Rebecca O’Neil’s “Election” article and Don Rogers’ editorial about why to vote to recall stakes out the Sun’s position on the election. Ms. O’Neil only reports a Republican view, quoting Republican Bob Hren advocating the recall of Newsom for offenses from mismanaging the unemployment system to “outright ‘dictatorship.”

Is it right to report accusations of the elected governor being a dictator without evidence? Newsom operates under the constitution. This accusation in a climate where many Republicans politicians support overturning the 2020 presidential election with no evidence of fraud, to me, is a partisan position. It’s a common propaganda technique to blame the other side (Democrats) for something the Republicans are doing. The phony audits of the election and the passing of voter suppression laws in many Republican states are similar to anti-democratic steps that have occurred in countries that now have authoritarian leaders. (Hungary for example, “How Democracies Die,” page 88).

Don Rogers in his editorial says it’s time for a change. But modern Republican leaders are not the other side of the same political coin. They show little interest in actually governing. What Republicans promote when in office is tax cuts for the rich and packing the supreme court. They oppose most measures to fight the pandemic instead using the issues of wearing masks (how horribly inconvenient!) to whip up their most extreme members. Many of them have courted Trump in a cynical effort to gain votes from the right-wing base of the Republican Party, while trying to appear more liberal in their reputation in California.

---

---

Unfortunately, if you support the Republican Party now, you have some scary allies in the shadows. White supremacists, Fox News liars, Q-Anon nut cases, misinformation dealers in anti-vaccine propaganda, Trump, violent or gun toting insurrectionists barging into state capitals. You may not agree with them, but by making common cause with them and uniting behind the same candidates, you end up damaging democracy.

Rick Needham

---

---

Tahoe Vista