Letter to the editor | Democracy under fire | Letters to the editor

Democracy under fire

In its Nov. 15 editorial, The News-Gazette noted that U.S. Senator Dick Durbin is talking as if we will have an election in 2026. Ah, The NG concludes triumphantly. If Durbin is hoping for another election, he and the Democrats were merely engaging in “campaign rhetoric” when they noted the many ways in which President-elect Donald Trump is threatening our democracy.

What foolish, cynical, uninformed reasoning. What should Durbin do, admit in advance that there will be no election? Would that make The NG think he means it?

Meanwhile, evidence of Trump’s contempt for our democracy mounts daily. I do indeed have to wonder whether the editors read the news themselves.

Just a few days ago, Trump presented to the nation 1) a drug-using patron of child prostitutes as his next attorney general; 2) a friend of Syrian President Bashar Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin as his director of national intelligence; 3) a gay-bashing TV news host who narrowly avoided sexual assault charges as head of the Pentagon. (You may think I’m exaggerating, but read the news and you’ll see it’s all true.)

All these corrupt cronies are clearly planning to ram through Congress by breaking the last shreds of independence from the Republican Congress and sweeping aside the nearly half of America that voted for the Democrats, who have stubbornly voted for competence.

If the editors weren’t so concerned about scoring points in their endless partisan games, she could help readers become aware of these very real threats to our democracy and keep them in mind in her editorials.

JOHN RANDOLPH

Champagne