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Jon Meacham, the eminent presidential historian, said, “We came as close to losing the country as we know it on Jan. 6 as we have since the Civil War. And I say that with no hyperbole.”

I had previously written that the Republican Party had started the painful process of separating the grain from the chaff. I thought they would keep the grain and discard the chaff. I was wrong. They are keeping the chaff and discarding the grain.

The Republican Party has embraced Trump’s big lie. Election votes were counted and recounted and challenged in court with the same result. The challenges were all rejected. The 2020 vote was the most secure in history, as verified by officials in Trump’s own administration. Joe Biden won the election. People with integrity like Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger who dare to tell the truth are being purged from the Republican Party.

They saw the Jan. 6 insurrection for what it was — an attempt to violently overthrow our government. Trump called his storm troopers to Washington and directed them to attack the Capitol. There was no other purpose. He directed them to the Capitol to destroy the Constitutional process.    The Republican Party has abandoned integrity and democratic principles. The party has become a cult of personality. They have sworn an oath of allegiance to Donald Trump. The classic prior example was during the 1930s and the cult of personality surrounding Adolf Hitler. The National Socialist or Nazi Party swore allegiance to Adolf Hitler. After he came to power, Hitler required the German military to swear allegiance to him and not Germany. That did not end well.

Trump’s big lie is just that, a lie. Trump’s big lie would be pathetic and even funny if it did not do so much to destroy our Constitutional principles and nation. Trump’s big lie is different than a relatively minor policy dispute such as the appropriate tax rate for corporations. Trump’s big lie endangers the future of our democracy. 

Joe Pacovsky

Hayward