Last year, embarrassed on the one hand, broken -hearted and despondent on the other, I abandoned Donald Trump, his astonishing tribe of supplicants and my 50-year-old Republican allegiance and that of my parents and grandparents and became a Democrat. 

Perhaps I was hasty. Not because I’ve seen the light and the value and profitability of supplication but because the place for me to be most effective in helping to bring the Republican Part to its senses is not from outside but from allying myself with the few who have remained stubbornly loyal to the party’s noble but former principles, who have insisted on the truth and who have retained the courage of conviction and a firm grip on reality. 

I hope Senator Collins will muster the resolve, as she has in the past, to again swim against the tide of blind and mindless fealty and vote not to censure or otherwise punish Senator Cheney for speaking the truth.

Phil Crossman lives on Vinalhaven