I urge citizens to vote blue in November. Yes, even Republicans. Voting for the party of Donald Trump now may bring about the end of meaningful voting; going blue to safeguard the country will allow conservatives and progressives to disagree civilly again in the future.
Donald Trump’s speech and behavior have been abhorrent. “I like people who weren’t captured.” His atrocious “Grab ‘em by” boast. Mocking a disabled person. Claiming “I know more than the generals.” Saying an American military cemetery in Paris was “filled with losers.”
Recently, Trump’s speech has taken an ominous turn. He’ll be a dictator “on day one.” He’ll authorize the military to quell protesters; he’ll build concentration camps for migrants; he derides “radical left thugs that live like vermin.” The similarity to the hate speech of the Third Reich is jarring.
After he clinched the Republican nomination, Trump purged the RNC of some 60 people and established a daughter-in-law as deputy; so much for any claim to RNC integrity. In any case, Republicans have rejected many opportunities to separate from Trump and his frightening ideas. On the contrary, as his rhetoric became more disturbing, their support appeared to increase.
On Jan. 6, 2021, horrified citizens watched a mob studded with Trump flags attack the Capitol. That appalling event could be repeated on a grander scale after November’s election. Trump has said he’ll be a dictator. Journalists have read Project 2025, a document detailing Trump’s plans to fill the federal government with loyalists and rearrange its structure to give him more power.
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham says (in a New York Times opinion piece by Peter Wehner), “Historically speaking, the forces now in control of the Republican Party represent the most significant threat to basic constitutionalism we’ve experienced since the Civil War.”
To defeat Trump definitively and permanently, vote Democratic on every level, including local races. Although I have no quarrel with many local Republican candidates, a party that refuses to confront the threat that is Trump must feel some pressure. It matters. We can return to lively debate when our nation is secure. Until it is, vote blue.
Margo Bartlett
Delaware
