Donald Trump, as the embodiment of conflict and chaos, has infected the Republican Party with his personality, temperament and intolerable behavior of a severely spoiled child. The Republican Party has become in reality the party of Trump, frustrating all hope of sustaining a sound democratic republic.
In the Senate, Republicans hold 53 seats, Democrats hold 45, (Independents hold two). Trump has extinguished all cooperation between Republicans and Democrats; bedrock Republican positions such as holding Russia at arm's length have disappeared.
Republicans now accept Trump's mysterious bond with Vladimir Putin and other dictators, and ignore that he is unable to deal with them except as a subordinate.
Republicans will not cross him, fearing an attack through his infamous childish tweets. Please.
Having a bad 4-year-old in the White House must not be accepted as normal or permanent.
Faye S. Walter, Sewanee
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Alexander et al. debased GOP, USA
Nothing illustrates the debasement of the U.S. Senate more fully than the shameful vote not to call witnesses in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump. The Republican Party is now the party of Trump, willing to condone his crimes and his treachery. The great senators of the past, the Daniel Websters and Henry Clays, must be rolling in their graves.
I was disappointed but not surprised that Georgia Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler joined most of the rest of their party in putting partisanship over patriotism. Nor could anything better have been expected of Tennessee's Marsha Blackburn or Alabama's Richard Shelby.
But it was appalling to see Sen. Lamar Alexander forfeiting his decades-long reputation for honesty and bipartisanship.
His career is now irredeemably tarnished. Perhaps in his retirement he will rue the decision he made in 2020, knowing that historians will record him as a Trump-supporter rather than a patriot.
David Cofield, LaFayette, Georgia
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GOP stuck with party; abandoned the country
We now have our nation's third impeachment. Presidents Andrew Johnson, Clinton and now Trump. Nixon was never impeached. He resigned after being told by Republicans, he would be removed from office for trying to cover up "rigging an election." Knowing he would lose his retirement, he resigned.
Johnson was impeached by radical Republicans following the Civil War, because he would not go along with their reconstruction of the South. Johnson attempted to replace Secretary of War Stanton for U.S. Grant; having the constitutional right to do so, he was acquitted.
Kenneth Starr spent $60 million trying to destroy Bill Clinton with bogus claims about real estate deals. Finally, in a deposition, Clinton lied about sex outside of marriage. Hardly a "high crime."
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That was the Republicans' case!
Now, it's Trump, who's clearly guilty of "high crimes." Keeping $300 million from an ally fighting communist Russia, for dirt on an opponent, is reprehensible. It threatens national security, and is a crime.
Further, Trump lies, refuses to testify or let others. Republicans are spineless; picking party over country.
Wilbourne C. Markham Sr., Signal Mountain