Georgia Secretary of the State Brad Raffensperger is my hero, even if all he did was his job.

This poor man, a Republican, endured an hour of the sitting president berating him, threatening him, and telling him exactly how many votes Raffensperger needed to "find" in order to undo the presidential election in Georgia. If Raffensperger lived at President Trump's level, he would have calmly replied that all Raffensperger needed to find was, say, a half million in his checking account, and then he could find the votes. Instead, he patiently pushed back and, as they say, spoke truth to power. Man, that must have been a long hour!

It is to the Brad Raffenspergers of America that we owe the survival of the republic. It is entirely possible that he will have to go into hiding soon; people who stand up to Trump get death threats.

I salute him and all those who have stood up for our democracy and against this president's lies and the people who echo them. The fact that many of those people attacked are Republican office holders is particularly frightening.

In 2021, the republic is on a ventilator.

Eric Kuhn

Middletown