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“The application for injunctive relief presented to Justice [Samuel] Alito and by him referred to the Court is denied.” 

In one simple sentence with no dissent, all three Supreme Court justices appointed by Donald Trump proved they have more integrity than Trump thought they did. 

Without intending to, they also confirmed that the Republican Party has gone completely off the rails.

Lincoln Project co-founder Steve Schmidt confirmed this assessment when he described Republican support for Trump’s outrageous claim that he lost the election because of voter fraud as “the month (November) American democracy was poisoned.” So poisoned, he said, that “We are one election away from losing our democracy.”

One example of the poison circulating through Republican veins is the lawsuit by 19 Republican state Attorneys General to get the Supreme Court to overturn the votes in four states that went for Joe Biden. Why? Essentially, because they didn’t like the results.

Republican Senator Mitt Romney has called this effort “madness,” the perfect word for what Trump and Republican Trumpism are obsessed with at the moment.

Meanwhile, 3,054 Americans died of the coronavirus yesterday, more than those who died on 9/11. Yet, no reaction by Republican leaders at all, no expression of grief, sadness, alarm, no call for everyone to do their part to bring the spread of the virus under control until a vaccine can prevent millions more from dying.

Nothing, except the continuing madness of rejecting mandates to wear a mask, practice social distancing, and limit the size of public and family gatherings as an unacceptable infringement of their personal freedom.

Insane should be added to underscore the level of madness we are witnessing. 

Republican behavior in the face of Trump’s defeat and efforts by health officials and responsible political leaders to cope with the pandemic together represents the greatest threat to our democracy we have ever faced. 

I have friends who believe our biggest threat is the potential violence Trump is inciting among his supporters. I understand their point, but I keep telling them I think they are missing the point.

If Trump manages to drive one person or a group to kill someone on his behalf, he will have blood on his hands for which he should be held accountable along with anyone who does such a thing. But history has proven that violence in the streets and right-wing paramilitary groups have never destroyed American democracy, nor ever will.

We are a land of laws and will remain that way in spite of what Trump or any of his supporters do. Thus, without minimizing the tragedy any death would represent, violence in the streets by Trumpers is not the main threat our nation faces.

Instead, the real threat to our democracy is political Trumpism that is seeking to undermine trust in our system of government that is critical for democracy to work.

We cannot afford to be naive about how dangerous Trumpism is showing itself to be. 

Anything that can be rightly described as “madness” must be seen for the threat it truly is, which is why Romney went on to say of this madness, “It would be saying, ‘Look, let’s not follow the vote of the people, let’s instead do what we want’; that would not be the way a democratic republic ought to work.”

An understatement, to be sure, but the point is clear. 

Thus far the lower courts and the Supreme Court are doing their job to preserve our democracy by upholding the Constitution on which it was founded. 

But we must do our job as well by openly, strongly, and boldly doing what the courts are doing, standing up for the Constitution by rejecting statements by people we know or comments we see on social media that are undermining it. 

We must also stay informed. Ignorance allows foolishness to appear sensible and evil to seem good. Knowledge sheds light on both so we see them for what they truly are, but the possession of it requires time and effort, a small price to pay to save our democracy. 

“Never send to know for whom the bell tolls,” wrote John Donne, “it tolls for thee.”

The bell for safeguarding American democracy is tolling for all Americans right now. There are no bystanders in this struggle, no spectators.

You either stay informed and speak up when the situation arises for you to do so or you become complicit in the attack on our country from within that is happening in plain sight. 

So, yes, the bell is tolling for thee, for me, and for we who truly love this country.