We would like to thank Shenna Bellows, Maine’s secretary of state, for her decision to disallow the former president from being on Maine’s Republican primary ballot.

She made this decision knowing that it would have personal and political consequences. First on the personal front.

Bellows surely had no doubt that violent rhetoric and threats from the far-right MAGA crowd would come her way — on her phone, on her email, at her house. She was not intimidated.

She also surely knew that this decision would mark her as an enemy for this same group in our Legislature. She persevered.

She might have assumed that the congressional delegates who are running for office again would take issue with the decision because of its controversial nature — which, with the notable exception of Chellie Pingree, they did. It didn’t sway her decision.

Margaret Chase Smith stood up to Sen. Joseph McCarthy, another Republican demagogue, in an earlier time when many in both parties were afraid to do so. She did the right thing for our democracy. Regardless of what the Supreme Court decides, Bellows has done the right thing as well: calling an insurrection what it is, and calling its instigator to account.

For her brave decision to stand up for the Constitution and the Republic, we are profoundly grateful.

Emanuel Pariser and Lea Girardin

Waterville