To the editor:

We’ve all done it. All of us. We’ve been wrong about something, often with a family member, a husband or wife or child. Not something big, perhaps it was venal, an outburst of temper, simple selfishness. Maybe I wasn’t listening and suddenly am squabbling about nothing. But I didn’t back off, dug in my heels, and then there’s that empty feeling below my heart, and just above my gut. Pride preceedeth the fall. And, I asked myself, how do I get out of this?

A lot of Republicans are asking themselves that question today, both inside and outside Kansas. Outside Kansas, what to do about Donald Trump? How did our party support this man at all? How can I live with helping to make him the president and giving someone like him access to all that enormous power? I don’t need to repeat here his litany of racist, sexist, xenophobic, flat stupid statements; if you’re reading this you know. For politicians caught in this dilemma, it’s hard to go back on so many years of undiluted contrarianism toward anything Clinton or Obama. But they know. Trump is just so horribly wrong. Will pride get in the way? Can they choose their country over their party?

Inside Kansas, Republican legislators have cut taxes to irresponsible levels, have refused to fund schools and are threatening to ignore the Kansas Constitution. Will pride stay in their way or will they go back to Topeka and fund our schools? We’ll soon see.