An Open Letter to Senator Rob Portman

Dear Senator Portman,

I haven’t always agreed with your politics or your party, but I always thought you were a good and honorable man, a honest public servant with Ohio’s best interests at heart. And maybe you still are. But that means nothing without the courage to stand up to defend what’s right.

You are directly complicit in the efforts of a sociopathic narcissist to systematically dismantle the protections of American democracy in favor of a cult-of-personality dictatorship. This is a crisis that goes beyond partisan loyalties. If you convict and remove Trump, the Republican party can pivot towards rebuilding its values and reputation. Otherwise, your party will either absorbed entirely into the Trump organization if he prevails, or defeated by the backlash against him if he does not. Similarly, if Trump is acquitted, either he will continue on as an Imperial president, with vastly expanded powers, and a Congress that has proven powerless against him, or a Democrat will take over with those same vastly expanded powers and lack of Congressional oversight.

As it stands, today, you are one of the very few people with the power to wake this nation from its collective nightmare. If you stand up and proclaim that the Emperor has no clothes, others may follow. Even if they don’t you will have still secured your place in history as a true national hero, rather than as yet another sycophantic enabler. This may be the very last moment to act, and you may be the very last person with the power to do so. I hope and pray you decide wisely.

Sincerely, your constituent,

Christopher Sunami