Unworthy of Being Our President
Susan Collins
Today’s Washington Post contains an Op Ed written by US Senator and Maine Republican Susan Collins explaining why, as a lifelong member of the GOP, she will not be voting for Trump in November.
Collins is a member of a vanishing species, the Moderate Republican (MR).
A sign of a MR is their preference for keeping religion out of politics which sets them at strong odds with those who have taken over the party.
Ironically, it was the least moderate of Republicans, Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, who succinctly explained the problem:
“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise. I know, I’ve tried to deal with them.”
In another note of irony, Collins has in Trump a Republican who could care less about religion, has flip-flopped on issues central to the overtly religious, but has still tapped into their cataclysmic worldview.
The Usual Suspects
Senator Collins’ reasons are well arrived at and are anchored in the precept that everyone should be treated with respect, an idea which entirely escapes Trump and many of his followers.
She recites Trump’s mocking a reporter with disabilities, his racist comments about Judge Curiel and his treatment of the family of Captain Khan as specific instances of Trump’s lack of presidential temperament.
Her conclusion: “he opts to mock the vulnerable and inflame prejudices by attacking ethnic and religious minorities.”
On Discontent
Collins writes, “Trump’s success reflects profound discontent in this country…”
Discontent perhaps, but it’s a lot more than that.
Any other Republican candidate theoretically offered policies designed to obviate economic distress.
Only Donald Trump sexed his up with a large dose of hate.
Many Trump supporters revel, rejoice, even, in his hateful comments, enthusiastically supporting him in all three of the instances Collins cites above.
Trump’s hate and withering disrespect for others is his central feature.
The Republican party has become a rat’s nest of racist and bigoted Americans who freely use their religion as the reason to push an agenda of intolerance and hate.
It is a tragic fact that the party of Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower has come to this.