NO on the SAVE ACT. Serve Maine, not Trump; remember the horsemen of Calumny

VOTE NO on the SAVE ACT. Please, Get off the Trump train now. In August 2016 you wrote an op ed about candidate Trump's unfitness for office and publicly disclosed that you'd written in the name of another GOP rather than vote for Trump. During his first term, you witnessed two impeachments and a succession of troubling violations of norms. You've also claimed to have been a friend of the late great John Lewis and have honored his birthday and posted a photo of yourself with him. John Lewis put his life on the line for civil rights. You've claimed to want dignity and equality, yet you refused to support the John Lewis Voting rights act. You've now stated that you do support the SAVE Act. The Save Act is Jim Crow Mark II. It is also a poll tax because of the cost of acquiring the necessary documents to prove citizenship. It will function as a voter suppression measure that targets married women, armed forces overseas, Americans living abroad, citizens who've never held a passport or drivers license. It is an unnecessary and damaging solution to a problem that does not exist. Voting by non citizens is vanishingly rare and is already illegal. You know this well. According to the Heritage foundation there have been only 68 instances of undocumented immigrants voting in the last 40 years: about 1.25 per year. Voter registration is already robust. Per the constitution, elections are administered by the states. This law is NOT NECESSARY. It also opposes the will of your constituents: Mainers have consistently voted to support fair and easy access to the polls. The debate will gin up xenophobia and anxiety about a problem that does not exist. You know that constituents should choose their representatives not the reverse. You all know that voter suppression is a far greater danger to our democracy than the invented chimera of non citizen voting. It is thus beyond disappointing that you support the Save Act-- it is a disgraceful partisan betrayal of those you should serve, a betrayal of the ideals of John Lewis, a betrayal of decency. And it is a bad use of the senate's time to schedule a public debate on a bill which is bound to fail. (That debate will no doubt be nasty and full of irresponsible rhetoric and false claims; it will gin up mistrust in elections and xenophobia). Please: Stop siding with xenophobia and injustice. History will be your judge. SAY NO TO THE SAVE ACT. Remember the 4 Horsemen of Calumny in Margaret Chase Smith's Declaration of Conscience Speech? Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear. She sought to oppose the reckless, unsubstantiated accusations of communist subversion being made by Senator Joseph McCarthy. The SAVE act is based on no less reckless and damaging allegations about voting by non-citizens. Yes, fear, ignorance, bigotry and smear-- this time about non existent non-citizen voter fraud. Just as fanciful as the red scare. Do you want your party to ride to victory on those horses of calumny?