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Donald Mong
Franklin, Pa.
As a longtime Republican voter, my vote in this year's election will be guided by the following:
My family has been in America for over 200 years, and I have voted in Pennsylvania elections for 50 years. With redistricting, GT Thompson and Mike Kelly have served as my congressmen. Even if we occasionally disagreed on a particular policy, I always trusted my congressmen to respect my and other citizens' right to determine which politicians would represent us. That trust ended when Congressmen Thompson and Kelly followed Donald Trump's directions and tried to take away many of our Pennsylvania votes through the Texas lawsuit - just so Trump could win one election.
Throughout history, both left-wing dictatorships like Communist China and right-wing dictatorships like Russia and Nazi Germany have both used the same tactic to take over democracies. A strong man instills fear and convinces well-meaning citizens that individual citizen votes do not matter so long as the strong man is elected. Then, once power is gained, it is not peaceably returned at the end of the strong man's term, and free elections vanish.
I do not agree with some of Kamala Harris's policies, but if I make a mistake by voting for her, our democracy will give me the opportunity to correct my mistake in future elections. If instead I make a mistake by voting for Trump and congressmen like Thompson and Kelly, I may no longer have that chance to correct.