Where is the outrage?
My vote goes to candidates whom I respect and trust. While I lean Democratic, I have voted for Republicans when I believed that they were the better candidate. For example, I voted for Vermont Gov. Phil Scott several times. No more.
It disgusts me that Republicans stand by and allow the Trump administration to run unchecked over our democracy and our citizenry. It is not enough to say, “I didn’t vote for Trump.”
We need to hear loud protests, from Republicans, every time Trump openly enriches himself, his family, and his billionaire friends at taxpayer expense. We need to hear loud protests, from Republicans, every time Trump’s Department of Justice goes after political opponents and journalists who criticize the president. We need to hear loud protests, from Republicans, every time ICE agents gun down innocent, law-abiding people because their skin is dark. We need to hear loud protests, from Republicans, every time states ridiculously re-draw voting districts to disenfranchise voters of color or of opposing parties. We need to hear loud protests, from Republicans, every time Trump publicly lies or speaks disparagingly of anyone — judges, reporters, legislators — and incites his followers to violence.
The Republican Party used to be a respectable, politically conservative option for voters. Now it stands for lying, cheating, voter-suppression, and corruption. Under a Republican-controlled Executive, Legislative, and Judicial-branch government, we have gone from a world superpower to a pariah state that no one, except possibly Russia and Israel, can count on. We commit war crimes and genocide with our tax dollars, while cutting healthcare and food assistance for people in need. Our government deliberately attacks states that voted Democratic, illegally withholding from them money that Congress has approved. The Senate has installed the most unqualified candidates in history for important government positions. Like the cognitively impaired Sen. Mitch McConnell, Republicans in Congress seem unable to speak. They are puppets who vote however the puppeteer tells them to.
Until Republicans of integrity — think of people like John McCain, Olympia Snowe, George H.W. Bush, Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney, and Phil Scott — take back their party and work again for decency, civility, and democracy, I will not vote for any Republican at any level of government. That’s a pledge responsible Republicans should make, as well.