I concede I am not a supporter of Trump. I have observed his publicity-craving, huckster-conman personae for decades. He revels in exploiting any platform to advance his own interests without regard  to the collateral damage inflicted.  

In 2016, I recoiled in horror at the prospect of a President Trump. I’ve long disagreed with Republican policy, but the threat I perceived in Trump was beyond policy. He was so clearly unprincipled, history ignorant and unstable that it was inconceivable he might be president.  

Finding ourselves in the midst of a second impeachment trial is shocking, yet not surprising. His actions bespeak an orchestrated plan to delegitimize and ultimately prevent certification of Biden’s victory. January 6th was predictable and inevitable.  

Supporting Trump is a political calculation that many see as an issue of political survival. I, for one, still believe that decent people of power can, when political calculation runs afoul of oath and duty, allow character and good judgement to prevail.  

I implore our senators to do just that. Your decision last week will follow you for the rest of your life. Trumpism shall pass. The history lesson will survive. The Trump era will at best be judged an aberration, a momentary lapse when a disingenuous would-be autocrat challenged all norms and principles of our  republic and yet, truth and justice prevailed. Alternatively, he might be the personification of the beginning of the end of the rule of law and constitutionality.  

Either way this goes, rest assured our senators and their colleagues in the U.S. Senate will be the principals upon whom the credit or blame will lie. The choice is theirs.

— Alan K. Menius

Salisbury