Thoughts for Election Day
joker44
In the wind
“I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul by swearing allegiance to one whose character is that of a sottish, stupid, stubborn, worthless, brutish man.”
—Thomas Paine, “The American Crisis”
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"Elections, however, require a choice. You either own Trumpism, or make a temporary alliance to drive him from office. It’s hard for some conservatives (like me [Charlie Sykes]) to find ourselves allied with figures whose politics they have opposed for decades. But it has to be especially awful for the folks who know that another four years of Trump would be catastrophic, but cannot bring themselves to say so, or do anything about it. Thus the crankiness of the past week, as they come to grips with the reality that they have joined the ranks “of the coward angels, the company of those who were not rebels nor faithful to their God, but stood apart.”--Charlie Sykes, The Bulwark, August 14, 2020
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To those who supported George W. Bush with me and now support Donald Trump, I say: This is your choice. It’s not about who Donald Trump is, but about who you are. Does pledging your allegiance and support for this man actually make you feel better about yourself and the country? I don’t believe it. I refuse to believe that each of you are that shallow, that each of you have such a nihilistic view of public life that you can feel good about this choice.
Your support of Trump doesn’t make me angry. It makes me sad. Because it means you have bargained with yourself and decided that your values weren’t worth defending.
Donald Trump is going to lose. Republicans are going to lose the Senate. But defeat in politics is transitory. Shame is forever. I’m sorry. It didn’t have to be this way.
--Stuart Stevens, author of It Was All a Lie: How The Republican Party Became Donald Trump
PBS interview with Stevens: blob:https://player.pbs.org/c7565b12-f8c6-447…
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2 comments
@tahoecruz - I agree. I'm a pragmatic liberal but I've supported Republican candidates in the past.
Stevens would say that, even before Trump, Republicans had stopped believing in conservative principles even if they continued to make campaign speeches about them. They'd become the party of obstruction, grievance & racial animus bent on retaining power even if they had to suppress votes or gerrymander to maintain control. Trump just finished the job.