Letter: Flip the House by voting against Republican enablers

Trump’s actions are black and white. A few are happy with what he’s doing, and many are either unhappy — or horrified. What I think both Republicans and Democrats should agree on is the preservation of democracy.

Viewing Trump through this lens, it is clear that he is destroying the democratic underpinnings of the nation. He compliments despots worldwide, jails protesters, rails against the free press, launches continued attacks against anyone with opposing views, thereby showing no respect for the First Amendment. He wants a judiciary that obeys him, and [he] insults truth by his daily use of lies and claims of “false news” — this has no place in a democracy.

He has rallied his base to hate Muslims, to hate Mexicans, to hate anyone of color or ethnicity. He is drumming up his base to hate Democrats and liberals and encouraging white supremacists to use violence against the Democratic “mob” by claiming that “violence will be the result” if Democrats succeed in challenging his agenda. …

This man is a despot and an extreme danger to this country. He is canny, exceptionally narcissistic, as his closest aides have said, and he is amoral — tearing innocent children from their families, ignoring the 3,000 civilians killed by American bombs in Syria. In my view, this man has the capacity to unleash untold retribution in any form on anyone.

The GOP is aiding this drift toward despotism and enthralled with of Trump’s destruction of our social programs, shifting the tax burden onto the middle class, granting more wealth to the rich, appointing of ultraconservative judges throughout the country. The GOP and the Republican Party are complicit in Trump’s assault on democracy by tolerating his daily stream of insults, insidious accusations and race baiting. While Democrats are concerned about health care, the destruction of environmental and consumer protections, immigration, voter suppression and gerrymandering, Trump is tearing huge holes in the fabric of democracy.

We need to vote our Republican friends away from the table for a while in order to stop this slid into despotism. They are not honoring their oath of office, they are not protecting our constitution — they’re not protecting our democracy. This is not a liberal versus conservative issue — the very foundation of our democratic system in jeopardy.

Flip the House; vote against Republican enablers in these midterms or allow this president to destroy this democracy.

— Jeff Baker
Asheville