A Statement to the Men in my Circles: Why I’m Never Voting Republican Again in My Lifetime

I haven’t been able to keep up on the InfoMullet in the last year as a series of transitions: employment, living location, and personal situation have unfolded. But I thought it was important to put this out, to make a statement and make my position clear before the final votes are cast. And although readable by a broad audience, this statement is specifically aimed at the men in my circles.

First, some disclaimers. I am not a Democrat, wouldn’t classify myself as liberal and have sometimes joked I wish to go the rest of my life never being mistaken as a progressive. I’ve registered in the Republican party more times than not, though mainly to be able to vote in Presidential primaries for individuals like John McCain and Mitt Romney who are considered anathema in the current GOP. For the last 20 years as my views have evolved I’ve identified as a Radical Moderate, and we define ourselves as being radical in the defense of individual liberty and a moderating force on the extreme political forces in our Republic. I am a believer in the potential of American exceptionalism, that our “best character emerges when we recommit to preserving–or expanding– our founding principle of freedom and equality for all. Where we have failed or continue to struggle is because we turn away from this principle[1].”

But over that time, I have also observed two growing risks to our Republic. First, that political parties have grown so large and powerful that they can bypass the explicit checks and balances of our Constitutional Republic and have become like two enduring lines warring for claims to the throne of a King. And second, that without explicit governing virtues embedded in the Constitution the individuals who come to lead these parties, and our Republic, exemplify characteristics anathema to the governing virtues as demonstrated by the best our Republic has offered in over 200 years: “the Prudence of Washington twice surrendering personal power to lawful authority. The Temperance of Lincoln who, even after the most bitter of partisan divides, proceeded with mercy towards all and malice towards none. The Justice of King articulated in his Dream a second statement of the Declaration’s founding principle. Finally, the Fortitude of Parks who declined to yield, either to unjust authority or the temptation of illiberalism, over not years but decades[1].”

I voted against Trump in 2016 and 2020, but this cycle, I’m not voting against Trump as much as I have decided to never again vote for the Republican party – and this statement explains why.

Because if you look at American history populist figures with strong cults of personality come and go. That’s just life in a political space of democracies and republics. Indeed, in both the Roman Republic and Celtic tribal confederations, the gravest charge one could make against a leader is that they desired to become king. For thousands of years western political history has been defined by the pressures and challenges of authoritarian leaning cults of personality – and the responses of the political system to those threats. What matters today in a political party is above all else, whether they can resist the lure of elevating one of their own with a cult of personality above all others and sustaining them there far beyond natural cycles of ebb and flow. And in this regard, over the last eight years, the Republican party has spectacularly failed in every aspect.

As men of the United States, we may be known by many things but I like to think our character, competence, conviction, courage, and obligation to the Constitution are among the best that could define us when we wished to be defined by our best. And though definitions of what these should be vary, they almost always are attached to the concept of self-reflection, self-improvement, self-determination, self-confidence, and the principle of self-governance. That among all the challenges we face now and will in the future: that we know what we do and do what we know, we always seek to better ourselves, we set our own paths, and we do so in a calm confidence sustained over time in pursuit of a Constitutional Republic.

The Republican party has failed that test of manhood.

I will not vote for the Republican party again in my lifetime because they lack character. We have watched as the most odious behavior of Trump not only went ignored but became increasingly common across the party. The party now reflects a caricature of masculinity at its grossest. One that elevates victimizing others over protecting them. Of fleeing fair fights while preferring to punch down. The Republican party today could no more stand up to a communist threat than they could stand up to the Stalinist who leads it.  Men accustomed to kneeling and subservience, as the party has under Trump, are not going to spring into virile action.

I will not vote for the Republican party again in my lifetime because they lack conviction.  The Republican party used to have a set of conservative principles, that regardless of whether one agreed or disagreed, defined what they stood for. But the Republican party today is a windchime clanging loudly on whatever breeze Trump breathes. And Trump has no principles beyond his own self-aggrandizement, which means Republican have no principles beyond praising the dear leader.  Some have made Faustian bargains, such as those who supported Trump in order to place a majority of conservative Justices on the Supreme Court and then sought to dispose of him. But the Devil always gets the better deal of Faust, and those who signed that bargain are now facing the consequences of allowing such time to pass that the Republican party now looks more like Trump than it does conservative ideals.

I will not vote for the Republican party again in my lifetime because they lack competence. Trump cannot show, so he must tell. Real men take accountability and delegate responsibility. Narcissist’s horde power and blame others when they inevitably fail due to self-sabotaging behaviors. Today’s Republicans have elevated boasting above professionalism, braggadocio above execution. Competence is a threat to Trump who needs to feel better at everything than anyone else. Competence in service to the Constitution is especially abhorrent to Republicans – as men of competent ability and principle who have stood up to Trump to push back against his crimes have not been praised but vilified. This has resulted in a Republican party incompetent in everything they do other than convincing others they can do everything. Men with reputations for competence drift away and distance themselves from public positions and offices, leaving only the grifters and charlatans behind to fill them. Those whose only competence is in self-promotion and kneeling before Trump, though that’s not praying they’re doing.

I will not vote for the Republican party again in my lifetime because they lack courage. Republicans know who Trump is and the dangers he presents. As time goes on and history emerges as a calmer water from the turbulent wake of day-to-day reporting, we confirm what we suspected, that Republican leaders holding positions of power (elected and appointed) have always known the risk Trump represents. But few if any had the courage to stand up to his behavior or acts. They were craven individuals who would admit his threat in private and then take action to extend or solidify his power in public. Those who stood up faced ostracization, purging, and exile. A man, once habituated to kneeling, does not suddenly straighten his spine when others around him have stood up.

I will not vote for the Republican party again in my lifetime because they failed their obligation to the Constitution. Every political official takes an oath of office, and the highest obligation by oath falls to the President, who swears to defend and protect the Constitution to the best of their ability. We’d suspected Trump had failed this oath, based on his own voice recorded and words he said himself dozens of times in private. But when Trump fiddled with TV channels while the Senate was sacked, he failed his oath in the most public manner. And when Republicans failed to impeach him thereafter, they failed their test. We can talk about sycophancy in the Democratic party – and certainly 10 years ago in the second term of President Obama if you asked me which party presented the greatest concern of falling for a cult of personality, it would’ve been the Democrats.  But at least now, today I can see within the Democratic party that they do not hold their manhood so cheap as to succumb to a cult of personality that they cannot remove their own President from the Presidential ballot when the risks of his inability to pursue his office become manifest. Risks that have been manifest in Trump for years now. Democrats continue to bicker and fight with independent thought and at least maintain the semblance of a diverse political party of competing interests versus the Republicans which have in totality become a party of serving one interest – that of former President Trump’s.

This is my statement. Why I will never vote Republican again in my lifetime. And I make it before the votes are known on the election next week. Let the chips fall where they may and if anyone wants to pick up the ball based on this statement, we’ll see how it works out for them.

“Factiones delendae sunt.”  

[1] RadicalModerates.com