Truth matters. Character matters. Liberty matters. And for these reasons, I’m a man without a party.
I left the GOP yesterday, at least, officially. I may have just changed my voter registration to nonpartisan, but I didn’t vote for Trump back in 2016.
It was obvious then he was power-hungry, racist, and misogynistic, and too often his statements were delusional or nonsensical blather. At the time, I thought, “Who in their right mind could vote for this guy?” But most people seemed to rely on the traditional partisan logic: it is better to have a conservative administration than a liberal administration, regardless of the figurehead. I couldn’t bring myself to vote for him because character matters, so I followed Brewster’s advice and selected none of the above.
In 2020, I couldn’t do that again. I had to vote against Trump because truth matters just as much as character. I had endured Trump’s mockery of the American Experiment long enough. I refused to be complicit in the election of a person who cares only about his own power.
I could not believe so many prominent Republicans were cowardly not challenging Trump after he repeatedly pursued his own interests at the cost of American interests abroad and domestic tranquility. He has been overtly corrupt. And people I respect looked the other way.
Then he lost his bid for re-election and began touting the delusion that he won. And people I respect didn’t just look the other way: they agreed with him! Trump’s own senior officials along with each State and myriad watchdog groups contradicted his delusion that he won the election or that it was rigged. Yet, people I would expect to denounce such behavior continued to parrot his ridiculous narrative.
On the morning of January 6, 2021, I was still gravely disappointed with Republicans, but it felt indifferent because Biden would be inaugurated in a couple weeks and life would get back to normal where I could dislike a president because of his policy choices and not because he was a villain. Then he sent a group of pawns to attack the Capitol.
During the siege, I went online and changed my Nevada voter registration to nonpartisan. Maybe I should have done it before. But later in the day (before Congress resumed their session), I felt that maybe I was too rash. I mean, I can’t stand Trump, what he does, how he does it, or how untouchable he appears, but if I’m not registered as a Republican, I can’t vote in the primary. I pondered.
Then I watched the Senators debate the objection to the Arizona electors. I felt like maybe, finally, the Republicans would have to denounce Trump. I listened to Senators Mitt Romney (R-UT) and Ben Sasse (R-NE) and began to feel like I had at least two allies in Washington. When the vote came, I felt disappointment, but it was only six senators to vote out of office (including one I voted for when I lived in Texas).
When the joint session resumed and Rep. Jodi Hice (R-GA) raised an objection to Georgia’s electors, I thought: “You’ve got to be kidding!” But then, when he confessed that no Senator signed the objection, there were applause in the House. I felt tears starting to well behind my eyes and I thought this is late, but at least there is a path forward. There is hope for the party.
The entire senate refused to support our home-grown wannabe dictator. When was the last time 100 senators united on anything? I felt proud. Twice more (Michigan and Nevada), when objections were raised by these Representatives who campaigned on Trump’s nonsensical, untruthful claims of victory, no senator would support the objection. Until Pennsylvania.
By the end of the proceeding, over 130 Republican House members (68%)—a supermajority of the House Republicans—and eight Republican senators had voted to throw out millions of legal votes in support of the pseudo strongman who had unleashed upon them an angry, delusional mob just a few hours before. Many of these Representatives were elected on the same ballots they were voting to toss out.
I’m beyond pleased that no one from Nevada voted to sustain either objection, but it is clear to me that I do not have a political party with which to align. When a supermajority of House Republicans vote to disenfranchise millions of voters and support a would-be-despot, that tells me what the GOP stands for right now. And it is clear that my freedom-loving self is no longer welcome there.
Is there no longer a party of liberty, of truth, of justice?
