The Democratic National Convention was a lively dance party with the usual partisan speakers. Barack Obama charmed the crowd by mocking Donald Trump’s obsession with crowd size with a subtle but unmistakable hand gesture.

One of the most moving speeches, however, was a calm address by Stephanie Grisham. Grisham, Trump’s former White House press secretary, made headlines when she abruptly resigned on January 6, 2021, after her boss refused to call off the rioters who vandalized the Capitol.

Grisham, who is also Melania Trump’s former chief of staff, texted the first lady during the chaos. “Are you going to tweet that peaceful protests are the right of every American but there is no place for lawlessness and violence?” she wrote. Melania said, “No.”

It is important to remember that Grisham had no intention of causing trouble for Trump. On the contrary, Trump’s defenders at Fox News also urged him to call off the thugs, believing that the scenes of violent destruction were not in Trump’s best interests.

Grisham’s further descriptions of Trump’s flawed character were hardly surprising: that he lacked empathy and that he lied. That he mocked his supporters as “basement dwellers.” That he resented the cameras in the intensive care unit being trained on dying patients rather than on himself. As a Trump supporter, Grisham stood firm against all of this.

It was his encouragement of the criminals who desecrated the Capitol to overturn the election results that prompted her to resign. “Now I stand here behind a podium and advocate for a Democrat,” she said, “and I do it because I love my country more than I love my party.”

Donald Trump is who he is, but it remains a mystery why so few other Republicans put the country above their party. We know that many were horrified by the events of January 6, and some have criticized the former president’s refusal to intervene. But when the MAGA hordes viewed defending Trump’s role in this scandal as essential to their professional survival, they ran straight down their rabbit holes.

Not all of them, of course. Adam Kinzinger, a former Illinois state representative known for his conservative politics and military service, including tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, was also on the DNC’s speaker list.

John Giles, the Republican mayor of Mesa, Arizona, gave a particularly memorable speech. Giles could never forgive Trump for ruining the reputation of the late Senator John McCain, a war hero and fellow Arizona Republican.

“I have a confession to make,” Giles said. “I’m a lifelong Republican, so I feel a little out of place tonight, but I feel more at home here than I do in the Republican Party today.” He continued, “The Grand Old Party has been hijacked by extremists and has become a cult, the cult of Donald Trump.”

Giles had already endorsed Kamala Harris in a column in the Arizona Republic. That took courage, but also wisdom. Arizonans, including Republicans, are angry about Trump’s attempts to interfere in their electoral process. Polls show Democrat Ruben Gallego ahead of Republican Kari Lake in the race for a seat in the U.S. Senate. Lake, a former television news anchor, has become one of MAGA’s most primitive voter refuseniks.

None of this has much to do with politics. It wasn’t about abortion rights, child tax credits, or tariffs. It was purely about the survival of democracy.

The good thing about a democracy is that you can vote out elected politicians if they don’t do what you want them to do. Without elections, people have to live with what they get. Trump’s efforts to undermine the sanctity of the election should frighten both those who share his worldview and those who don’t.