Could it actually happen? Is it possible that the Republican Party will participate in the destruction of the rule of law and ignore the plain fact that a President who lost his re-election bid by seven million votes and a decisive margin in the Electoral College is, two years after the fact, still engaged in an unprecedented refusal to accept the sovereign will of the American people? 150 Republican election deniers are running for vital state offices with Republican Party support. The Grand Old Party? Nothing this despicable has happened in the entire history of the United States – a coup d’état planned and executed by a former President and his supporters.

I grew up in a solidly Republican family in a solidly Republican community in Western Pennsylvania. My father, a Pennsylvania Railroad fireman in the day when firemen shoveled coal from the tender into the fire box of the steam locomotive, was a member of a Union, the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, but voted straight Republican his entire life. He claimed that the first words his two -year-old son said were “Wendell Wilkie”, the Republican presidential candidate opposing Franklin Roosevelt in the 1940 election. FDR won that election but the entire Buchanan family was convinced that the Democrats would be the ruination of the country and drag the nation into Socialism if not outright Bolshevism. I learned Republican names during dinner table conversations: Thomas Dewey, Earl Warren, Robert Taft, Dwight Eisenhower… and I respected them all. Later, I continued to respect Republican leaders even when I disagreed with their positions: Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Charles Percy, William Scranton. I simply assumed they were good and honorable men, fit to be President. Nixon’s infamy came later.

My personal political views began to evolve and take shape when I majored in Government in college. Studying Constitutional Law, Political Theory, American Political History and Policy made me profoundly grateful for our system of government, and deeply patriotic. And through the years I continued to respect Republican leaders even when I disagreed with their policies.

American history and the founding of this nation, I concluded, were miraculous, if not divinely inspired, certainly reflective of basic Judeo-Christian beliefs and values. Surely there is an organic connection between Genesis 1:26, “Then God said, ’let us make humankind in our image’ and “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all (men) are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights….” (The Declaration of Independence)

The flaws in our history and system are undeniable. We continue to pay the price of our nation’s sin of slavery and continued racism and genocidal policies toward Native Americans. I understand the dark side of our history. Nikole Hannah-Jones’ The 1619 Project eloquently documents the reality of racism in our history and culture and should be required reading, not banned from public libraries as some politicians propose.

But until recently I have embraced Abraham Lincoln’s description of our system of government as “the last, best hope of (man) on earth.” Now I wonder if we will resemble in any way Lincoln’s hope in the days ahead. Not to be melodramatic, but I find myself wondering what the United States will look like if the modern Republican Party, now totally recreated in Donald Trump’s image, returns to majority status in the House of Representatives and Senate next January.

If ever there was a time for people of good will, people who fiercely respect the rights promised in the Bill of Rights and Constitution to make their voices heard, this is it.