By DAVID HANSON
Los Alamos
In our previous letter to the editor on Oct. 11, “Which Candidates are Election Deniers and Why it Matters” (link), we posed two questions for the candidates for County Council.
We also sent our questions to them by email:
- Do you believe that Joe Biden is the legitimately elected President; and
- Do you believe that an insurrection took place at the US Capital on January 6, 2021?
Reid Priedhorsky‘s letter to the editor of Oct. 20 (link), pointed out that all four of the Democratic candidates for County Council responded “yes”, the Libertarian candidate answered “yes”, but none of the Republican candidates responded directly to the questions. So, we now know the answer to our question.
Of course, our questions put the Republican candidates in an uncomfortable position: either uphold their principals and risk losing the votes from their Republican base or stay silent and face the consequences of cowardice.
Suzie Havemann’s letter (link), on Oct. 25 pointed out that denying the validity of Joe Biden’s election is clearly contrary to the rule of law. She also made clear that the Constitution and Democracy should NOT be partisan issues, even if they appear to be for the Republicans. By remaining silent, the Republican candidates have essentially admitted that they are not able to support the rule of law, as it is enshrined in our Constitution.
It is difficult to overestimate the importance of this. Without unanimous strong support for the rule of law, Democracy cannot survive. It also bears repeating an important point from our Oct. 11 letter: election deniers are getting elected to local offices and attempting to compromise the election process.
Thus, when you cast your vote on Nov. 8, ask yourself: If a Republican candidate who cannot answer our two questions is elected, will they honestly be able to take the oath of office and swear to uphold our Constitution?
