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OPINION

Longacre: U.S. needs to commit to democracy again

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Democrats lost the last election because they thought their accomplishments spoke for themselves. Even when it was clear that Joe Biden helped the poor, the middle class and the young, he needed to keep reminding them.

Once again, as Heather Cox Richardson points out in the Letters From an American newsletter (Jan. 17), we are in a fight against the wealthy few who have grown impatient with government regulations and taxes. Roughly the same thing happened in the 1850s, the 1890s and the 1930s. Each time, a man of charisma and integrity rose to defend the common man — first Abraham Lincoln, then Theodore Roosevelt and, finally, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Meantime, what we have now is someone with charisma but no integrity. He did not win the presidency by his accomplishments but by making things up. In fact, his lying was so natural that people were caught unaware. He pretended that he is a great businessman, that he is a “very stable genius,” that life under his opponent was a real bummer, that Biden and his party are evil and that only he, Donald Trump, could save America. If he has one “gift,” it is persuading many people that he is telling the truth, that he can dominate his enemies and that he alone can reduce prices.

What very few seem to notice or care about is Trump’s contempt for democracy. Taking him down won’t be easy, but at least we know whom and what we are dealing with. His arrogance, vindictiveness and intellectual laziness will inevitably lead to the kinds of mistakes that will hurt him and his party in 2026 and 2028. We can only hope and pray that these same mistakes will not lead to America’s undoing in the meantime.

Frederick Longacre

Hockessin

Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.

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