As I consider the state of our nation, I am reminded of W.C. Fields’s pithy quote: “There comes a time in the affairs of man when he must take the bull by the tail and face the situation.”

We are at that point with the Republican party. This week many media reported on Maggie Habberman’s forthcoming book, “Confidence Man,” in which she describes Trump flushing White House documents down a West Wing toilet – so plumbers had to unclog it multiple times. This revelation punctuates a week in which the Republican National Committee described the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol as “legitimate political discourse” and then censored Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for their participation on the Jan. 6 Committee.

Although a handful of other Republicans, including Mitch McConnell, have rebutted the RNC’s language and their censorship of Cheney and Kinzinger, it is too little too late. After all, they spent years protecting a president who was impeached not once, but twice, on incontrovertible evidence. Their tepid objections are more like a backhanded acceptance than moral outrage.

On June 1, 1950, Maine’s Republican senator, Margaret Chase Smith, stood on the floor of the Senate and delivered her “Declaration of Conscience.” Without mentioning his name, in 15 minutes the female junior senator single handedly spoke out against Joe McCarthy’s reign of terror.

Today what we face is a Republican party with neither the conscience nor courage to protect the very heart and soul of this nation – our Constitution.

Richard McWilliams
Yarmouth