‘Respected’ Republicans sounding alarm on Trump

Highly respected members of the Republican Party are warning of the danger Donald Trump represents. Liz Cheney, daughter of Dick Cheney, warns in her new book, “Oath and Honor,” that Trump poses a threat to our very democracy if he becomes president again. As she says, “We will be voting on whether to preserve our republic … As a nation, we can endure damaging policies for a four-year term. But we cannot survive a president willing to terminate our Constitution.”

Trump has railed against his perceived enemies calling them “vermin” and claiming that undocumented immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country.” Such language hearkens back to white nationalism and fascism. He promises to root out his enemies.

To achieve his ends, he intends to radically alter our system of government, expanding the power of the presidency. He plans to alter civil-service rules that protect career government professionals. He intends to use the Justice Department to investigate and charge his adversaries. He promises to use military funds and troops to round up and deport undocumented individuals. He wants to end birthright citizenship for babies born on U.S. soil to undocumented parents. If Trump succeeds, our system of government will be turned, at best, into an illiberal democracy, and at worse, into an autocratic state.

It is not too late to save democracy, but we need to realize that the rule of law and our Constitution are at stake in the next election.

Thomas Hill

Cedar Falls