Democrats, historians, independent journalists and concerned citizens are raising the alarm. “Once a government convinces its people that what they saw with their own eyes didn’t really happen, our democracy is lost.”

The Republican Party continues to reshape visual truth with rhetoric that convinces voters that what they saw with their eyes wasn’t what they actually saw. It’s a trick used in dictatorships around the world so that leaders can break laws with impunity and use police force to hold power. Welcome to America.

The GOP denied the reality of George Floyd’s murder. No, you weren’t watching a video of police laughing while they kneeled on the neck of a Black man pleading that he couldn’t breathe. No, you weren’t watching racist and violent police willfully killing a Black man. No. Anyone repeating that information is a bad person who doesn’t “back the blue.”

The GOP denied reality on Jan. 6. No, you weren’t watching real-time TV as MAGA agitators forcefully broke through the police barriers, scaled the walls, smashed Capitol windows, vandalized the interior and attacked Capitol Police trying to stop the trespassers. No. Those were “peaceful protestors.” Those MAGA agitators with a noose calling for the hanging of VP Pence were just patriots visiting the House of the People.

How do they do that? It’s easy. The GOP simply shifts reality the way every dictatorship does. They re-write history. They lie. They reconfigure the narrative. They villainize the opposition. They hinder free press. They publish propaganda explaining the preferred way people should interpret actual occurrences.

People with “eyes-wide-open” have recently watched a video of what occurred in Minneapolis on Jan. 7, 2026. Aggressive MAGA ICE agents shot and killed a peaceful woman in cold blood at a protest. Will the GOP confirm what Americans watching the video saw and heard?

Americans saw the following: Renee Nicole Good in her car. ICE agent cars positioned to box her car in. An ICE agent approaching the car yelling, “Get the F* out of the car.” An agent grabbing the door handle reaching through the window to open the door from inside. Renee Nicole Good (with every reason to be frightened, with every right to be there) choosing to pull away, avoiding any people or other cars while doing so.

No. The GOP isn’t telling the truth. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem told the press that Renee Nicole Good “struck an agent who had to be treated at the hospital.” That is a lie — as those who watched the video clearly know. What Trump posted is even more of a fairy tale. He claimed to have watched the video. If that’s true, then the only conclusion is that he’s lost touch with reality and lives in a fantasy of his own making.

Yet, notice that Republican politicians, right-wing influencers and their media repeat Trump’s ridiculous made-up stories without blinking an eye.

That is the threat to every American’s rights. This GOP is willing to go to great lengths to reconstruct reality and silence anyone who understands the enormity of what’s happening to our freedoms and our democracy. This GOP spends trillions to float narratives that demonize Democrats and lure Libertarians and Independents into voting for them. Their ability to hold on to uncontested power depends upon their lies.

I only see Democrat-leaning individuals calling out the Republican Party for insisting that, like the royal aristocratic kings of old, Trump can do whatever he wants. I only see Democrat-leaning individuals protesting MAGA aggression that targets innocent Americans and other countries. I only see Democrat-leaning individuals repeatedly saying, “If Americans don’t speak up about the GOP’s lies, the Republican Party will destroy America’s democracy as we once knew it.”

If your eyes are wide open and you care about truth and our democracy, stand with Democrat-leaning individuals by trusting what you see with your own eyes — instead of the Republican Party influencers telling you to swallow a revised version of reality. Go ahead and demand evidence of what the GOP is saying — and discover there is none unless they fabricate it.

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Martha Hodges lives in Massena.