The danger to our democracy is the Republican Party

Repairing America's socio-economic erosion Democracy cannot be sustained when the gap between the rich and poor grows ever wider, when thousands of small towns and villages are crumbling, especially in rural areas, when more than 12 million children go to sleep hungry and when a half a million people are homeless roaming the streets.

Democracy rings hollow when tens of millions of citizens live in abject poverty and have no healthcare, when Blacks and Latinos are the victims of discrimination and inequality, when schools are decaying and teachers are underpaid, when dropouts from school are multiplying and jobs are scarce, and when two and a half million people are languishing in jails and prisons, the majority for non-violent offenses.

Democracy fails when drug addicts are incarcerated instead of being treated and healed, when 40,000 American are killed by firearms every year, when the judiciary is becoming increasingly biased, when climate change is wreaking havoc on the country from coast to coast and people are displaced, when police brutality is commonplace.

Over the past four years in particular, the Republicans wrote one of the darkest chapters in American history. History books will recall how their moral bankruptcy allowed them to sacrifice the well-being of the nation and betray the most principled experiment in democracy in human history. Their defeat in this presidential election may well be the harbinger for worse days yet to come.

As for me, I still have strong faith in the American enterprise. We have fought civil and world wars, faced depressions, corrupt administrations, social unrest, and costly foreign misadventures, but then, we have emerged stronger and an inspiration to other nations.

As long as we remain committed to the democratic values that we have cherished and for which we have sacrificed so much, a brighter and better future will await us.