However, it will get harder by the day. The president is already attempting to intimidate voters based on cynicism and fear. With his trademark sarcasm, he is gingerly assigning comical call signs to his opponents to turn off independent voters. Trump also wants middle-of-the-road Americans to be afraid to go a new direction. “If you don’t support me, you’re going to be so goddamn poor,” he bellowed at a campaign rally, suggesting economic ruin without him. It’s become a refrain. “You have no choice but to vote for me,” the president told another group of supporters, “because your 401(k), everything is going to be down the tubes. So whether you love me or hate me, you gotta vote for me.”
We can’t cave to Trump’s elementary logic that there’s “no choice” but to vote for him. He should be fired. And it’s time to take stock of our options for his replacement.
The Devil We Don’t Know
I cannot overstate the consequences of reelecting Donald Trump. I’ve seen the impact of his leadership on our government and country, up close and all too personal. The Trump administration is an unmitigated catastrophe, and the responsibility rests entirely at his feet, the predictable outcome of assigning organizational leadership to a man of weak morals. What is more regrettable is that his faults are amplifying our own. I believe firmly that whatever benefits we may have gained from individual Trump policies are vastly outweighed by the incalculable damage he has done to the fabric of our republic. I cannot yet say who will turn the ship, but four more years of Trump could very well sink it.
There is something else to consider about the next four years—how lucky we have been to avoid a monumental international crisis since Trump took office. We have not suffered a major attack against the United States or been forced to go to war, but it’s only a matter of time before that luck runs out. Those of you tempted to vote to reelect Donald Trump, despite the scandals and despite credible evidence of wrongdoing, might want to consider what could happen when that crisis comes. Do we want to keep our nuclear arsenal, and our nation’s military, under the stewardship of a man who ignores intelligence briefings, who puts his self-interest ahead of the country’s needs during international engagements, who enjoys the company of foreign thugs, who our enemies think is a fool they can manipulate, who has shunned our friends, whose credibility has been shattered, and who our national security leaders no longer trust? Consider it.
Fortunately, there are already candidates in the race who are more honorable than the current president and stable enough to handle the demands of the presidency. With luck, the field will widen to include other public figures who appeal to both sides of our polarized electorate. I will not endorse a particular person. Every voter needs to make up his or her own mind. We don’t know what the final ballot will look like, which will impact every man’s and woman’s considerations, but the essential point is that we cannot be afraid to make a change.
Even still, the choice will not be easy for my fellow Republicans. The race is likely to come down to two candidates. Republicans will face a trade-off: “Pick the devil I know, Donald Trump, whose views align more closely with mine but whose moral code is visibly compromised. Or pick the devil I don’t, a Democrat, who will fight for policies I disagree with but is probably a more decent person.” Last time around, ideology tipped the balance over temperament. A semi-Republican Trump was better than a hardcore-Democrat Clinton, the thinking went. This time Republican voters should reconsider their math.
I’m not saying it’s desirable for our party to lose the White House. Most Republicans won’t support the Democratic alternative to Trump, but if the other side does win, Republicans shouldn’t be fearful of becoming the “opposition party.” It’s easier to fix mistakes wrought by bad policies than those wrought by bad people. Conservatives generally respected former president Obama as a family man but despised his agenda. In the end, a number of his initiatives were reversed as easily as the executive orders it took to establish them. Trump, on the other hand, has done far more damage because of his true nature. His innate flaws are the dark side of his legacy. They have cut to the core of our political institutions and civic life with long-lasting effects. We’d be better off as a party opposing the agenda of a weak president from the outside than apologizing for one from within. Besides, the last time Republicans were in the opposition, the GOP got pretty damn good at it.
Nevertheless, the counterargument to my point will be strong if the Democratic Party nominates someone deeply out of touch with mainstream America. Then everything changes. If it’s one of the Democratic candidates preaching “socialism,” Trump’s fearmongering will still be persuasive. Republicans will argue that the other candidate, as president, would attack our free-market principles, tax us into economic recession, promote a thought-police culture of political correctness, fan the flames of identity politics, and bring government into our lives like never before. It will be a repeat of 2016. Compared to the leftward-lurching Democratic Party, Trump will seem friendlier to conservative ideals. Discussions about qualifications will give way to emotion and fear, and Trump’s reelection chances will rise.
Democrats reading this book know how high the stakes are. I implore you, if you want a majority of our nation to reject Donald Trump, you must show wisdom and restraint in selecting your party’s nominee. Resist the temptation to swerve away from the mainstream. Trust me. We flirted with extremes in the GOP during the last cycle, and look where it got us. If Democrats do the same, Trump will be that much closer to a second term and better equipped to convince Americans to stick with him. If, however, you nominate someone who campaigns on unity instead of ideological purity, you will have a sizable number of Republicans and independents ready to make common cause.
Trump or an unnamed Democrat are not our only options. If we had courage, the Republican Party would seriously consider replacing President Trump at the top of the ticket. I know firsthand that leading GOP officials would like to dump the president if there was a strong candidate willing to step forward. They talk about it behind closed doors. Many Republican senators and congressmen are itching for someone else, despite the fact that they pay homage in public to the current occupant of the Oval Office. Some former Republican officeholders have announced primary challenges to the president. More may throw their hats into the ring before this is published. These candidates have obvious shortcomings, but Republicans should ask themselves, are those shortcomings more numerous than those our commander in chief has displayed already? Not by a mile, which is why the alternatives to Trump should be taken seriously.
In the end, if the Republican Party refuses to stand up to the president, and if the Democratic Party cannot nominate a candidate that appeals to both sides of our divided society, then we are in dire need of a leader bold enough to break the two-party system. There is an opening for an independent candidate ready to put country before party. He or she should be a leader whose platform is America’s common ground, not one of the respective tribal camps in US politics. A credible third-party candidate will find support from silent Republicans eager for an alternative, Democrats uninspired by their field, and independents desperate to break free of this mess.
Americans worried about a second term of Donald Trump have another choice on Election Day I’ve not yet mentioned. There is one final option for preventing him from wreaking havoc for another four years if he’s reelected. It’s an insurance policy, and it will be right in front of you when you step into the voting booth. Look down. Democracy’s next-best safeguard is the rest of the ballot.