Make democracy great again

The contest in the 6th Congressional District and several other tight races where Democrats are trying to flip Republican seats may well determine the future course of our country. The incumbent Republican, Peter Roskam, is facing a newcomer to politics, Sean Casten.

They differ on almost every issue. Roskam runs heavily on his key role in the tax bill, claiming unsubstantiated amounts of money going into the pockets of those who need it, He has greatly lowered the amount of taxes that may be deducted for state and local taxes, hurting a great many of his constituents. Casten is a strong environmentalist, having spent a good part of his business career in that industry.

They differ on health care, where Roskam voted to take benefits away from millions of people. Now Roskam is talking about tapping the Social Security Trust Fund to pay the deficit caused by his tax bill, the vast majority of the money going to corporations and the very wealthy, not to those who need it most.

The real danger of electing Roskam is that the one chance for democracy to make a comeback, or at least not to be further eroded, is in the House of Representatives. We have an executive branch that is in continual disarray. We have a president leading this branch who, if he even looked at the Constitution, certainly skipped the First Amendment and went directly to the Second.

He has prevaricated more than 3,000 times. He led the Parkland kids to believe he would support meaningful gun reform and was captive with NRA for only an hour before reversing himself.

That is why this election is so important. A Democratic House may well be the only check to an out of control president.

Spencer Heine

Inverness