In the Northern Virginia Daily today there appears a column of mine titled, “The Important Role Republican Leaders Can Play.” (The area in which this newspaper circulates votes roughly 70% Republican.)
Such comments about my piece as there have been online so far have been positive. Like this one that starts with a quotation from my column. I had written "Kinzinger told his fellow Republicans how his conservative values now require him to reject what his party has become. And required him, too, to support the Democratic nominee not as a Democrat but as a “patriot.” And then this reader responds, saying:
Bingo. A few on here cannot believe I am a longtime R but now will be voting D. So glad seeing I am far from alone in this and we are doing the right thing. Returning Trump to office would be something this country will never live down.
I then felt encouraged to add to what I’d said in my piece, about how Republican leaders can play a vital role in this election, by encouraging their fellow Republicans to put nation ahead of party in this election, because the survival of American democracy and the Constitution is what’s at stake in keeping Trump out of the presidency.
So I posted this:
“I start writing my columns here far enough in advance that when they appear in the paper they're often not especially geared to the news of the moment. But with this one I lucked out: this is the week that should point everyone's attention to the need for many lifelong Republicans to put nation ahead of Party.
“A couple of days ago, the legal brief (required by the Trump-serving Supreme Court immunity decision) from the Special Prosecutor laid out new details regarding the crimes that Donald Trump committed in his effort to seize power against the will of the people, overturning the 2020 Election-- which was a direct assault on the Constitution, and crimes our Founders would have considered even more serious than murder.
“Then yesterday, there was an important political event in Ripon, Wisconsin, "the birthplace of the Republican Party." The event had been created as a way for Liz Cheney to maximize her impact on the electorate by appearing with Kamala Harris, talking about the danger to the America we all love represented by Donald Trump, and throwing her enthusiastic support behind Kamala Harris. All because the defense of the Constitution -- which Trump is explicitly threatening in his present campaign -- is far more important than the things that American conservatives and American liberals disagree about.
“(It was Liz Cheney who brought in what we learned from the Court filing: it was she, not the candidate, who told the story we have just heard about how Trump replied to the news that his Vice President (Mike Pence) was in danger from the mob that Trump had summoned, by saying "So what?" And then she brought in the powerful word "depravity" as an apt description of the character that President on 1-6-21 manifested when he provoked a mob to chant "Hang Mike Pence" just because Pence put his oath of office, and his fidelity to the Constitution, ahead of his President's demand that he commit crimes to help Trump with his coup.)
“It would be good if -- between now and election day -- there would be a succession of major Republican leaders coming forward and creating a drumbeat to reach potential Trump voters and give them permission and encouragement to vote the way generations of patriotic Americans would want them to vote: for the only candidate -- Kamala Harris -- who stands for the preservation of the long-standing heart of America: democracy, the rule of law, the will of the people.
“If I could orchestrate it, all those big guns -- like George W. Bush and Mitt Romney -- who have failed to rise to the occasion like Liz Cheney -- would appear one at a time, each with his own big event, like Liz Cheney just did at the Birthplace of the Party of Lincoln that has devolved into the Party of Trump.
“A number of commentators -- mostly former Republicans -- have been mystified and upset at how rare integrity and courage have been among the Republicans who understand how destructive of American values a Trump victory would be, but who are not stepping up to the microphones to make what contribution they can to this epic, existential battle for the soul of America that this presidential election represents.
“The election looks close. Everything we Americans hold sacred is at stake. Yet those Republicans like Liz Cheney remain the exceptions among leaders who clearly understand how UNFIT Trump is to be president who are doing what they can to protect our country at a dangerous moment.”