With his patriotic vote in the second impeachment trial of former President Trump, Sen. Richard Burr has freed himself from the yoke of Republican Party leadership. Now, he can freely vote and act his conscience.

Burr has faced criticism for votes and actions in the Senate that have looked consistently like simple obedience to party leadership. His votes have appeared to help enable the country's slide into autocracy. We have concluded that, at the very best, he has done little to stop or slow that slide.

Now, Burr has voted openly and unmistakably against the most visible driver of that slide.

We stand in gratitude.

We now ask that Burr continue to give his energy to public service for a while longer. The Big Lie faction of the GOP will not accept its rejection and just fade away. Trump will go on fomenting resentment, misinformation and violence. And we now know his followers are highly reactive and will commit violence in his name.

We propose Burr commit to use his position and invaluable knowledge to work against them, now and after his Senate retirement. We ask that he stay engaged and work together with other rational conservatives to create a new center-right conservative party. We ask that he help rescue the conservative narrative from insanity and give a political home to the more than 140,000 Republicans who have abandoned the party since January and countless more who are leaving every day.

Jamie Cheshire

Winston-Salem

The enemy of all: left

Liberals are not the enemy of conservatives. Most liberals have a deep love of Western civilization. Liberals have taught it at every university and celebrated its achievements throughout time. Liberals oppose hate speech, with the profile of, “I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.”

The left, on the other hand, labels any response to its dialogue as racist, homophobic, xenophobic or Islamaphobic — thereby making it hard for the world to believe that they have love for America when all that is heard is contempt.

Liberals have always wanted to protect sovereignty, borders and capitalism. Open borders would not sit well with liberals or conservatives.

The left would have problems as their voices are in class solidarity and not national solidarity.

Liberals believe that race is intrinsically significant; however, the left insists that if race were to be insignificant, it would therefore be racist. Left and liberal are not interchangeable — a fact often forgotten in the white papers and opinion columns of recent times.

Liberals intuitively understand that America has warts. Our imperfections and the ability to live with them is what make us great. The left is the enemy and if not defeated, Western/American civilization will be in great peril. Liberals and conservatives need to join this fight together.

Hil Cassell

Lewisville

Can't govern

After watching the Republicans refuse to hold former President Trump responsible for sending a mob to attack them, why should they be trusted with the filibuster?

Letting them have the filibuster will result in not being able to get anything done once again. It renders our government a joke.

The only thing of any substance accomplished in the last 40 years has been the Affordable Care Act and Republicans have spent a decade trying to kill it.

They shouldn’t be trusted with any role in government. They don’t want to govern and they don’t know how to govern.

Phillip Bent

Winston-Salem

A loaded gun

When there is a loaded gun in the house, there is a need to prevent children from gaining access to the gun.

Think of former President Trump as a loaded gun. There is a need to prevent misguided voters from gaining access to Trump as a candidate. We would hope that after all that has happened since the election, many fewer people would be inclined to want him in office. Similarly, we would hope that if a child discovered a loaded gun, he would not pick it up. Better to be safe than sorry.

This is why we must be assured that Trump can never again be on the ballot. And keep your guns locked up.

Tom Williams

Winston-Salem