In a democracy, there can be no bystanders

SOME people wrote just to say thanks, from Arizona, from all over the country and from abroad, from all across the political map, too. Some wrote to say that they watched the speech with their children, or that they read it aloud to them. "I try to teach my kids to respect others," wrote one man. "The current resident of the White House is not the example I want my kids to follow." "As a die-hard Democrat, I have to say that before Trump came into office, you were kinda low on my list of senators to admire," one woman wrote. "But I have changed that stance." Another man wrote: "I am a registered Republican, but I am ashamed of what my party has become." One woman from Phoenix said that she did not like my politics but thanked me for the "small beacon of light" all the same. "Semper Fi," wrote a Marine. One man sent a cheque for US$20.20 and urged me to run for president. (Sir, I will not be cashing the cheque, but I do appreciate the gesture.) By the electronic bushel, in thousands of calls and letters, reactions have poured into my office in the past week since I spoke on the Senate floor and announced that I would not be running for another term, and detailing the reasons for my decision. A deeply personal outpouring, the scale of which has stunned and humbled me.

Each letter is distinctive but all are plaintive, anguished, deeply engaged and urgent. They all have in common a feeling of distress that the United States has taken a sudden and caustic turn, that we have a president who seems to take pleasure in dividing us. A president who is careless with the position that has become known in the past century as "leader of the free world", and that our institutions and maybe even our liberty are in peril as a consequence. Please, the letter writers all said. Don't stop speaking out. "I'm counting on it," one person wrote in all caps for emphasis.

THE PAIN IS REAL