Hunter Taylor: The current GOP is unrecognizable

To The Daily Sun,

Not long ago I was a proud republican and a member of both the Belknap Republican Committee and the state Republican Committee. The GOP of today, however, is unrecognizable, with recent events underscoring that fact.

Donald Trump has made repeated inaccurate assertions about and threats against federal and state judges assigned to hear the many criminal charges against him. Two very prominent conservative federal judges have spoken out about these threats and about the deafening silence from the overwhelming majority of the Republican Party.

Retired Court of Appeals Judge J. Michael Luttig observed that “the nation is witnessing the determined delegitimization of both its federal and state judiciaries and the systematic dismantling of its system of justice and rule of law by a single man — the former president of the United States.”

Judge Luttig continued: “Never in American history has any person, let alone a president of the United States, leveled such threatening attacks against the federal and state courts and federal and state judicial officers of the kind the former president has leveled continually.”

Senior Federal District Court Judge Reggie Walton expressed similar alarm: “We do these jobs because we’re committed to the rule of law and the rule of law can only function effectively when we have judges who are prepared to carry out their duties without the threat of potential physical harm.”

When we vote in the November election, we must remember these attacks made by the former president against our courts and our judges. Our responsibility as citizens and as voters is to stand by the Constitution, the Rule of Law, and our democracy. If we fail, these foundations of our country will likely be gone, and we will find ourselves living in an autocracy and constant chaos.

Hunter Taylor

Alton