Russian President Vladimir Putin surely is celebrating and will be more aggressive toward European democracies. I am more ashamed of my country than I have ever been in my 70 years of being an American.

Trump and his administration have destroyed any trust and respect we had left with other democracies. They are also emboldening dictators. The United States will now be seen as cowards who kowtow to oligarchs and strongmen.

Americans, now is the time to speak out. Write letters to your local newspapers. Write to your members of Congress. Write to the president. Silence cannot be golden when it will only lead to more dark days and shame for the United States.

Nelson Sagisi, Santa Maria

..

To the editor: My father parachuted into Normandy with the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division on June 5, 1944. He fought his way through hedgerows to Paris. Later he survived the Battle of the Bulge. He was 19 years old.

What was he fighting for? To destroy the Nazis. To end fascism. To preserve the American way of life and the values we hold dear.

This is what Ukraine is fighting for. To end a Russian invasion. To preserve democracy in their homeland and the values they hold most dear.

After the Trump-Vance blow-up with Zelensky, I am forced to ask: Is this what America has become, a nation that betrays friends and allies?

Faith C’Dealva, Laguna Niguel

..

To the editor: In prison and gang parlance, being “disrespectful” is one of the most common reasons for being beaten or killed.

In the White House Oval Office on Friday, our gangster bully president accused the president of Ukraine of being disrespectful toward the United States and unworthy of our assistance. He then washed his hands of any further discussion with this beleaguered patriot.

It was the most disgraceful and disgusting example of public bullying by any world leader that I have ever seen or heard about.

Trump voters, you’re reaping what you sowed with adolescent hero worship and single-minded concern about your own comfort and economic well being. You gave us a “leader” with the habits, opinions and actions of a gang leader or chief of an ignorant mob.

Thanks for the next four years. I hope you enjoy it.

Robert Von Bargen, Santa Monica

..

To the editor: If Zelensky thinks he can come to our country, come into the White House and complain about anything after the billions we’ve given his country, he needs to be shown the door. I’m glad to see that Trump and Vance have the personalities necessary to face off with Zelensky.

How someone like Zelensky, a former comedian and entertainer, became Ukraine’s president is as astonishing as how someone like Trump was elected president of the U.S. twice. So in a way, the two guys are cut from similar cloth, the only difference being that Zelensky is in no position to negotiate terms to anyone, especially to the hand that feeds him.

I think the meeting went rather well, and I’m glad it was caught on camera. Zelensky really needs to watch himself, as he isn’t dealing with sophisticated “statesmen” who will be pleasant and polite.

Furthermore, I am in no way surprised that they want to continue negotiating. That’s what people do when they’ve been caught in the wrong and are begging for mercy.

Arthur Saginian, Santa Clarita

..

To the editor: What ever happened to Ronald Reagan’s belief that America is the “shining city upon the hill”?

After watching two bullies in the Oval Office beat up on the little guy in order to take his minerals, and listening to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and others pile on in a feeding frenzy of support for Trump, I am more convinced than ever that America is rotting from the inside out.

When are we going to wake up?

Gary Barton, Seal Beach

..

To the editor: As an American viewing Zelensky’s meeting with Trump, I was personally embarrassed by the chaotic lack of decorum within the Oval Office.

I cannot understand why our top elected officials cannot comport themselves in a manner that reflects their stature as leaders of the free world and willingness to listen to different viewpoints.

Mark Balys, Riverside

The post Letters to the Editor: Trump’s shameful, dictator-emboldening treatment of Zelensky appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

The Democratic vice president said the battle would continue “in the voting booth, in the courts and in the public square.”

“Sometimes the fight takes a while,” she said at Howard University, her alma mater, where she had hoped to make a victory speech after the election. “That doesn’t mean we won’t win.”

Harris’ decisive defeat shattered hopes that she could rescue Democrats’ chances after President Joe Biden’s reelection effort stalled and she replaced him at the top of the ticket.

She trailed in every battleground state to Trump, a Republican whom she described as an existential danger to the country’s foundational institutions. And Trump appeared on track to win the popular vote for the first time in his three campaigns for the White House — even after two impeachments, felony convictions and his attempt to overturn his previous election loss.

Despite her stark warnings about Trump, Harris reached for optimism on Wednesday.

“It is OK to feel sad and disappointed, but please know it’s going to be OK,” she told supporters as some of them wiped tears from their eyes.

Biden released a statement praising Harris after her speech, saying: “She will continue the fight with purpose, determination, and joy. She will continue to be a champion for all Americans. Above all, she will continue to be a leader our children will look up to for generations to come as she puts her stamp on America’s future.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, was in the audience with his family. So were Reps. Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, and Barbara Lee, both from Harris’ home state of California.

Before her speech, Harris called Trump to congratulate him on his victory. She told the crowd that “we will engage in a peaceful transfer of power,” an implicit reference to Trump’s unwillingness to do the same four years ago.

