The military in Myanmar, formerly known here as Burma, did not like the results of a recent election in which the democratic opposition won by a landslide. So the military claimed voter fraud and demanded a re-run. Sound familiar?
Now the winning head of state, Aung San Suu Kyi, and members of her party are thought to be under house arrest. The military has installed its own leader, Mir Aung Hlaing.
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Democracy had existed in Myanmar since 2011. But now the country faces popular uprisings and brutal attacks by the military to maintain its power.
The United States, it seems to me, narrowly escaped a similar coup on Jan. 6 when mobs overran the Capitol and called for elected leaders to be hanged or shot. It remains to be seen whether the instigator and enabler of this coup, Donald Trump, and his supporters will continue to be held at bay or punished.
If not, we can expect another attempt to destroy our democracy and replace it with a dictatorship. It is up to America’s citizens and Congress to prevent the loss of our democracy. We must not go the way of Myanmar.
Karen Wagner, Rolling Meadows
Marjorie Taylor Greene, GOP treasure
On Wednesday evening, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, received a standing ovation from her fellow House Republicans at a session of the party caucus. It was, of course, a meeting behind closed doors, safely away from “the lizard people” and death rays funded by Jewish bankers that Greene has breathlessly talked about in the past.
To be sure, Ms. Greene is a treasure to be protected at all costs by the Republican Party. But tell me, who is going to protect the GOP when QAnon makes good on its threat to bring down our democratic institutions, including both political parties?
Bob Ory, Elgin
