To keep me from leaving the Republican Party, the GOP must do two things

I’m a Republican

I am 67, a lifetime Republican. I am considering leaving the party. My decision is based on whether the N.C. Republican Party withdraws its vindictive threats to censure Sen. Richard Burr and whether the Republican National Committee removes itself from the invidious orbit of Donald Trump.

Ditch the defense that 74 million voters still back Trump. They don’t. Those voters are humiliated and won’t back a Trump candidacy in 2024.

The GOP must recalibrate and leave the Trump orbit. Let Trump crash into the sun. He charted the course.

Republican leadership must heed North Carolina’s changing demographics and act accordingly. That or become the perennial minority party.

William Dantini, Raleigh

Sen. Thom Tillis

In September 2020, Sen. Thom Tillis introduced the Protect and Serve Act, which would have made it a federal crime to knowingly attempt to cause serious bodily injury to law enforcement. According to Tillis’ website, “We cannot sit idly by and allow for our streets to be filled with dangerous, violent criminals who face no consequences.”

On Jan. 13 Tillis was tasked with providing consequences for a man who incited a violent insurrection that resulted in the deaths of law enforcement officers and injured 138 more. On that day, Tillis sat idly by. He declined to convict the inciter-in-chief, not because he believed Trump was innocent, but because of a “technicality” about jurisdiction.

In the future, I will know better than to take Tillis seriously when he sanctimoniously wraps himself in blue just before an election.

Jarvis Edgerton, Durham

US is in trouble

I am registered to vote as unaffiliated because neither party deserves me. The last 50 years have witnessed many errors of commission and omission too numerous too mention. The Democrats refused to convict Bill Clinton, and the Republicans have just refused to convict Donald Trump. The country is not better for it.

I was taught that no one is above the law. It seems I was misled. When party loyalty supersedes reason and logic, the country is in trouble.

William Schrum, Durham

A third party

On Feb. 13 during Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, a new political party was affirmed.

The Democratic Party remains the majority party in the Senate, represented by the donkey logo. Seven senators remain members of the traditional Republican Party, represented by the elephant logo.

In my opinion, 43 senators created the Trumpian Party represented by a jellyfish logo — an invertebrate (without a backbone). If they don’t like the jellyfish, they might try the snail, an invertebrate that lives in a shell, shielded from all facts.

Ted Essinger, Durham

NC vaccines

Dr. Mandy Cohen, Secretary of the N.C. DHHS, claims to “follow the science,” yet she has elected to prioritize teachers in the vaccine line. Is a 24-year-old teacher more vulnerable than a 60-year-old cashier at Food Lion? The only determinant should be age.

Actually, Cohen is following the politics.

Jeffrey Emanuel, Raleigh

Mark Martin

There is an open secret in this country that prominent white men often are not held accountable for the questionable things they do and rarely have to explain their actions. A recent example of this is Mark Martin, former chief justice of the N.C. Supreme Court.

There was no good faith legal argument that Donald Trump was re-elected or that Vice President Mike Pence had the authority to keep him in office. But those two lies incited a mob to storm the Capitol.

Some Americans undoubtedly were persuaded upon hearing that Martin had advised Trump there was a constitutional basis for his lies. Yet, as so often happens when a prominent white man such as Martin engages in questionable professional conduct, other prominent white men circle the wagons and defend him, effectively immunizing him from public accountability.

This instinct erodes respect for law and ultimately the rule of law itself. The fact that Martin is a former chief justice should not excuse him. Rather, it is the reason we should hold him accountable.

James E. Coleman Jr.

Duke Law School