Guest Opinion: Fitzpatrick a passive enabler of GOP lies

As our our government is presently in its most precarious state of my lifetime, allow me to contrast Bucks County’s Brian Fitzpatrick with Colorado State Senator Kevin Priola. Fitzpatrick’s website states claims an intent to “reform a broken Washington” and to punish “corrupt politicians,” In reality, he has consistently failed to protect our American democracy. On the evening of January 6, 2020, he said that the day’s events were “nothing short of a coup” and he stated that Donald Trump had been “lying to his supporters with false information” and that Trump “lit the flame of incitement and owns responsibility.” However, from that point forward and despite the irrefutable evidence to the contrary, Fitzpatrick continues to enable the Republican Party’s lies about the 2020 election, and the GOP’s ongoing threat to our democracy.

By contrast, Colorado state senator Kevin Priola, a lifelong Republican, stated last month, “I cannot continue to be a part of a political party that is OK with a violent attempt to overturn a free and fair election.” He announced that he was changing his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat, and said, “There is too much at stake right now for Republicans to be in charge.” He referred to the GOP’s attack on our democracy an “existential threat” and said the GOP’s “fear mongering” as “dangerous and destabilizing.”

Priola added that he thought the January 6 insurrection “would be the last straw and that (the GOP) would now finally distance itself from Donald Trump and the political environment he created. Week after week and month after month, I waited for that response. It never came.”

In Bucks County, we have waited month after month for Mr. Fitzpatrick to speak out against Trump’s lies about the 2020 election, and his ongoing threat to our democracy. Fitzpatrick has chosen to be a passive enabler of Trump.

Priola said “brave and honorable Republicans” such as Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger who “defended the Constitution and the rule of law only to be met with ridicule and threats.” By contrast, Fitzpatrick has turned his back on both.

Is Mr. Fitzpatrick O.K. with the Republican Party’s incessant, ongoing, easily debunked lies about the 2020 election being “stolen?”

Is Mr. Fitzpatrick O.K. with a party that punishes and threatens those who seek truth and protect democracy while rewarding those who peddle QAnon conspiracy theories and undermine our democratic system of government?

Is Mr. Fitzpatrick O.K. with a former president keeping 184 Classified documents and 25 Top Secret documents at his private home, posing a potential risk to national security?

Is Mr. Fitzpatrick O.K. with his fellow Republicans putting a target on the backs of his own former FBI colleagues?

I am a Bucks County voter, and I am not O.K. with these things. My father served in Germany for the U.S. Army during World War II, protecting our democracy, protecting our national security, and fighting against fascism. I believe our elected officials must protect our democracy, the truth, the rule of law, our intelligence agencies, and they must protect against political violence.

Mr. Fitzpatrick has consistently failed to do these things. I will be voting for Ashley Ehasz to represent Bucks County in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Joshua Friedman lives in Lower Makefield.

This article originally appeared on The Intelligencer: Guest Opinion: Bucks County's Brian Fitzpatrick has enabled GOP lies