DEMOCRACY: No more

As we watch the obliteration of Ukraine and the annihilation of its peoples and culture by Putin of Russia, a so-called democratic country, let us remember that the United States stopped being a democratic country with the rise of Trumpism, his false and ongoing claims of election fraud, and the disgusting attempt at insurrection by a few of his young followers on Jan. 6, 2021, which is when Trump’s failed “presidency” ended. The war in the U.S. is within the U.S. itself. Courageous Republicans like Liz Cheney who still have a sense of ethics are being sidelined. Deny science because you are uneducated and do not understand it, ban books about alternative lifestyles and limit teaching in schools because you are racists and hypocrites, restrict access to voting by those who do not agree with your agenda because you cannot imagine you are wrong, obstruct the passage of reasonable gun restrictions because you are paranoid and manipulated by propaganda about Second Amendment rights; the list goes on and on. Welcome to Germany in 1932. History has described the outcome of extreme conservatism and media control. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

ELAINE PIERCE

Coeur d’Alene