Letters to the Editor: It's time to treat the Republican Party as an anti-democratic faction

To the editor: Columnist Doyle McManus asks if the Republican Party condones extra-constitutional violence. The answer is clear: Yes, it does.

Furthermore, the groundwork is being laid for this violent, well-armed minority to seize total control of the electorate through a combination of voter suppression, the installation of partisan election officials, and the refusal of Republican-led state legislatures to certify election results they do not like.

It's time for us to anticipate the chaos of an election stolen by this violent, anti-democratic faction that seeks a second Trump presidency. It's time to imagine what a post-democratic America will look like under a racist autocrat.

Howard Cott, Los Angeles

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To the editor: Does McManus remember the events in the summer of 2020, which included riots mislabeled by Democrats as "peaceful demonstrations"? Those riots included the burning and looting of businesses across our country and the destruction of federal property.

Then-President Trump and many other representatives of the GOP persistently decried those events as political violence.

As for Republicans needing to accept election results, how about the 2016 election of Donald Trump? Democrats are still resentful over that and are determined never to allow Trump back into political office.

Michael P. Nickoloff, La Cañada Flintridge

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To the editor: McManus ends by stating that Republicans need to "settle their internal debate: Are they a party that condones extraconstitutional violence or not?"

By leaving the issue unsettled, the GOP seems to indirectly satisfy the criteria of Section 5102 of the California Election Code:

"No party shall be recognized or qualified to participate in any primary election that either directly or indirectly carries on, advocates, teaches, justifies, aids, or abets the overthrow by any unlawful means of, or that directly or indirectly carries on, advocates, teaches, justifies, aids, or abets a program of sabotage, force and violence, sedition or treason against, the government of the United States or of this state."

Given that we live in a society on the edge of political violence, I doubt it would be prudent for California's secretary of state to disqualify the Republican Party. But having this debate might be healthy for acknowledging Republicans have a problem that needs to be fixed.

Eugene Mullaly, San Diego

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.