Pat Safrit Bullard – “There is so much more that can be said about what is and has been happening to threaten US democracy embodied in the Constitutional Republic. Have we already become a Third World Country? United States democracy with its flaws has always been a beacon of light for the world and the longest running democracy. Now other countries wonder what is happening to the US democracy. Can it stand with all of these violent forces at play? Will US democracy survive?”

The 8-18-22 Salisbury Post Associated Press article by Gary Fields and Nicholas Riccardi ‘Trump Supporters’ Threats to Judge Spur Democracy Concerns’ speaks to the threats continuing against democracy itself. Increasingly there have been threats against persons carrying out their governmental responsibilities at all levels, and now the judge who approved the legal search of a former President’s residence,  who had illegally carried governmental documents to his private residence, including classified and top secret documents. Lesser means had been tried to secure the documents, but more than a year later, what was the former president doing with the documents and how has our national security been damaged?   

The article reads that in 2014 US Marshall Services handled 768 incidents classified as inappropriate communications at judges and court employees, while last year that number exceeded 4,500. Threats against the FBI for carrying out their duties in the legal search are alarming. We heard testimony during the Jan. 6th public hearing how the Big Lie of the stolen election had caused severe harm to election workers. 

Going back to the original 2016 campaign, Mr. Trump personally condemned the judge who ruled against him in the lawsuit over the now defunct Trump University, changing the ground rules governing threats and explosive rhetoric.  Yes, much damage and death is happening because of this violent rhetoric and threats. 

Jan. 6, 2021 witnessed a violent attack against democracy. If the attempted coup had succeeded in preventing the peaceful transfer of power and counting of the votes in a free and fair election, democracy would have ended. Yet  Trumpian GOP forces in the states are putting into place people and laws to control future elections and possibly succeed  in overthrowing the next election.

There is so much more that can be said about what is and has been happening to threaten US democracy embodied in the Constitutional Republic. Have we already become a Third World Country? United States democracy with its flaws has always been a beacon of light for the world and the longest running democracy. Now other countries wonder what is happening to the US democracy. Can it stand with all of these violent forces at play? Will US democracy survive?

Folks, we all need to look at the facts and set the records straight, stop listening to and believing the LIES and hateful violent rhetoric. NO court  found evidence the 2020 election was stolen from Mr. Trump. No person is above the law in a democracy. If we continue on the present path with its violence, hatred, threats, LIES, US democracy will surely fall. We see what that meant in Nazi Germany, and continues to happen in so many Third World Countries.

Pat Safrit Bullard