Sen. Gardner,

Webster’s Dictionary defines a cult as a group with “misplaced or excessive admiration for a particular person.” It also defines fanaticism as “behavior involving uncritical zeal.”

Has your Republican Party morphed into a cult of fanatics? Sure seems that way. It doesn’t matter what Trump says or does. His “base” yells and claps their approval. He ridicules women, calling them “horse face,” “dogs,” “lowlife” and “Pocahontas.” They bob their heads and cheer. Trump celebrates a Republican politician who body-slams a reporter. They love it. After all, reporters are “the enemies of the people” and he would like to “punch them in the face.” He labels Democrats “evil,” and followers chime in to “lock them up.” He feeds the Country lies at warp speed, intimidates and degrades anyone who has an opposing position. They lap it up with uncritical zeal. His dangerous rhetoric has resulted in the dangerous actions of extremists (white supremacist rallies, pipe bombs, etc.).

Through lies, fueled with the poison of fear and anger, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Idi Amin, and other thugs took power and held onto it. Create an enemy, and tell them how you’ll save them. Guess what? Today, this is how Kim Jong-un, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Bashar al-Assad, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump do it. Fear, lies, intimidation and anger are the weapons of autocrats.

November 6 is not just a mid-term election. It is a referendum on the direction of this country. I do not want to live with this dehumanizing, amoral and divisive behavior as the new normal. I do not want two more years of this craziness. You and your Republican colleagues have done little to nothing to criticize Trump or his base. Will you please do something?

Fortunately, we have a weapon to stop this. It’s a ballot. I will vote now and I will vote when you are up for re-election. For goodness sake, stop this madness. I am encouraging others to put country above politics, and judge each candidate by the quality of his/her character, not the color of their placards. As the respected Theologian Harvey Cox said, “Not to decide, is to decide.” Not to call out Trump is a tacit approval of the way he governs. Your inaction and that of other Republicans, especially in the face of his tyranny, is complicity. Is that how you want to be remembered?

Ronald Fischer, Fraser