And now you guys must peer deep within yourselves and ask if your conscience will really let you tolerate this moral outrage in the name of border security. You need to speak up, because your president and his appointees (and his various “media” lackeys ) have already responded, resoundingly, that theirs will.

The action that has shocked the world and shamed this country — the ripping of terrified children from their parents at the border — is something you’ve enabled.

The president, naturally enough, is lying about the origination of a policy he approved and owns, pretending the administration is simply enforcing a law passed by Democrats. He was crying crocodile tears on Tuesday, claiming, “I don’t want children taken away from parents.”


What egregious rot. Trump is the president. If he didn’t want this, he could end the family separations with one phone call.

As The New York Times recently laid out, this is a policy that both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations had considered, before concluding it would be immoral. The Trump team has chosen the immoral route — and now hopes to muddy the story line. But the truth is simple: This is happening because this president wants it to happen.

In normal times, the public outrage we’ve already seen would compel a president to reverse this brutal policy. After all, two-thirds of Americans disapprove of it.

But not this heartless bunch; unmoved, Trump and company are simply digging in.

So it really is up to you, Trump supporters. All of you who have insisted that you voted for Trump reluctantly, because you simply couldn’t countenance Hillary Clinton and her errant e-mails; or because she called some Trump supporters “deplorables”; or because Barack Obama said the Affordable Care Act would let you keep your own doctor and that didn’t turn out to be true for everyone; or any of the other sundry reasons that supposedly left you no choice but to vote for a man whose dishonesty, demagoguery, and cruelty were on full and apparent display long before Election Day — this is your time.


By now, you should know the truth. This is your president’s doing. And if he sticks with it, the reason will be because he believes that, ultimately, you won’t abandon him, even over something this appalling.

Here’s the White House telephone number for commenters: 202-456-1111. If it rings busy, call the switchboard at 202-456-1414. Or send an e-mail at www.whitehouse.gov/contact.

Call or write your president and protest. Tell him you voted for him once, but if this forced family separation continues, you won’t again.

It’s up to you.

And if you won’t? Well, then admit it.

This is not just on your president.

It’s on you, too.

Scot Lehigh can be reached at lehigh@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeScotLehigh.