By Jerry Kremer

The first round of elections is now behind us and on Aug. 23, voters will have a chance to select their Congress member and state senator.

These two rounds will be followed by our traditional election day on Nov. 8. In some cases, the winners of the primary will have nothing to worry about as they may be blessed with a politically “safe district.”

In other cases, there will be a knock-down-drag-out battle to decide who will represent you in Washington and Albany.

If ever there was a year when issues count, 2022 is it.

The recent decision by the right-wing majority of the Supreme Court throwing out the protections of Roe v Wade, is a warning sign to all voters that this landmark decision may be the first of many to come that will take away a variety of protections, now enjoyed by the American people.

The decision wiping out New York’s handgun permit law, will be a challenge to our law enforcement officials, who have enough problems with gun violence. The idea that a local government can’t impose any type of reasonable restrictions when giving out a gun carry permit, is a form of judicial recklessness.

New York State is struggling to deal with the massive number of illegal guns that make their way to our region from states such as Alabama, North Carolina and Georgia.

At the same time that the Trump-appointed court majority is contemplating wiping out numerous rights that were part of judicial precedents, legislatures around the country are devising new and different ways to steal elections from the national winners.

For the past hundred-plus years, elections have been supervised by election officials and not by legislatures. To date, twelve states have passed laws transferring the supervision of elections away from the secretary of state and giving them to political hacks.

Since the beginning of this year, there has been a constant focus on the consumer burdens caused by inflation. Republican elected officials and would-be candidates have smacked their lips at the thought that economic issues will dominate in November.

Inflation may be one issue, but the Supreme Court has now opened the door to many other issues that could have an impact on both the Senate and House contests. Taking away a woman’s personal rights over her body isn’t going to fade away by Election Day. The issue of choice cuts across party lines and could cause a big change in electoral patterns.

State legislatures that are passing comprehensive bans on abortion are creating an open invitation to women and men to show up at the polls. It is possible that poor women will lose their right to an abortion, but they won’t be denied the right to enter a voting booth and cast their ballots.

Voters living in states where the laws have been rigged to deprive them of easy access to voting will show up in November despite all of the obstacles in their place.

The hearings of the January 6th Committee will end months before the polling places open, but any fair-minded citizen who watched them has to conclude that President Donald Trump wanted to overthrow the 2020 election results and won’t cease his efforts to undermine any and all future elections.

Mr. Trump is not alone, as he has been joined by numerous other red state governors who value power over people’s constitutional rights.

There is no doubt that there will be ample issues to get the public to turn out in November. There have been a lot of important elections in the past 50 years but none is as critical as this one because the life or death of our democracy is is at stake.

The Republican Party has lost its soul and has embraced ideas and philosophies that are nowhere to be found in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights.

If they are rejected at the polls we will be on the way to accomplish two things-the rebirth of a lost party and an affirmation that America is a democracy and we are better than the forces that are seeking to tear us down to their level.