He’s going Blue.
My husband has always been socially liberal and fiscally moderate. He voted for Clinton. And he hated Trump from almost day one. Okay, like many Republican voters he thought, hmm, seems like a reality TV joke, Trump as president, but maybe a businessman has something valuable to say.
For me, my loathing of Trump started from day one. He spoke. I cringed. Not because of his party, because of him.
From the moment he mocked a disabled journalist.
If I have to justify why that’s “all it took” for me to hate him, well then, I can’t. You either understand decency — or you don’t.
I never had an (unsurmountable) issue with Republicans.
As a loyal Democrat, briefly an Independent after Bill Clinton lied and said “I did not have sex with that young woman.” (By today’s metric for decency that makes Bill a Boy Scout), of course I didn’t always agree with the GOP platform.
Opposing parties by default, engage in embattled across-the-aisle nasty take downs. It’s built into the DNA of politics to beat the other candidate into a pulp. To vilify, lie and deny at all costs. Mud-slinging is unfortunately, politician 101.
Before MAGA, Republicans were the “soulless” party of the rich, the pick yourself up by your boot straps and stop your whining party. The Dems were the bleeding heart irresponsible spenders, the party that supported “hand outs” and made excuses for the “lazy.”
Regardless, the core of decency and democracy across the aisle remained despite the vast difference of opinion for what makes America great.
Politicians reached across the aisle, if not begrudgingly, to get important bills signed. God knows they didn’t resort to childish insults like “Little Rubio” and allude to penis size during debates.
That my husband was a Republican never gave me agita. I knew why (business owner, stock trader, hated capital gains taxes), and I knew where his heart stood (pro choice, pro gay marriage, anti racism, equal rights, women’s rights, anti assault weapons).
Anyone who follows politics knows the essential differences between Republicans and MAGA.
The GOP is no longer grand, or the old party. It’s been hijacked and turned into a cult.
At this point in the election cycle, the probability of converting a MAGA voter, is as likely as Trump actually reading the Bible he so proudly hawks.
I repeatedly remind my husband, who for good reason regularly rails against Republicans for having zero back bone to stand up to Trump, that the fact is, not all Republican voters are MAGA.
The GOP is MAGA.
So we owe it to our non-MAGA Republican voters, especially the Never Trumpers (who re-instilled my faith in mankind) some respect.
To thank them, however hell of a long time it took, for putting country above party. For some Republicans, I hear, the last straw was the insurrection. It took them seven years too long, but at least they got there.
I hope this means they’ll hold their nose and vote Biden, vs a no-win third party, or not vote at all.
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Previously Published on Medium
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