Repugnant

Why Republicans Shouldn't Vote for Trump

Donald Trump is repugnant. He should be nowhere near as close to the Oval Office as he is.

It’s one thing if you are a principled Republican. You can agree or disagree with ideas and policy positions. You can weigh the various pros and cons of what should be done. You may even trust where the Republican Party as a group is over the alternative Democrats.

It’s another thing entirely to be so bereft of a moral compass to blindly follow someone who makes a mockery of those same principles, or any principle for that matter.

So today, I want to talk specifically to those Republicans out there supporting Trump. Believe it or not, I get you. I grew up in a Republican household. I find a lot of what the most liberal activist Democrats do stupid, counterproductive and off putting. I prefer simple broadstrokes in public policy and not these intracately crafted, overly nuanced, academic driven sweeping changes that upend everything. I support small businesses, and want to see entrepreneurship and decency in the public square.

That said, if you believe in any of those things, Trump is the furthest thing from Republicanism you can find. He’s a nihilist, pure and simple. If you want to be even more on point, as we’ve heard from those who worked for him in his first term, he’s “Fascist-friendly, or “Fascist-adjacent” if not an outright Fascist wannabe. Reagan is rolling in his grave at the mere thought that this is what the GOP has become. We didn’t win WWII and defeat the Nazis only to have those sympathetic to the Nazi cause win a U.S. Election.

“But he’s one of us!” you may say. He’s a silver spoon dandy, gold toilet using nepo-baby who grew up on Fifth Avenue and wouldn’t want to spend a minute with you if he had the choice. He looks at you and thinks you’re a bumpkin and a loser. He thinks you supporting him is the biggest con job he’s ever been able to pull; considering he’s had dozens of them including Trump University, Trump Vodka, Trump Watches, Trump Bibles and Trump steaks, that says a lot.

“But taxes!” many will argue. What about them? They’re at the lowest they’ve been for a long time. Trump wants to actually RAISE them by putting tarriffs on foreign goods. Not only is that dumb (raising taxes) it’ll result in shifting costs to consumers sparking inflation. Again, don’t take my word for it, every economist in America thinks it’s a horrible idea. Here’s Republican economist Bart Starr, Jr. (yes, he is the son of famed Packer QB, Bart Starr) talking about how Trump’s proposals suck and how the economy tends to do better under Democratic stewardship.

“But Kamala!” some would point and scream. “She and the Democrats are SOCIALIST COMMUNISTS!” Aside from the fact she and the Democrats adhere to the current American political center of gravity, which is nowhere near communism, she and the Democrats believe deeply in the Constitution and the idea that four years from now they’ll get another chance, just as the framers intended (ORIGINALISM!). With Trump, there is no such confidence. He’s flat out said that he would use the Justice Department to go after political opponents. He’s described how he would make it difficult if not impossible for opposition to organize, get on the ballot and campaign against him in any meaningful way. He’s told American military officials to shoot protesters in the leg, and even suggested they could go in and seize ballot boxes and counting machines in areas that vote against him. Part of his plan for post-election/pre-Electoral College period is supplanting the will of the voters with slates of Electoral Votes pushed by state legislators in Republican controlled states. If Trump wins, we may never have a fair election ever again.

Trump’s fawning over the world’s authoritarian mob is something to regurgitate to, not be enthralled by. He has a crush on America’s adversaries, and that’s putting it lightly. He would “make a deal’ to end the war in Ukraine, but make no mistake about what that means; he would sell out our ally to a dictator, and tried to do it before which got him impeached the first time. He pulled us out unilaterally from the Iran Nuclear Deal, and as a result Iran is now closer to a nuclear device; recent tensions in the Middle East and direct conflict with Israel is now closer than ever before. He’s marveled at how Gaza was prime real estate ready for development/gentrification (with a wink and a nod to Netanyahu), instead of one of the most densely populated, poorest areas on the planet. He wrote love letters to Kim Jong Un, and was the first President to hold a summit with the leader of North Korea, which amounted to nothing.

