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Letter: America’s only hope lies with the GOP — what a chilling thought

(AP Photo/Evan Vucci) In this Aug. 23, 2018, photo, President Donald Trump speaks during a roundtable on the "Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act" in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. His mission is to rally Republicans behind GOP candidates in the nation’s premiere swing state. But when Trump steps into battleground Ohio on Friday, he steps into a state _ and a Republican Party _ deeply divided by his presidency.

As E.J. Dionne notes, Steven Levetsky’s and Daniel Ziblatt’s “How Democracies Die” offers a very disturbing take on the current state of Western democracy. The public library has copies. I recommend that everyone read it.

One of the book’s most chilling insights: The “people” have never turned back a nation’s drift toward authoritarianism. Only political parties have done so — and they have done so only when a conservative party, recognizing the threat from the radical right, has joined with a liberal party to counter a rising authoritarian tide.

Where are those with the political will to reform the GOP and counter its authoritarian Trumpublican turn?

Andrew G. Bjelland, Salt Lake City

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