Letter to the editor: Democracy dwindling as GOP rewards Trump

When communism collapsed in the country where I was born, food disappeared from store shelves. We waited in line for rations of bread and sugar. Many evenings we had mandatory power outages. I know communism and its consequences. When I hear talk of communism from the radical right, it mostly makes me smirk. From my perspective, it is a shallow fear tactic, and they often fail to see actual events that could lead to totalitarianism.

Last weekend, Republicans rewarded Trump’s authoritarian instincts by not convicting, setting a precedent that it is acceptable to lie about America’s elections, even with no evidence of widespread fraud. Senate Republicans now seem to condone powerful rhetoric as a tool to incite violence against institutions during transitions of power; permissible actions include presidential calls to state officials to find thousands of votes.

Strongmen around the world sow doubt in free elections. They create cults of personality and resort to violence to maintain power, some for 45 years, like in my former country. Parties that support these strongmen do not put the country first, mostly due to fear. That is how democracy dwindles.

After Saturday’s vote, I called the seven Republicans who voted to convict, congratulating them for their courage, independence and dislike for Kool-Aid.

Steliana Vassileva

New Kensington