U.S. Sen. Todd Young, R-Indiana, performed a service for his country, his party and his own soul the other day.

\On the day after former President Donald Trump’s trainwreck of a town hall on CNN, Young told reporters he does not want Trump to be the GOP’s candidate for the White House in 2024.

When the reporters asked Young why he opposed Trump’s renomination, the Indiana senator responded, “Where do I begin?”

Certainly, Trump’s CNN appearance gave Young many reasons to object to seeing the former reality TV star’s return to the Oval Office.

During his hour on the air, Trump said that he was okay with the United States defaulting on its debt payments—even though the bulk of the money involved is owed to the American people. He also said he didn’t care which side won in the Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. He excused the Jan. 6, 2021, mob attack on the U.S. Capitol and said he would pardon those who convicted of crimes involved in the coup attempt.

And just a day after a jury had found him liable of sexual abuse and defamation, he again gratuitously defamed the woman who sued him, possibly exposing himself to another lawsuit.

Many words describe Trump’s performance.

Honest, inspiring and statesman-like are not among those words.

Yet even though the former president continues to debase himself, his party and the great office he once held, remarkably few Republicans have been willing to speak the truth—that Donald Trump is unfit to be president.

That is what makes Young’s stand refreshing.

He expressed his opposition to the former president’s return to power clearly but with understated dignity.

Consider the way Young took issue with Trump’s stance on the Russia-Ukraine war.

“I think President Trump’s judgment is wrong in this case. President [Vladimir] Putin and his government have been engaged in war crimes. I don’t believe that’s disputed,” Young said.

In his quiet way, Young made a case not just for America’s continued support of Ukraine but also for something even larger.

The belief that the truth matters.

One of the most tragic things about Trump’s rise has been this country’s accompanying descent into a fury-filled national food fight in which fact and fantasy are supposed to bear equal weight and be accorded equal respect.

This descent has made it increasingly easy for Americans of all points of view to dismiss others’ right to disagree. Correspondingly, it also has made it increasingly difficult for us to live together as neighbors and fellow citizens.

I don’t know Todd Young that well, but, when I’ve been around him, I’ve sensed his profound uneasiness with this national dynamic.

He is a man conservative to his core, but his own convictions do not prevent him from treating those with differing beliefs with respect. He believes in a marketplace of ideas and has confidence that, on balance, the ideas to which he adheres will prevail if truth and falsehood are allowed to joust.

Making sure that truth and falsehood would have to joust is the philosophic underpinning of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the reason we protect free speech, a free press and freedom of conscience.

Young has taken oaths to support and defend the Constitution.

He’s a man who takes oaths seriously.

One of the most poignant episodes during Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election took place when a group of the former president’s followers cornered Young and tried to get the senator to back the coup attempt.

Young said he couldn’t do that.

“I took an oath,” he said to the Trump backers, feeling flooding his voice. “Do you understand what that means?”

I disagree with Todd Young on important issues.

But that’s okay.

That’s the way this system of self-government—this country—is supposed to work.

He trots out his ideas, others trot out theirs and, if the debate continues long enough, eventually the best idea wins.

That is, if all involved in the debate speak from a place of honest conviction.

Donald Trump doesn’t do that.

He has no more understanding of duty or moral responsibility than a tornado or a hurricane does.

That’s why he doesn’t belong back in the White House.

It’s not a question of ideology.

It’s a question of character.

That’s what Todd Young grasps—and why he took the stand he did./