Some in the audience expressed disappointment that Harris was not able to make history as the country’s first Black female president. Harris would also have been first U.S. president of South Asian descent

Gregory Pate, 38, said he appreciated that Harris said she was “committed to the fight and not looking at this as a permanent defeat, but just another obstacle that we have to go through as Black people.”

“I think it was perfect. I think that it was timely, and it was a message that I came to hear,” said Pate, of Fairfax, Virginia.

Jay Evans, of Greenbelt, Maryland, said after Harris’ spoke that he’s wistful for what could have been.

“We’re partly sad, because hearing her speak, she would have been an amazing person to bring the country together and to keep us in a better path,” Evans said.

After Trump lost to Biden, he directed his supporters to march on the U.S. Capitol, leading to a violent insurrection that interrupted the ceremonial certification of the election results.

Now Harris is expected to oversee the same certification process to finalize Trump’s victory as voters brush off concerns about the future of American democracy and return the former Republican president to the White House.

Biden plans to address the election results on Thursday. The White House said he spoke with Harris and Trump on Wednesday, and he invited the president-elect to meet with him soon.

David Plouffe, a top Harris adviser, said campaign staffers “left it all on the field for their country.”

“We dug out of a deep hole but not enough,” he said. “A devastating loss.”

Harris became the Democratic candidate after Biden, who was already struggling to convince voters that he could serve as president until he was 86 years old, stumbled badly in his June 27 debate with Trump.

He dropped out of the race on July 21 and endorsed his vice president, who swiftly unified the Democratic Party around her candidacy.

It was a remarkable twist of fate for Harris. Four years earlier, her own presidential campaign had flamed out and revealed the political limitations of someone once dubbed “the female Barack Obama.” Even though Biden chose Harris as his running mate, she languished in the role after taking office as the first woman, Black person or person of South Asian descent to serve as vice president.

Some Democrats started writing her off when they pondered the party’s future after Biden. But Harris found fresh purpose after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, and she became the White House’s leading advocate for abortion rights.

Harris also made a more concerted effort to network with local politicians, business leaders and cultural figures, forging connections that could serve her down the road. The moment arrived sooner than she anticipated, and she was catapulted into the presidential race with Biden’s departure only a month before the Democratic National Convention.

Harris instantly reset the terms of the contest with Trump. She was 18 years younger and a former courtroom prosecutor going up against the first major presidential candidate convicted of crimes. Her candidacy energized Democrats who feared they were destined for defeat with Biden at the top of the ticket.

But she also faced steep odds from the beginning. She inherited Biden’s political operation with just 107 days until the end of the election, and she faced a restless electorate that was eager for change.

Although Harris pitched “a new way forward,” she struggled to meaningfully differentiate herself from the unpopular sitting president. In addition, she had limited time to introduce herself to skeptical voters, who never cast a ballot for her in a presidential primary.

Democrats now face the prospect of picking up the pieces during a second Trump presidency, and it’s unclear what role Harris will play in her party’s future.

“The work of protecting America from the impacts of a Trump Presidency starts now,” wrote Jen O’Malley Dillon, Harris’ campaign chair, in a letter to staff. “I know the Vice President isn’t finished in this fight, and I know the very people on this email are also going to be leaders in this collective mission.”

The post Harris says nation must accept election results while urging supporters to keep fighting appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Over the past three years, the world’s oldest democracy has been tested in ways not seen in decades.

A sitting president tried to overturn an election and his supporters stormed the Capitol to stop the winner from taking power. Supporters of that attack launched a campaign against local election offices, chasing out veteran administrators and pushing conservative states to pass new laws making it harder to vote.

At the same time, the past three years proved that American democracy was resilient.

Former President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election results failed, blocked by the constitutional system’s checks and balances, and he now faces both federal and state charges for those efforts. Then the voters stepped in. In every presidential battleground state, they rejected all candidates who supported Trump’s stolen election lies and were running for statewide offices that had some oversight of elections.

The election infrastructure in the country performed well, with only scattered disruptions during the 2022 midterms. New voting laws, many of which are technical and incremental, had little discernable impact on actual voting.

“Voters have stepped up to defend our democracy over the past few years,” said Joanna Lydgate, chief executive officer of States United, which tracks those who refuse to believe in the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election. “State and local officials have done a tremendous job in protecting our free and fair elections.”

So why all the worry? As Lydgate and anyone else who works in the pro-democracy field quickly notes, the big test — what Lydgate calls “the Super Bowl” — awaits in 2024.

Trump is running for the White House again and has been dominating the Republican primary as the first votes approach. He has called for pardoning those prosecuted for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, continues to insist falsely that the 2020 election was “stolen” and says he will use the federal government to seek revenge on his political enemies.

