This is to commend Sen. Susan Collins for speaking out on her decision not to vote for Donald Trump for president.
Sen. Collins holds the seat once occupied by William Pitt Fessenden and Margaret Chase Smith, who, in other difficult times, stood up for country rather than party. We can all be proud that Sen. Collins is following in their footsteps.
This 90-year-old lifelong active Republican has struggled, as Sen. Collins has, with the Trump candidacy and reached the same conclusion. I have been proud to be a member of the party of Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Reagan and George H.W. Bush. I could never vote for Mr. Trump, who totally lacks the qualifications and temperament to be president.
I have been increasingly flabbergasted by his campaign – because of his insulting comments at the beginning of his campaign about Sen. John McCain’s military service, his litany of insults and intemperate statements ever since, his complete misunderstanding of the Constitution and the separation of powers, his blatant ignorance of foreign policy and national security issues, and because his economic plan and proposed tax cuts would increase the national debt by trillions without providing any help to his supporters while further feathering his own well-feathered nests.
I still struggle with whether to vote for Hillary Clinton or Gary Johnson on Nov. 8, but I am proud to join Sen. Collins in not voting for Donald Trump.
Merton G. Henry
Scarborough
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