Unlike cowardly Jeff Van Drew, the Democratic New Jersey congressman who’s reportedly defecting to the cultist party instead of defending the Constitution, most of the other House Democrats who hail from pro-Trump districts will stand tall for their country and vote to impeach.

Unlike Trump’s congressional GOP enablers, who are terrified of ticking off The Base, and who as a result have parked their principles where the sun don’t shine, Democrats with convictions and guts – Joe Cunningham of South Carolina, Ben McAdams of Utah, (most eloquently) Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, and many more – are signaling that some things in life are more important than short-term careerism.

Like, for instance, saving democracy.

Earlier today, for instance, McAdams – who eked out his ’18 win in a district that Trump carried two years earlier by seven points – told Utah reporters that it’s really quite simple: “The evidence, for me, is clear” that Trump sold out America and compromised our national security by soliciting foreign dirt on a domestic opponent via an attempted bribe. “My duty is to the Constitution and to my country…I cannot turn a blind eye.” Also today, Joe Cunningham, whose district Trump carried by 13 points, told a South Carolina paper: “At the end of the day, this is simple about the rule of law, whether we’re a country of laws or not, and what type of precedent we want to set for future presidents.”

But it was Elissa Slotkin – another freshman, victorious last year in a Michigan district that Trump won by seven points – who delivered the day’s most eloquent remarks. Slotkin, a former CIA officer (five other first-term Democratic women have intelligence or military backgrounds), has clearly assessed worst dangers than the Trumpists who’ve booed her at town halls since she first announced her support for an inquiry.

Indeed, they showed up today when she shared her decision to vote Yes on impeachment, waving IMPEACH SLOTKIN placards (on what grounds, pray tell?), but she didn’t seem interested in her re-election prospects. She had a higher purpose in mind, which she articulated at length in the Detroit Free Press. This was the gist:

“President Trump used the power of the presidency for his own benefit, to give himself some advantage in the very election that would determine whether he remained in office…As a former CIA officer, I believe this lies at the very heart of impeachable conduct. To my colleagues and constituents considering this vote, I think it is important to ask: Should we invite foreign help into our competitive political system? Is that something we should accept from this President, or any other?

“And if a President admits that he’s done it, and solicits additional help from even more capable foreign governments, then isn’t it our constitutional duty to provide a clear response to that abuse of power? Our democracy is in danger if this behavior becomes the new normal…

“Over the past few months, I’ve been told more times that I can count that the vote I’ll be casting this week will mark the end of my short political career. That may be.

“But in the national security world that I come from, we are trained to make hard calls on things, even if they are unpopular, if we believe the security of the country is at stake. There are some decisions in life that have to be made based on what you know in your bones is right. And this is one of those times.”

Those last two paragraphs…bingo.

Slotkin and other Trump-district Democrats could certainly vote No during the House floor climax on Wednesday, or they could find ways to abstain, without dooming the Articles of Impeachment. Instead, they’ve chosen to demonstrate, at some political risk, what patriotism is all about – a lesson, alas, that is lost on the corrupt and craven opposition.