beat policemen, defiled the halls of Congress, and threatened the lives of elected officials bound by oath to carry out the procedures that give meaning to “democracy.” And again, the exitance of this ever-more-divided country is in jeopardy.

Today, the true patriots will be the folks that vote for leaders who respect truth, the rule of law and the “legal fictions” created and sustained by “We the People.”

Melanie Lanctot

Readfield