Despite the total absence of supporting evidence, the Republican grassroots remain unconditionally convinced the 2020 election was stolen and have consequently turned against almost every American institution, including the military.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to recognize that former president No. 45 is still the most influential figure in the GOP and is also (as conservative writer Charles Cooke observes in NationalReview.com) “unmoored from the real world” and that his persistent and insistent declaration that “he’s the real president is deeply corrosive to our democracy.”

We can find some solace in believing the Republican Party suffers from idiotus, an almost incurable disease that causes the brain to shut down and the mouth to keep running. It’s only somewhat comforting because at the end of the day I’m left with the dilemma; how does one borderline burnout with questionable social skills go about causing over 500 nefarious men and women with predatory instincts, in Congress, to change their way of thinking?

Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) always places his personal and party’s interest above the nation’s and has vowed, therefore, to block 100 percent of President Biden’s agenda. Passage then, of any bill before a divided Congress and nation that would preempt state legislatures from passing laws enabling them to overturn the will of the people, is simply undoable.

Hundreds of bills being considered in 45 (or more) states, masquerading as “voting integrity” bills, are no more and no less than the Republican Party’s underhanded, spineless and dishonorable attempt to suppress voters.

Former President Bill Clinton stated in Time on June 21: “Republicans have clearly decided to double-down on the Hatfields and McCoys. Now they want to get it where they can win if they lose both the Electoral College and the popular vote by having a Congress that won’t certify the electors.”  Ari Berman echoed similar sentiments in the July/August issue of Mother Jones.

If you believe nothing else, believe this: that a GOP-controlled Congress could overturn election results to install Trump (or a Trump clone) is a very real possibility which would spell the end of American democracy.

I believe, as Albert Einstein believed, “the world is not dangerous because of those who do harm — it’s dangerous because of those who watch and do nothing.” I also believe we should want our lives to be a reminder that truth matters — even though we may not be here to see how history judges us.

We’re facing the decision that all men in all times must face, the eternal choice, to endure oppression or to resist.

David L. Snell  

Franklin