To the Editor:

The future of the American system of representative government is under attack, and who is heeding the call to defend it? 

Are a generation of young Americans ignorant of our democratic traditions and/or disinterested in the survival of our political democracy? Are many Americans more interested in their computer games and TV shows than in voting and participating in our political system? Do many Americans view the presidential election as just another reality TV show? Do they care that special interests are able to spend huge sums of money to buy candidates’ elections to public office who will support their interests and not the needs of the American public?

Why are many American citizens oblivious to the fact that, for the first time in our history as a nation, a foreign power is attempting to influence the outcome of our presidential election? Are American voters aware that overwhelming evidence proves Russia, under the dictatorship or Vladimir Putin, is hacking the emails of the Democratic Party and the its presidential election campaign? Doesn’t anyone wonder why the Russians are not hacking the Republicans and their presidential election committee?

Do voters care that WikiLeaks is relaying illegally obtained information to the American press? Do they understand this is an effort to discredit Hillary Clinton and hope she will lose the presidential election? Why would Putin, and the business oligarchs that support him want Trump to be our next president? What motivates Donald Trump’s refusal to acknowledge the evidence that Russia is behind the hacking of the Democrats?

Could it be that Trump has business interests in Russia and releasing his tax returns would reveal this? Is it because he is a great admirer of Putin and praises his leadership as a dictator? Is Trump using Putin as his role model in his call to jail his opponent Clinton, an event that is unprecedented in our history as a democratic country? 

Do younger Americans understand the meaning of representative democracy? Do they know that the right to vote is the cornerstone of a free republic?  Will many Americans abandon the right to vote that so many in our history have fought and died to achieve? Will special interests and foreign powers subvert our republic? What will we tell our children and grandchildren?   

Margery Abel 

Franklin