If we don't recognize the difference between the two parties, the GOP and rightwing extremists will keep trying. Bit, by bit, they will keep chipping away until our constitutional democratic republic is erased. It's time to recognize that republicans and democrats are not two sides of the same coin. In 2022, the parties are diametrically opposed. The GOP is an anti-democracy "Christian" nationalist party of white identity cruelty – they are anti-human rights: the cruelty is the point. The Democrats are the pro-democracy, party of inclusive diversity moving ever closer to affirming equity – they are pro-human rights.

I would never have considered it a mandate when I began voting forty years ago. But, it must be our mandate now for the sake of human rights. It's time to vote a party line – vote Democrat in overwhelming numbers and end the GOP agenda of cruelty.