He’s pushed for eliminating NATO, the post-WWII world order THE UNITED STATES CREATED. He’s listened to foreign adversaries over the nation’s own intelligence services. He questioned whether we could use a nuclear weapon TO DISPERSE A HURRICANE. He offered to meet with the Taliban on 9/11 at Camp David. He negotiated a pull-out of Afghanistan, turning the country over to our enemies; Biden merely got the blame for adhering to the timetable it set.

Evangelical genuflection to the orange God-King is utterly perplexing. They do know he’s proudly broken every single one of the Ten Commandments in broad daylight, right? And that he shows no remorse or reflection in doing so, right? He has more in common with the anti-Christ in Revelations than he does any kind of savior that many are prone to propagandizing him as. As a model of morality, not only is Trump lacking, he’s a walking antithesis of it. What kind of man sleeps with a porn star and a playboy bunny in the next room from his pregnant wife? What kind of man runs a charity organization as a scam? What kind of man lies so casually and confidently about everything? Trump’s never read the Bible or cares what it says; the closest he comes is when he’s trying to sell one or he’s holding it up as a prop.

How horrendous is he? He has the gall to say the people on 1/6 weren’t armed, when he was specifically told the people at his rally were being turned away for carrying guns AND HE TOLD HIS STAFF TO GET RID OF THE MAGNETOMETERS INSTEAD. When his supporters invaded the Capitol, he watched in glee from the White House and when Pence called to tell him to make a message to stop the chaos, Trump’s reply was “Well Mike, I guess they are just more upset about [the election] than you are.” When protesters beat Capitol Hill police LIVE ON TELEVISION he did nothing. Cassidy Hutchinson and Stephanie Grisham, working in the Capitol that day, have told the world their stories of how Trump was on the side of the Insurrectionists against our own government. It wasn’t just an insurrection, it was AN ATTEMPTED COUP. It was an act so brazenly offensive, that none other than hardcore Republican stalwart Lynn Cheney, who had a 97% Conservative voting record (one of the largest at the time), and was a member of GOP leadership, and is in no way a shrinking flower or Democratic gadfly by any means, was so vocal in her criticism of Trump’s actions that she was kicked out of the party and is now supporting Kamala Harris, as has most everyone who has worked for him. Make no mistake, she is as conservative and Republican as they come, but she values America more and recognizes the unique threat that Trump is to our country.

In light of all those things, is anyone surprised Trump would fawn over Hitler and wish he had “Hitler’s generals?” Is there any shock at all that Trump would praise and admire history’s worst person of the past 100 years? To me the only shocking thing about it is how people aren’t sprinting to be as far away from this vile, contemptible person as humanly possible. I’m floored he’s as close to winning as he is.

But don’t take my word for it. EVERY person who has worked for him in his previous administration thinks he’s slime. His first Secretary of State left, calling him a “fucking moron.” His own former Chief of Staff, himself a Gold Star Parent having lost his own son in battle, had previously recalled how Trump at a WWII anniversary in Normandy once commented that the people who lost their lives on D-Day were “losers,” and that he didn’t understand “what was in it for them?” At another memorial, he refused to attend because of a rain shower. He doesn’t understand one of the most basic things about this country, that people love it, are willing to pay the ultimate price and give their lives for it, not just for the homeland but for the American way of life around the world. That democracy is worth protecting and savoring. That we can make the world a better place by our altruism and basic human decency. That we’re not perfect but we are always striving to bend that arc toward justice and opportunity for all.

So I ask all of you Republicans still considering voting for Trump. When you take a step back and look at all of this, do you really want to be associated with a person who works his hardest to appeal to the worst people among us? Do you want to be tied to someone who is not just wrong, but whose core being is so awful? If Democrats win, there will be an election in four years, you’ll have other opportunities to change course and vote Republican. However, it’s bad enough the odor of Trump has lasted this long around the Republican Party, but if the GOP holds their nose again and goes along with it again, then it will stick around and hold them back well into the next generation.

And infamy is a stench that doesn’t wash off.

PurpleAmerica’s Final Word on the Subject

You don’t have to vote for Harris, but you absolutely shouldn’t vote for Trump.

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