For some time, I’ve been keeping this to myself, but I have to say it: The people at the top of Donald J. Trump’s MAGA Inc. are insulting Americans’ intelligence and risking the credibility of the party to lead.
Abraham Lincoln said, “If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never again regain their respect and esteem. It is true that you may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.”
Think about this for a moment: Republican Senate candidate and former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said last week when the jury was considering the evidence against the former president on charges of 34 counts of fraudulent records, “Regardless of the results, I urge all Americans to respect the verdict and the legal process.”
I thought that was a classy and adult display of fairness, in contrast to recent muck-wading.
The response from the Republican National Committee’s co-chair, Lara Trump (it’s a family business, now), “ As the RNC co-chair, I think he should have never said something like that. He doesn’t deserve the respect of anyone in the Republican Party at this point.”
Why not? Isn’t the rule of law the clarion call of the G-Maga-OP? Justice, law and order, the constitution, fairness?
Others joined the MAGA chorus — I hesitate to use the term Republicans because I don’t like to associate all of them with those who blindly follow Pied Pipers of cult. I was a Republican for 40 years because I share the values of personal responsibility, the rule of law and not loyalty to a king, democracy and representational government instead of chaos by committee, where everybody gets a trophy (or a government job).
But when I ran for public office, I learned that one is supposed to pay dues before they can seek office. Earn favors, prove loyalty not to the public at large, but to the party. It made me more determined to be non-partisan if elected. And I was.
Some Republicans — especially the most zealous party-liners, dismissed me as a RINO — Republican in Name Only.
I wore it as a badge of honor.
There was nothing in the oath of office Hogan took as governor to require him to serve only the Republican Party. Same with the oaths for county commissioner, or anyone sworn in as a mayor, town council member, delegate or state senator.
Federal candidates have become more and more marginalized over the past 20 years or so. Good, reasonable centrists who might lean a little to the liberal side, or to the conservative side, have been targeted by overly zealous partisans — mostly on the right — as demons.
Ironically, the same GOP soldiers who took up the sword and shields of Christian Soldiers against society’s slide into debauchery dedicate themselves to supporting liars, cheats, womanizers, warmongers and felons, in the name of God.
Fans of the MAGA candidate complain of the dangerous decline of law and order, but when asked what they’ll do if Trump is defeated at the polls or winds up being sentenced to prison, they wave war flags or allude to slogans that translate into a call for armed revolution.
So much for the constitutional construction of orderly succession of a government that can change without armed revolt.
Honorable and able Republicans, lawmakers and voters, are beginning to stand up to the MAGA radicals. Others are leaving, most choosing to register as independents, but are speaking out, as I did.
Dean Minnich writes from Westminster.