Trump has used increasingly authoritarian rhetoric as he campaigns for the GOP nomination. If he wins, allies have been planning to seed the government with loyalists so the bureaucracy doesn’t hinder Trump’s more controversial plans the way it did during his first term.

It’s gotten to the point that Trump was recently asked by conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt whether he planned to be a dictator: “Not at all,” Trump responded. “No, I’m gonna rule as somebody that’s very popular with the people.”

The 2024 election could cause all sorts of conflict, including scenarios that have notably not materialized despite widespread concern since 2020: violence at the polls, overly aggressive partisan poll watchers or breakdowns in the ballot count.

It seems unlikely, though, that Trump could return to the White House if he loses the election. That’s what he failed to accomplish in 2020, and he’s in a weaker position now.

His strategy then was to use Republican dominance in swing state legislatures, governorships and secretary of state offices to try to send slates of fake electors to Congress even though Democrat Joe Biden won those states and captured the presidency.

Since then, Republicans have lost two of those swing state secretary of state offices — in Arizona and Nevada — as well as the governor’s office in Arizona and control of the state legislatures in Michigan and Pennsylvania. In Congress, lawmakers passed a bipartisan bill closing some of the loopholes in the counting of Electoral College votes that Trump tried to exploit to stay in office, making it harder to challenge state certifications on the House floor.

The upshot is it will be far harder for Trump to try to overturn a loss in 2024 than in 2020. The most likely way he returns to the White House is by winning the election outright.

“It’s not to say the risks are gone,” said Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. “It’s to say we’ve successfully fought the last war.”

History is full of examples of authoritarians who first came to office by winning a legitimate democratic election. But the risk to democracy of someone legitimately winning an election is different than the risk of a candidate trying to overturn an election loss.

When Trump began to falsely claim he had won the 2020 election and urged Republicans to overrule their states’ voters and send his electors to Congress, every GOP official with the power to do that refused. The Republican leaders of the Michigan Legislature turned down his request to overrule voters. In Georgia, where the presidential ballots were counted three times and affirmed Biden’s win, Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger earned Trump’s fury by rejecting him. So did then- Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and the Republican leaders of that state’s legislature.

Some Republicans did try to aid Trump. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton led a group of 17 GOP attorneys general in filing a lawsuit urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the election. The high court swiftly dismissed the case. Trump lost all but one of more than 60 lawsuits he and his allies filed in states to overturn the election, sometimes before judges he had appointed.

Then in November 2022, every swing state candidate who backed Trump’s effort to overturn his loss and who was running for a statewide office with a role in elections lost.

“There’s little doubt our democracy has gotten dinged up in a couple of moments of late, but we have decided we like it compared to the alterative,” said Justin Levitt, who served as adviser for democracy and voting rights for two years in the Biden White House and is now a law professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

Election deniers have been able to make gains in one area — offices where they simply have to win a Republican primary. That’s meant they have taken power in local governments in many rural areas, often disrupting elections and embracing conspiracy theories or procedures such as hand-counting, which is less reliable and more time-consuming than tabulating thousands of votes on machines.

They also have been able to expand their power within Republican legislative bodies from statehouses to Congress. U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana, who helped organize a brief supporting the quickly thrown-out lawsuit to overturn Biden’s victory, is now the House speaker.

If Johnson retains his speakership in January 2025, he could be in a position to disrupt certification of a Biden victory. Republicans more willing to subvert democracy also could have greater sway in state legislatures.

Then there’s the view of Trump backers. They report being even more worried about democracy than those who oppose him. Normally members of the party out of power feels like democracy isn’t working as well for them, but Trump’s situation is different. He’s the first president in history to face prosecution and is promoting the narrative that he’s being persecuted by his likely general election opponent.

Trump says the criminal cases and separate attempts to bar him from the ballot under the insurrection clause of the Constitution are a form of election interference.

The Colorado Supreme Court found his role in the Jan. 6 attack was sufficient grounds to remove him from the state’s ballot under the 14th Amendment, a ruling Trump’s campaign said it will appeal soon to the U.S. Supreme Court, where three of his nominees help form the conservative majority. On Thursday, Maine’s Democratic secretary of state struck Trump from that state’s primary ballot, becoming the first election official to take such action. Shenna Bellows suspended her ruling until Maine’s court system rules on the case.

While campaigning, Trump has adopted an “I’m rubber and you’re glue” approach, accusing Biden of being the actual threat to democracy.

A more revealing argument comes from a contention one of the former president’s attorneys made before the Colorado Supreme Court. Scott Gessler, a former Colorado secretary of state, was arguing against attempts by a liberal group to boot Trump from the ballot.

“If the entire nation chooses someone to be president, can that be an insurrection or is that a democratic choice?” Gessler asked.

Gessler was addressing the hypothetical case of a former Confederate winning the White House in the 19th century, but it’s easy to see how this applies to the election before us.

Or, as Levitt said of American democracy: “It is kind of up to us how resilient we make it.”

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