My feelings match those expressed by Nina McKee in her letter to the editor of April 10 (“Will Mainers’ voices at rallies make a difference?“). I haven’t written to the paper since voters made a tragic choice in November. I find it painful to read, and I gasp at each turn of the page.

I like her partial list of Trumpian outrages, uncluttered by futile attempts to explain why they are outrageous. The specific issues don’t really matter anyhow, and half of us believe in alternative facts due to tainted news sources. It’s not really about tariffs anyhow. It’s not about trans athletes, or immigrants, or any other shiny diversion that The Wizard twirls before our eyes as his boys pick our pockets.

It’s about power. It’s about control. Use trans athletes to control Maine. Use Gaza protests to control universities. Control law firms. Control newspapers. Control television. Control schools. Control libraries. Hey, use tariffs to control the whole darn world! I want power! I want subservience!

So, that’s where we are. Our representatives in Congress, who are in a position to do something, choose not to, so our voices are needed more than ever. Speak, while we are still allowed. Vote, while we still can.

We Americans need to wake up and open our eyes. Let’s stop trading our humanity for insanity. We lose big in such a deal, and there are no “backsies.”

Michael F. Conley Jr.
Portland