GOP goes full-bore to destroy our democracy

Former mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a Republican, tries to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich threatens the arrest of the committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, which attempted to prevent our elected representatives from certifying the election of Joe Biden as president.

Various plotters of the Jan. 6 coup defy congressional subpoenas and refuse to testify or cooperate with the investigating committee. House Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and another member of the House — Jim Jordan — say they will not cooperate either.

One of the most popular cable television personalities, Tucker Carlson, thinks it’s great if Russia — a country led by a dictator who tends to kill anyone who doesn’t agree with him — invades Ukraine, a relatively free, democratic country.

The wife of U.S. Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas is actively working for conservative groups filing briefs to the court to support cases ranging from anti-abortion to guns. She also applauded the Jan. 6 rioters — before they got violent.

The Supreme Court eviscerated the Voting Rights Act in 2013, in a 5-4 vote. Now, in the aftermath of the 2020 election — when the majority of voters went for the Democratic Party — Republican governments in 19 states are trying to destroy voting rights.

Things I once thought inconceivable are happening.

This is the culmination of a Republican revolution that started under Ronald Reagan when he eliminated the Fairness Doctrine, which required broadcasters to present both sides of an argument in broadcast television and radio news programs. Reagan gave birth to the minority-hating fire-breather Rush Limbaugh, as well as the rest of the right-wing propaganda/distortion machine on radio.

Fox News may well have taken the end of the Fairness Doctrine as a pre-approval that it could bend the truth at will.

There are some things I could have agreed on with the old Republican Party. The federal government can’t do everything. We need to figure out a way to cut our national debt and government deficits — which Republicans, from Reagan to Trump, have caused by passing enormous tax cuts for the wealthiest among us.

We need a strong national defense to confront Russia and China, which are trying to crush democracy in Taiwan and Ukraine. But how can we fight totalitarian, democracy-destroying powers abroad when the Republican Party is trying to destroy democracy at home?

There are real conversations we can all have about politics, except Republicans seem incapable of accepting the reality that there are people other than themselves who have a point of view that bears respectful hearing.

As they do with citizens who vote Democratic, modern Republicans don’t even acknowledge that climate change exists. Republican president George H.W. Bush knew climate change was real.

“We know that the future of the Earth must not be compromised,” Bush said in 1990. “We bear a sacred trust in our tenancy here, and a covenant with those most precious to us — our children and theirs.”

Despite his previous ties to the oil industry, Bush could examine reality and make an objective assessment about the issue. Why can’t current Republicans?

They think they can magically make climate change disappear, like Democratic Party voters. People of color do exist in the Republican mind. But they shouldn’t, except if they can help their local NFL team win the Super Bowl.

Republicans also say we don’t need gun safety legislation because guns aren’t a problem. More than 45,000 Americans were killed by guns in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Republicans are living in an alternate universe where Jan. 6 is no big deal, and Joe Biden is not the legitimate President of the United States. They think white Americans are under threat as never before. Christianity should be the official national religion of this country. If you want to believe in another religion, you can. But practice it somewhere else.

You can speak your mind, but only if you agree with what the Republican leadership says — like in Russia or China.

If we can’t agree on the facts, we are lost as a nation.

The Republican Party has changed politics from the art of compromise to a zero-sum game. If they win, we lose. We will lose our right to elect our president fairly. We will lose freedom of religion. We will lose freedom of speech. We will lose freedom of the press.

We are staring down the gun barrel of a Republican fascist government in Washington.

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