I participated in the presidential primary, waffling until the last minute between writing in Biden or voting for Dean Phillips. Outside my town hall, demonstrators waved Trump signs. Compelled by a sense of urgency over the ethical issues Trump represents, I stopped and asked them, point-blank, “Are you okay with Trump interfering with our election?” The demonstrators assured me I’ve been misinformed by media, the charges are just a political strategy to drain Trump’s finances, and the Supreme Court will throw them out. Then their justifications took a disturbing yet illuminating turn. “The U.S. isn’t a democracy. It’s a republic,” they proclaimed. “The word democracy isn’t in the Constitution. Democracy leads to instability and socialism. Read your Constitution!”

The discussion went south after that so I walked away. Maybe it was ill-advised of me to argue but I unearthed an increasingly trendy position among Republicans, most recently touted by House Speaker Mike Johnson: the U.S. isn’t a democracy. In a way, it makes sense; how else can they justify Trump’s conduct? Our two-party system is seriously problematic but most Democrats would rather preserve democracy than elect a thug to enforce our vision. What if 100,000 Women’s March demonstrators attacked the Capitol in 2017, and President Obama acceded? I suspect our justice system would encounter less public resistance, even from loyal Democrats, though Trump lost the popular vote in 2016 (Republicans haven’t won the popular vote in 20 years). Republicans: Democracy and law, or Trump and tyranny?

Kirsta Lamm

Campton