To the editor:

I don’t have to be a certified psychologist to recognize that the Republican Party plays manipulative “head games” with its voters. This is how I see it.

From the beginning, Trump appealed to voters already hooked on anti-government resentment. Bureaucracy, regulatory laws and taxes were viewed as inconvenient intrusions hindering their personal freedoms. Trump attracted voters who distrusted all politicians — especially “liberal Democrats” pushing for equal rights for everyone. Trump played the anti-abortion card to attract the religious vote and incited fear by spreading exaggerated anti-immigrant propaganda. This netted him the majority of rural-county voters across America.

All that bluster and bragging about being “for the people” and against “the awful government and the Democrats” got Trump and a Republican Party majority in Congress elected. But who’s the real culprit intruding on the rights of the people now — as the GOP fires, slanders, discredits, neglects, jails or deports American citizens?

No one is safe — including those who voted for Trump. Not Republican federal employees who were fired along with everyone else, not the Republican veteran and military voters who were promised support, not their senior voters counting on Social Security, not the farmers losing global markets, not Republican businessmen caught in the tariff crossfire, not retirees losing savings in the stock market, not even immigrants who have the legal paperwork to be here.

Apparently, the “rights” of protection and justice embedded in the language of our democratic government mean nothing to the Republican Party.

1) Freedom of the press? Not when Trump declares it’s “illegal” to criticize him and bans AP News from White House press briefings, sues CBS for defamation, attacks 60 Minutes, and tries to defund NPR, Voice of America and PBS.

2) Freedom of speech? Not when non-violent students are detained for attending demonstrations or writing opinion pieces criticizing Israel for its decades of Palestinian persecution.

3) Due process? Not when ICE is arresting and deporting innocent people based on suspicions, not facts.

4) Safeguards? Not when contaminants in our food, water, air or medicine will no longer be monitored.

5) Laws? Not when Trump chooses to let 1,500 supporters off the hook for their Jan. 6th crimes in vandalizing the Capitol and injuring 140 Capitol police. (What happened to “Back the Blue”?)

Republican politicians make a big show about supporting freedom and individual rights. Now they blatantly violate the Bill of Rights, rule-of-law and U.S. constitutional guidelines as it suits their agenda of authoritarian power. Judging by the daily protests by Republicans and Democrats across the U.S. (protests not necessarily being reported on right-wing media), I know I’m not the only one who has recognized the deception of the GOP’s two-faced psychological trickery.

Martha Hodges

Massena