Trump is the Problem, the GOP is the Problem

I am not a progressive. I am not a U.S.-style liberal.

Since 2016, I have written and spoken on the threat Donald Trump poses to the United States, starting with the very real likelihood that he could (and did) become president.

Trump is a threat to everything I value and treasure, from civil rights for all to conserving the resources of the planet.

My models for a president are Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower. For their personal values, Grant and Coolidge (a proponent of Grant’s racial equality policies). Those are Republicans from the past.

The GOP lost its heart and soul under Nixon. Ford tried to recover it.

If you haven’t watched Grant on History or read about Coolidge (now that more records have been studied), these men were pilloried by “Lost Cause” fanatics set on restoring the mythology of the “State’s Rights” explanation of the Civil War. Lies were planted about both, and remain part of the popular history.

What followed Richard Nixon’s Southern Strategy?

The GOP of Pete Wilson. The GOP of Steve King. The GOP of Donald Trump.

I will not surrender my values. My outdated beliefs. The platform of Ike, that supported good wages and the rights of workers. The platform of Grant, which called for universal adult suffrage.

I will not vote for a GOP candidate unwilling to renounce the last 50 years. And we know that won’t happen.

My values are firm. I study economics, philosophy, and rhetoric. I’m not an armchair critic – I earned a Ph.D., MFA, and MA writing about disability, rhetoric, and economics.

Economic historian and LGBTQ+ advocate Deirdre McCloskey is my intellectual inspiration, alongside the libertarian-left thinkers Peter Vallentyne, Philippe Van Parijs, and Michael Otsuka. (People cannot “own” natural resources, but can and do “own” their sovereignty. A return to John Stuart Mill – who is embraced by conservatives who overlook he supported socialists.)

I will work with and support those trying to change laws and policies that protect police. I will work with anyone trying to stop the corporatism that Teddy Roosevelt fought. I will side with anyone convinced that Ike’s warning of a Military-Industrial Complex was right.

We don’t have to agree on everything. We have to agree that the United States is best when it shows that it can evolve and improve.