Democracy on the ballot in midterm elections
Patricia Murphy ended her May 22 column with the sentence “Democracy is on the ballot,” referring to the elections this year. I agree.
The peaceful transfer of power is a hallmark of American democracy. Our electoral process has many built-in safeguards that ensure free and fair elections. Our American elections have worked throughout history, from voter registration to the voting process to post-election audits and even to the antiquated Electoral College process. While people have always been upset with the outcome when their candidate loses, the final results have been accepted as accurate until 2020.
Donald Trump refused to accept defeat and concocted a plan to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power. He encouraged members of Congress to vote against certifying the Electoral College vote. Sadly, Georgians Rick Allen, Buddy Carter, Andrew Clyde, Marjorie Greene, Jody Hice, Barry Loudermilk and 141 other Republicans in Congress voted against certification.
Voting to destroy American democracy should disqualify anyone from holding political office.
Democracy is, indeed, on the ballot.
MICHAEL HAREMSKI, DECATUR
Voters of conscious needed to stop ‘cancerous’ election fraud lie
The “Big Lie” that Biden did not win and Trump did not only persists but has grown even deeper. This cancerous lie continues metastasizing and infecting heretofore seemingly reasonable Republican politicians who perpetuate this lie at the national, state and local levels.
As the saying goes: “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” So these pols hope by repeating the “Big Lie” over and over that their supporters will vote for them, even though it’s been definitively proven over and over in court cases and recounts all over the country that Biden won fair and square.
The very body of our precious living democracy has been infected by this sustained, scurrilous, cancerous lie. It needs to end.
I implore all voters of good conscience to see this cancer for what it is and vote accordingly. Our democracy depends on your good sense.
KATHLEEN COLLOMB, DECATUR
