For more than 40 years, I never voted a straight-party ballot. I leaned Republican and voted mostly for Republican candidates, but never straight-party, until last week. For the first time ever, I voted straight – DEMOCRAT.
Donald Trump asked me to. He said, “pretend I’m on the ballot,” and I did. I voted as if every Republican who has not stood up for democracy, the Constitution, or me, was asking for another vote of confidence in Donald J. Trump.
Why would I reward a party that has repeatedly confirmed that holding onto power is more important than the principles they once claimed to defend? Why would I vote for someone who is less willing to stand up TO Donald Trump than to stand up FOR me? How do I justify support for anyone who cannot distinguish between public service and personal devotion?
If a candidate really wanted my vote, they would have figured out that doing their job is more important than keeping their job. They would have owned their responsibility to stop this nonsense.
I’m tired of the lies, the excuses, and the endless explanations for why something that was obviously wrong yesterday is suddenly brilliant today.
I’m tired of hearing about Joe Biden, who this entire administration still blames for everything short of the weather. Quit it!!! Biden has been gone for 600+ days. Take some responsibility.
I’ve had it with the cruelty, name-calling, bullying, and threats directed at anyone who dares to disagree. I’m especially tired of watching so-called leaders exhibit behavior my kids outgrew by second grade.
Our president wants to be on the ballot, but he exhausts us with an endless supply of A.I. manufactured videos and memes, depicting himself as a super-hero, a king, a messiah, a pope, a fighter pilot, a tiger tamer, and more. How can this NOT be embarrassing??
I detest the idea that the law and the Constitution apply to everyone except the people who claim to be defending them. When one presidential decision after another ends up in court, followed by appeals, counterappeals, and more appeals, who’s paying for this legal circus? One guess.
I’m tired of the groveling. Let me ask, who among you could stomach a job where you had to constantly debase yourself, fawning over your boss and sucking up, to keep from getting fired? And most get fired anyway, eventually.
The endless bragging and self-congratulation exhaust me. We constantly hear that everything is the greatest, the biggest, the most beautiful, the most historic, the smartest, the most successful, the likes of which we have never seen. Do big, strong men really approach Donald Trump regularly with tears running down their faces? And why is Trump describing the bodies of so many “big, strong, good looking” men now at his rallies? Ick.
We keep renaming everything. Tired yet? With war raging and soldiers dying, inflation rising, and Americans struggling to buy food, gas, insurance and everything, do we really need to rename buildings, lakes, oceans, and whatever? Do we need to drape the president’s picture on buildings all over town, or threaten to tear down buildings that don’t allow the president’s name on the façade? Most presidents hope history remembers them. Trump wants to slap his name on everything before he leaves because no one else will.
Foreign policy? As America’s standing with traditional allies deteriorates, Mr. Trump seems to view the world as one giant Monopoly board and once he collects Canada, Greenland, and Cuba, he’ll have a nice complement to Marvin Gardens.
And does your embarrassment match mine when you hear about the love affairs between our president and Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un. With Trump on the ballot, I was influenced by our new willingness to treat authoritarian leaders with deference while lecturing democratic allies about their shortcomings.
We have turned our backs on Ukraine and Trump has called for Volodymyr Zelenskyy to step aside, while treating Putin, the man who started this war five years ago, as our ally. Trump’s team calls Putin a humanitarian, hours before he launches more missiles at civilian targets in Ukraine. And now we’re planning to negotiate a settlement in a meeting between Trump, Putin, and Xi, of China, but not Zelenskyy. Really?
We’ve started our own war now. Are you distracted yet from the three million remaining unreleased Epstein files yet, which were ordered released a year or two ago?
And at home, the news of ICE is exhaustive. Who would not run when vehicles are being rammed by unmarked vehicles, and people are being shot by non-uniformed, masked agents? Republicans are silent. Or they respond by changing the subject, attacking the questioner, or insisting that the president must be right because he is the president. We’re looking for the “worst of the worst” in the folks lining up at Home Depot for daywork. And we keep shooting.
Republicans once campaigned for limited government, fiscal responsibility, individual liberty, and the rule of law. Those were principles I respected and voted for. I want that Republican Party back. But I cannot support a candidate who knows better but remains silent because showing a backbone might cost MAGA votes. Silence is their choice, I vote accordingly.
My vote last week was not an endorsement of Democrats’ policies. Instead, it was a rejection of what today’s Republicans have come to tolerate, defend, and even celebrate. Want a sample? Check out Vivek Ramaswamy’s recent campaign ad in Ohio – but also look at the disturbing family history behind it. Trump loves the ad that everyone else condemns – Really? Is this who we have become?
Donald Trump asked me to pretend he’s on the ballot. I did and it felt good. Don’t forget to vote.
Curt MacRae is a resident of Coldwater, MI and publishes opinion columns regularly.
To be notified by email when a column is published, or to offer feedback: rantsbymac@gmail.com
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