Protect democracy

To the editor:

My work as a therapist makes two concepts abundantly clear: There are parallel personality traits shared by destructive leaders in all walks of life and—for those who are enamored, empowered, or terrified by them—the defense mechanism of denial is extremely difficult to pierce. When it becomes clear that a leader of a household is a killer of either spirit or body or both, it is an uphill challenge to convey a warning to countless partners and many sons and daughters that, without their wake-up call, further destruction is both predictable and inevitable.

In like manner, warning signs clearly show our 47th president, raised to be a destroyer of all he cannot control, dominate, or seduce, never intends to leave office. For readers loyal to Donald Trump, I ask you to consider the futures of your sons, daughters, and theirs when you are no longer here to protect them, and they dare to have thoughts that lead to their imprisonment or death by an authoritarian leadership. If Trump ever intended to leave office, why has he sent a team of FBI agents armed with a search warrant to Fulton County to seize all available materials relating to the 2020 election? Do you think he will stop this behavior with Georgia?

Terrified his poll numbers are dropping, his intention is to alter evidence and once again lie—to tell the American people that evidence of voter fraud has, as he has always insisted, been found. Subsequently, he will tell us it will be too dangerous to hold elections. This takeover is our future if not stopped by a union of sane voices.

SaraKay Smullens
Philadelphia

Published in The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 25, 2026