Donald Trump thinks that the FBI is a Gestapo, that the government is an illegitimate junta maintained through election fraud, that the Jan. 6 rioters are political prisoners, and that the nation is a failed ruin. At the recent presidential debate, when it was his turn to explain why he should be president, he spent most of his time repeating his praise of the Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orban.

The party’s candidate for governor of North Carolina called the Holocaust hogwash.

Last February the Republicans effectively killed a bill containing the most restrictive updating of the country’s immigration laws in decades. Previously they strongly advocated the provisions of this bill. But after getting Democratic support for their proposal, the Republicans refused to vote for it.

The Georgia State Election Board recently voted to force a hand count of all ballots cast on Election Day. Critics say this move could significantly delay the reporting of results and inject chaos into the post-election period. This new rule also runs counter to extensive legal advice from the State’s top election officials and law enforcement officers.

The most important job of our elected officials is to fund the government. It is presently illegal for a non-citizen to vote in a Federal Election. Yet Republican members of the House of Representatives initially refused to pass a continuing resolution unless it included a provision that a person must provide proof of citizenship when they register to vote.

These Republicans are a very weird political party.

JOHN PIEPHO, Cape Girardeau