I am only the second generation American citizen on my grandfather’s side of the family. My grandfather came through Ellis Island, where they changed his first name for him to Louis.

My grandfather’s family was poor and my great-grandfather moved his children to America one by one whenever he had saved enough money to do so. My grandfather knew no English on arrival and had little schooling. He became a tool and die maker by telling prospective employers he was a tool and die maker, working just long enough to learn a little of the trade and getting fired until he finally learned enough to earn his journeyman’s card. While this tale is spunky and spirited today, no doubt in his day many looked down on the lying fellow from Eastern Europe. Just another dirty devil replacing good American workers by lying his way into the automotive industry!

I am married to a naturalized American citizen. My wife came over from Germany with her family when Volkswagen sent her father to the States to open a U.S. auto plant. Yet another foreigner taking American jobs!

At the same time though, both my grandfather and my father-in-law are no doubt more acceptable immigrants because they are, get ready…white. My father-in-law came over during the Nixon administration. Imagine that! A Republican president opening up the border to terrifying immigrants and giving away American jobs! And yet, the country managed to endure.

Today’s Republican party is the party of hatred and bigotry. Collectively the party is a clear and present danger to democracy in the United States. From the seditionists who tried to overthrow an election, to the white nationalists who drive party dogma today, the Republican party is as dangerous as any other party organized around hatred and fear as has ever existed.

There is no equivalence on the other side of the aisle. Republicans who claim there is are only lying in order to spread fear and hatred. There is a grand difference between disagreeing as to whether or not health care should be free and accessible to all and lying about the attempt to overthrow an election and preaching replacement theory and not minding the violence it brings.

Democrats and the few Republicans left who refuse to kowtow to the MAGA thugs must, perhaps ironically, do whatever is necessary to defend democracy from those seeking to destroy it from within.