[Martin Schram] Ike, Reagan and Goldwater help bid your hand

After years of being a proud conservative Republican, you really weren’t happy when you realized some time ago that your patriotic party had somehow morphed into a hero-worshiping cult.

But “Make America Great Again” at least made it sound like it was still your kind of place. So you stayed. Even though the mean-spirited, name-calling, threats and lies of Trump Republicans wasn’t really your thing.

But in the last couple of weeks the Great News Funnel has been pouring all sorts of real and troubling news your way. You have seen Team Trump making unintended and unpatriotic news, erupting in blatant lies and claims about Vice President Kamala Harris.

Sometimes the lies that were told by Trump and/or his true believers put his fellow Americans in danger during storms by convincing people to ignore FEMA’s pleas. Sometimes Trump seemed to have somehow aged a decade since we saw him just the day before. It was just the sort of self-Bidenization that Trump surely didn’t need -- since the 78-year-old former president will officially become the oldest major party candidate in a US presidential election.

So, today, as a longtime loyal, patriotic conservative Republican, you are feeling downright discombobulated as you think about what you are going to do on behalf of your country, your family and your fellow Americans on Nov. 5.

The more you think about what you have seen Trump say and do in the past few weeks, the more you are convinced that America’s 45th president, whom you voted for twice, is no longer fit to serve as America’s commander-in-chief and chief executive. Dozens of former Trump administration officials now strongly oppose his return to the Oval Office. They say he is unfit and a danger to America’s and the world’s security.

Today, you are recalling the lowlights of what you have recently seen and heard from Trump and his allies. You remember when Hurricane Helene hit Florida, Georgia and western North Carolina, you saw Trump spreading the false accusation that the Biden administration’s Federal Emergency Management Agency had spent disaster relief money to help immigrants. He had to know that was false -- because disaster money comes from one fund in the Department of Homeland Security and migrant relief funds come from a separate fund. And they cannot be transferred.

Trump also spread lies that President Joe Biden and his disaster relief team weren’t being responsive to helping state officials in Republican-run states. And Republican officials in those states were quick to praise Biden and his team for excellent cooperation.

You saw Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, push lies that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating pet dogs and cats. Immigrants faced threats of violent retribution. Local Republicans quickly called Trump’s and Vance’s claims false.

Trump also pushed extensive and absolutely false claims that 13,099 convicted illegal immigrants who had committed murders were now on the loose in the United States. The Washington Post Fact Checker Glenn Kessler dismissed that as “outrageously false.” Indeed, the Libertarian research think tank Cato Institute said the Trump administration released more people who had criminal convictions or pending convictions than the Biden administration did.

You have seen Trump looking every day of his 78 years of age (indeed, he looks every day of Joe Biden’s 81 years). At the Economic Club of Chicago, an interviewer asked Trump: “Should Google be broken up?” Trump sighed and launched into a long answer about Biden’s Justice Department suing Virginia for trying to kick noncitizen voters off election rolls within 90 days of an election -- which is illegal.

The interviewer waited patiently, then noted: “The question was about Google, President Trump.”

Monday, at a rally in Oaks, Pennsylvania, Trump assured his crowd that everything will be fine “if everybody gets out and votes on January 5th.” After two people fainted in his audience, Trump called off his town hall Q&A and spent the next 39 minutes swaying and dancing to music he ordered his techs to play. But, while Trump loves to set rally records, he certainly wasn’t the first politician who ever gave people a song and dance.

So you know what you are really thinking today, as you rewind and rethink all you’ve seen in recent weeks. You are asking yourself if -- after years of being a loyal, patriotic, conservative Republican -- you have the personal and political grit to do what you know the Republicans you admire most in history would do if they’d been dealt the cards you’ve been dealt this fall. On Nov. 5, Ike, Reagan and Goldwater would join you in filling out your foursome as you play your Election Day hand at No Trump.

Martin Schram

Martin Schram, an op-ed columnist for Tribune News Service, is a veteran Washington journalist, author and TV documentary executive. The views expressed here are the writer's own. -- Ed.

(Tribune Content Agency)