To the Editor:
Re “Playing to Base, Most in House G.O.P. Joined Failed Election Suit” (news article, Dec. 12):
We are living through the gravest domestic threat to our nation and democracy since the Civil War. I wish that were hyperbole, but it is fact. Never before has the president of the United States, cheered on by scores of his party’s elected officials in Congress and statehouses nationwide, tried (and tried, and tried) to overturn the results of a free and fair election he indisputably lost.
It is a naked power grab that would make the most shameless and corrupt tinpot tyrant blush. It is so foreign to our country’s most basic principles and values that it is difficult to comprehend that it is actually happening here. But it is happening, and it is terrifying. That the attempt appears likely to fail, and has been marked by buffoonish incompetence at every step, is cold comfort. Even buffoons (and their accomplices) can learn from their mistakes.
James Speyer
Los Angeles
To the Editor:
Re “Justices Deny Bid by Texas to Subvert Vote” (front page, Dec. 12):
The Texas election lawsuit was a loyalty test, pure and simple.
President Trump and his many followers will remain a commanding presence in the Republican Party for the foreseeable future. He and they demand unadulterated loyalty; any elected Republican who doesn’t support him wholeheartedly does so at the peril of his or her career. This consideration overwhelmed the logic of the case itself.
It’s fortunate that the lawsuit went directly into the Supreme Court’s dumpster, but it’s sad that this nonsense even remotely threatened the way our country is governed.
Joel Fram
Bala Cynwyd, Pa.
To the Editor:
I don’t believe that President Trump and his forces ever expected to win in the courts with their fictitious fraud charges and imaginary vote stealing conspiracies. Their legal assault is just one part of a deliberate plan to undermine, heckle, harass and hamper the incoming Biden administration and to keep the anger boiling among Trump supporters, thus paving the way for Mr. Trump’s return to the White House in 2024.
Other parts of the strategy include a stonewalling Republican majority in the Senate, and packing federal agencies and departments with Trump supporters.
Tom Herriman
Richmond, Calif.
To the Editor:
I legally cast my vote via mail-in ballot for Joe Biden in Chester County, Pennsylvania. The repeated attempts by President Trump and his enablers to discard my vote and the votes of millions of other citizens is unconscionable. I request that The New York Times provide a full-page roll call of shame of all the state attorneys general and congressional Republicans who supported the Texas lawsuit to destroy democracy. Please use the largest typeface possible.
Lisa Rose
Radnor, Pa.
To the Editor:
Re “In Rejecting Lawsuit, Justices Deliver a Rebuke to the G.O.P.” (front page, Dec. 13):
You report, “Indeed, after the Supreme Court’s ruling, the Texas Republican Party effectively called for secession by red states whose attorneys general joined in the Texas suit.”
The Texas Republicans might want to look at which states pay more to the U.S. Treasury and which states receive more. After that they should take a look at what a smashing success Brexit has been. If they still want to leave … Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
Michael Hechmer
Westford, Vt.
To the Editor:
I am a registered member of the Republican Party, not of the Trump Party. My voting choices today are between the Trump Party and the Democratic Party. I cannot vote for the Trump Party because its leader is not honest.
The Republicans who did not sign on to the Texas attorney general’s request to overturn the results of the election in four states should bring to life again the once noble and patriotic Republican Party.
Patricia Goldstein
Rye, N.Y.