- 03 Nov 2024
Late Halloween night, without any advance notice, Donald Trump suddenly sent an urgent message to George W. Bush, Mitt Romney and every patriotic, stalwart Republican Party loyalist. Including, perhaps you. He made the most compelling argument yet that they must come back — just once more — to lead Republicans to take the only option left for them to assure they have done all they can to make America great again. Trump’s message came late into his third event on the last Thursday of his long campaign. Sitting on a stage in Glendale, Arizona, Trump went out of his way to make it clear to the Grand Old Party’s loyal leaders and followers that he is no longer the leader you thought he was or hoped he’d be. And, quite clearly, you knew he’s no longer going to be the leader who can Make America Great Again.
Trump bizarrely indulged himself in his version of a vengeful attack politics fantasy. He asked his rally audience and a world of news screen watchers to imagine his most determined political nemesis, Liz Cheney, imperiled by wartime gunfire: “Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK? Let’s see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face.”
Think about it. America’s 45th president was talking about guns shooting the face of the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, whose office was just down the hall from the Oval Office of America’s 43rd president, George W. Bush. Trump had a point he wanted to make about Liz Cheney — one that would have brought nods of approval from all of the Vietnam War era’s most liberal antiwar doves. And indeed, Trump began by making that point clearly: “She’s a radical war hawk.” But, as he sat alongside his batting practice lobbing interviewer and fawning friend, Tucker Carlson, Trump went on to envision his nemesis facing a barrage of gunfire. It was a moment unlike anything ever seen or heard in presidential campaigning.
Eventually, Trump ended his horrific scenario and got back to his point: “You know, they’re all war hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building, saying, ‘Oh, gee, well, let’s send, let’s send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy.’” Liz Cheney, a staunch conservative Republican who took her father’s seat as Wyoming’s member of Congress, was defeated after her leading role in the House’s impeachments of Trump. But now is the time for America’s most famous Republican figures to think through the full implications of the vote they will be casting Tuesday. Do they believe, as so many of Trump’s former military and national security leaders do, that Trump will be a clear and president danger to our security if he returns to the Oval Office? Do they believe that it is the duty of America’s famous Republicans to prevent a Trump victory next Tuesday no matter what?
Dick Cheney and daughter Liz have said they believe it is their duty to cast the only vote that will prevent a Trump victory — by voting for the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris. But Mitt Romney, the defeated 2012 Republican Party presidential candidate who is retiring as Utah’s senator this year, won’t go quite that far. Romney says he cannot and will not vote for Trump for president – but won’t vote for Harris either. Like many other Republicans who cannot bring themselves to vote for a Democrat, Romney will write in the name of someone who cannot and will not become president. He and many others will be throwing away their vote by casting a wasted feel-good vote. That’s a shame because they are really better and more patriotic than that. And they need to do all they can to assure that something they know is the worst possible outcome — a return of a President Trump who will endanger our nation — doesn’t happen.
Former President George W. Bush knows everything that Mitt Romney knows about the danger a Trump victory portends. (Indeed, Bush knows everything Dick Cheney and Liz Cheney know — that a write-in vote is a throw-away vote. A throw-away vote, and thus not the ultimate patriotic ballot they should be casting.) But Bush has declined to say anything about how he will vote or what he recommends to all who once put their faith in his leadership. (One of Bush’s daughters, Barbara, just announced she’ll vote for Harris.)
But Republican leaders and just plain voters have seen and heard enough. The time for silences and subtleties is past. America needs its former Republican leaders to return to lead — just once more. And don’t just say no to Trump. Tell your followers to cast their secret ballot that makes sure you have done your patriotic duty to make that “no” happen.
