Nicholas Johnson
Iowa City Press-Citizen, October 20, 2016, p. 7A
Iowa’s statewide and congressional elected officials — Gov. Terry Branstad, U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, and U.S. Reps. Rod Blum, David Young, and Steve King — are doing great harm to Iowa, themselves and a future Republican Party by continuing their endorsements of Donald Trump.
This is not a partisan, pro-Hillary Clinton judgment. I supported Sen. Bernie Sanders.
As a Democrat, I want to “make the Republican Party great again.” The evolution of a democracy's wise public policy requires the thorough consideration of alternatives that can only emerge from civil, cooperative — and yes, compromising — conversation between those whose differing opinions are grounded in agreed-upon facts.
I’m old enough to remember that Republican Party, and to long for its return. That day is only delayed by Republican officials who say, in effect, that Donald Trump’s actions and words represent their values.
Numerous Republican officials share my view.
The party’s highest ranked official (Speaker Paul Ryan), most recent presidents (George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush), and presidential candidates (Sen. John McCain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney) have refused to support Trump.
Now, they’ve been joined by over 50 leading Republicans — governors, U.S. senators and representatives — who either never did, or do not now, support him. Some think Trump should drop out. Some say they’ll vote for Hillary Clinton. Others merely say they can’t endorse or vote for him.
By early October, no major U.S. newspaper had endorsed Trump. Some conservative papers that have never endorsed a Democrat are supporting Hillary Clinton; others merely advise readers not to vote for Trump.
One can sympathize with Iowa’s Republican leaders. It’s not easy to reject one’s presidential nominee. But the cost of their supporting Trump far exceeds any benefit.
• That they supported Trump will forever be a large blot on their personal political legacy.Iowa’s Republican officials don’t need to drop their membership in the Republican Party, or announce they are voting for Hillary Clinton. They don’t need to publicly itemize the daily lengthening list of reasons why Trump is unsuited to be president.
• It will make it more difficult to rebuild a new, improved, responsible Republican Party in Iowa and the U.S., especially while Trump attacks Republican leaders.
• Trump’s stirring up even more divisiveness and polarization is a disservice. It brings out the worst in us, rather than our best. Iowa’s leaders are encouraging emulation of someone who deals in ridicule and mean-spirited disparagement of women, entire races, religions and ethnicities; war heroes, people with disabilities and Gold Star mothers.
• Iowans are proud of their reputation for “Iowa nice,” their welcoming of immigrant populations from around the world, their ethical and religious values — a culture diametrically opposed to what Trump represents.
• Iowans, like all Americans, want our state to be well thought of by others — especially those with ill-informed biases who think we’re just backwater, flyover country. Our leaders’ support for Trump only reinforces our critics' worst prejudices.
• We are trying to attract the best and the brightest to our state — faculty and students, leaders of large and small businesses, skilled workers and the creative class. We want to retain our first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses. Other states have lost business for being far less offensive than Trump.
What they do need to do, for their own sake and that of their constituents, is to join the impressive ranks of responsible Republicans who have announced they are neither endorsing nor voting for Donald Trump.
_______________
Nicholas Johnson is a former Iowa Democratic congressional primary candidate and Washington official. He blogs at FromDC2Iowa.blogspot.com.
[Oct. 21, 2016, approx. 8:30 p.m.]
Lynn Griebahn Jr.
you might want to read your own letter for some very obvious clues. The fact that so many republican leaders are not "endorsing or voting for Trump" is a clue. Many of these "republicans" are in essence Demoncrats. You want the Republican Party back that is liberal and leftist and that ain't gonna happen. All these leftists republicans can join the demoncratic party. I typed this real slow and in the dark so I would not disturb your sleep
[Oct. 22, 2:26 p.m.]
Lynn: Thank you for reading the column and posting a comment.
You say that I "want the Republican Party back that is liberal and leftist."
Here's a list of the Republican presidents since 1900: Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft (or his son, Robert A. Taft, Senator, Majority Leader, and presidential candidate), Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Iowa's own Herbert Hoover, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Ronald W. Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush.
I rather suspect that most, if not all, of them would be quite shocked that you consider them "liberal and leftist." And I also suspect that if they were still available for comment most to all of them would reject Donald Trump as an appropriate candidate for the Republican Party.
I am suggesting that we DO need a conservative voice in the fashioning of our laws and public policies -- but that we first need to agree on "facts" (as distinguished from opinions and ideology), and on the need for compromise.
What disturbs my sleep is not your rapid or slow typing in the dark, it is the prospect of Donald Trump (whom I do not consider either a conservative or a Republican) keeping the rest of us in the dark from the Oval Office in the White House.
-- Nick
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