DEAR EDITOR:

After Donald Trump and his Republican allies falsely accused Georgia election worker Ruby Freeman of election fraud, death threats from angry Trump supporters forced her to flee her home. So-called “pro-life” Republicans urged people to “hunt” the 62-year-old grandmother and hang her. This is just one example of the unprecedented wave of terroristic threats faced by election workers across the country this year.

Reuters news has documented more than 850 incidents of threats and harassing messages to election administrators. This is what the Republican Party has come to — spreading lies about a “stolen election” in order to motivate ignorant ruffians to threaten the lives of elderly women who did their jobs properly.

Threats against election officials are part of a larger trend within the Republican Party. Over the past year, we’ve seen Republicans threaten the lives of school board members, teachers, health care professionals and their families. Last month, Republican Rep. Paul Gosar posted an animated video of himself killing Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. Jan. 6, the former president, along with other leaders of the Republican Party, instigated a deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol in a traitorous attempt to overturn the results of a fair election. Republican candidates across the country frequently produce campaign ads featuring themselves firing assault weapons. The implied threat is thinly veiled.

Ohio Republicans might not need to resort to this kind of bullying because it appears they have successfully gerrymandered their way to the establishment of a one-party system in our state. Despite the fact that over 70 percent of Ohio voters chose to amend the state constitution and thereby end partisan gerrymandering, Republicans simply ignored the new rules and drew another crooked map that will result in Republican domination of a state where almost half the voters lean Democratic.

What does all this say about today’s Republican Party? They fear democracy. They know their base is shrinking and their platform (tax breaks for the rich, white supremacy, climate-change denial, anti-LGBTQ rights, etc.) is wildly unpopular with younger generations. So, if Republicans want to hold power, they have to prevent fair elections from happening; thus, they will try to use gerrymandering and voter suppression to cheat their way to absolute power. But if those nonviolent schemes fail, Republicans are more than willing to resort to terrorism and fascist violence to get their way. This is how democracy dies.

SHAWN KOSIOR

Canfield