I get it.
You voted for Trump even though you didn’t like him. Doubted his character. Questioned his fitness for the job. Yet, your aversion to Hillary was even greater, and in the end you voted Republican like you always do, hoping that Trump would rise to the moment. That was then, but this is now. You were right, and you were wrong. Your doubts proved correct while your hopes have been woefully dashed. He is who he is.
Whether Hillary deserved your scorn is another question, but your grudging vote for Trump has led America to the brink. Dare to remove your partisan glasses, and you will see that the emperor wears no clothes. Three and a half years have revealed how utterly unqualified and incompetent this reality television host turned out to be.
His persistent lying reveals his character; his narcissism–everything is about him–reveals his mental state; his failure to read his daily briefings and to listen to expert advice while flirting with conspiracy theories reveals his ignorance; the spiraling, out-of-control pandemic reveals his incompetence; and his race-baiting, white grievance response to the deaths of black people at the hands of the police reveals his inherent bigotry, which, if you look at his history, has been a constant.
At his core, Donald J Trump is a con man, and you were conned. But, my point is not to judge but to encourage a conversion. I’m inviting you to an altar call. There is redemption in righting a wrong.
The list below consists of life-long Republicans, like yourself; in fact, these are Republican leaders who have established their Republican bona fides as journalists, as politicians, and as political consultants of the highest order. They have made the decision, in this election cycle at least, to vote Democratic. It is often their rationale that the current Republican party of Trump needs to be vanquished and destroyed so that a reasonable, responsible, center-right party can reemerge. Like the proverbial Phoenix, they hope that a rejuvenated Republicanism can arise from the ashes. Along with these leading Republican thinkers, perhaps it is time to reconsider your allegiance to the party that once was the party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and Reagan but now has become the malign tool of Trump and Trumpism.
Steve Schmidt–campaign manager for John McCain’s presidential bid in 2008: Trump is the most wretched man to ever become President and his vile reign has cloaked America in a shared national misery.
George Conway–husband of Trump spokeswoman Kellyanne Conway: Trump’s behavior is conscienceless, showing utter disregard for the safety of others, consistent irresponsibility, callousness, cynicism and disrespect of other human beings. Contempt for truth and honesty, and for norms, rules and laws. A complete inability to feel remorse, or guilt.
George Will–conservative columnist and commentator: I believe that what this president has done to our culture, to our civic discourse … you cannot unring these bells and you cannot unsay what he has said, and you cannot change that he has now in a very short time made it seem normal for schoolboy taunts and obvious lies to be spun out in a constant stream. I think this will do more lasting damage than Richard Nixon’s surreptitious burglaries did.
Jennifer Rubin–author of “Right Turn” blog in the Washington Post: President Trump’s record of failure … is so damning that he will likely hold the distinction of being America’s worst president.
Max Boot–conservative columnist: Trump is running an openly racist campaign … everyone knows that what he is really defending is not “our freedom” or “our history,” as he said on Friday, but, rather, “white power” — the words uttered by a Trump supporter in a video that the president himself posted on Twitter and later deleted but did not disavow.
Charlie Sykes–long-time host of a conservative talk show in Milwaukee: Beyond the slogans, the grievances, the culture war, and the bottomless lust for adulation, he’s got no idea. We’ll hear a lot about monuments, antifa, caravans, judges, Hunter Biden, and socialism, but as far as his second term, there’s no plan.
Rick Wilson–media consultant to Republican candidates for governor, senator, and lesser offices: The Party of Lincoln is now the Party of Trump, a weak, cowardly, amoral, and faithless husk of a once-great party of ideas and leadership.
John Weaver–consultant to the McCain presidential campaigns and to the campaigns of Republican Governor John Kasich: When people tell you who they are, believe them. Donald Trump tells us, by deed and words, he is a racist, an authoritarian wannabe, a danger to our democracy. On this July 4th, he wants to divide our country, using the symbols and words of his fascist heroes.
David Brooks–NPR commentator and NY Times columnist: Right now we don’t have a real leader. We have Donald Trump, a man who can’t fathom empathy or express empathy, who can’t laugh or cry, love or be loved — a damaged narcissist who is unable to see the true existence of other human beings except insofar as they are good or bad for himself.
David Frum–speechwriter for President George W Bush: Perhaps the very darkness of the Trump experience can summon the nation to its senses and jolt Americans to a new politics of commonality, a new politics in which the Trump experience is remembered as the end of something bad, and not the beginning of something worse.
David Jolly–former Republican Congressman: This is a man who is well known for his misogyny, his equivocation and manipulation on matters of race and racial justice, a man largely unable to tell the truth or accept accountability, a man of little intellect, conviction or ideology who is often willing, and at times seemingly longing, to display his lack of temperament and fitness on the world stage.
This is far from a complete list of dedicated Republicans who understand the need to defeat Trump in November and to do so convincingly in order to restore honor, decency, and respectability–to say nothing of basic competency–to the presidency and to their party. I have little respect for Senator Lindsey Graham–he of the finger in the air to check which way the wind blows–but he was a truth teller before Trump was elected when he said, “If we don’t reject Trump, we [Republicans] will lose the moral authority to govern this great nation,” and he also said, “If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed … and we will deserve it.”
History will likely prove Graham to be correct–Trump has destroyed the Republican Party that once was a worthy partner in our two-party system. No need to make a knee-jerk decision, but start thinking the unthinkable. There’s plenty of time until the election to think it through. For the good of the country–if not the Republican Party–this may be the year for you to vote Democratic. Lightning won’t strike you down, but rays of sunshine may shine through.
