It will take the vigilance of many to prevent our government from being destroyed
Thank you to the Globe for continuing to highlight the ongoing assault on free and fair elections. I admire the Republican election overseers in battleground states who stood their ground and refused to lie and cheat for the head of their party in the 2020 election, and I’m very disturbed to have learned, in the article “Paying the price for not counting votes Trump’s way” (Page A1, July 4), that they are now being systematically targeted for removal or replacement.
The targeting of these local officials, who are largely overlooked but critically important to the integrity of our elections, confirms the adage that all politics is local. Every citizen needs to stay informed and involved to prevent a minority of bad actors from hijacking and destroying our government.
Unfortunately, the slow strangulation of local newspapers makes it ever more difficult to stay informed. I’m grateful that the Globe survives and is doing its part to try to prevent democracy from being yanked out from underneath us while we sleep.
Ellen Vliet Cohen
Arlington
In Founders’ words, ‘truth’ and ‘law’ still glow like coals
Last year on July Fourth, you requested that readers respond with their thoughts on what the Declaration of Independence meant to them in the context of the political environment at the time. Fortunately, you printed my letter, which emphasized the lack of respect that the Trump administration had for the truth and the law, both of which the Declaration found to be so important.
Ironically, one year later, you ran a front-page, above-the-fold article, “Paying the price for not counting votes Trump way,” which details how certain GOP politicians and officials are sacrificing their careers for not endorsing the “big lie” of election fraud. They had both the truth and the law on their side, yet were being challenged and marginalized by their own party.
But the voters in the 2020 election followed the Founders’ advice and determined that “A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.” Perhaps, seeing the future, they knew that we would one day say of such a person, ”He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us.”
Michael O’Donnell
Newburyport
