When someone says they are going to vote for Donald Trump because they “agree with his policies,” not because they think he’s a good person, I want to ask: “What policies are those?”

His promise to be a dictator on day one and his pledge to “terminate” the U.S. Constitution? His desire to round up immigrants, place them in detention camps and then deport them? His plans to replace thousands of civil service employees with his own appointees, use the U.S. Justice Department to prosecute his enemies for the crime of disagreeing with him and claim unlimited power to call up the military against the American people whenever he chooses?

His preference for dictators such as Viktor Orban in Hungary, Vladimir Putin in Russia, and Kim Jong Un in North Korea over leaders such as Volodymyr Zelensky in Ukraine who are fighting to preserve freedom and democracy around the world?

His efforts to weaken voting and other rights for people of color, to subvert the peaceful transfer of power after a free and fair election in 2020, and to undermine the upcoming election by saying that he will not accept the results -- if he loses -- because it will have been “rigged”? Or his promise to pardon the Jan. 6 rioters, who we all watched storm, defile and deface the U.S. Capitol at his urging?

Former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney recently said that Trump “can never be trusted with power again” and announced that he will be voting for Kamala Harris: “As citizens, we each have a duty to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution. That is why I will be casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.”

I hope other Republicans and independents will do the same.

Barbara Jatkola

Jaffrey