If you are an independent who most often votes Republican or if you are a card-carrying Republican partisan, don’t vote for Republicans until sanity and decency returns to the party. Messrs. Boot and Taylor and Governor Whitman in their recent Op-Eds* were spot-on in their strategy to overcome the present malaise which has perverted and paralyzed American politics. And the same goes for Democratic leaning independents and loyal Democrats—don’t vote Republican period until the Trump diehards are defeated and sent packing.
This is the ONLY way to restore normal standards as a way of doing business and running our country. One of the overriding lessons for me during these tumultuous “Trump years” is that our democracy and constitutional government work only if elected and appointed officials are honest and respect the rule of law. All the checks and balances and the Constitution will not prevail if people refuse to honor them. Think about all the third world countries that have constitutions modeled on the U.S. or British examples that have failed.
Withholding our votes and refusing to support the present Republicans is also the only way to restore the Republican party to offer viable alternatives to those of the Democrats and others on the Left. This is an absolute requirement to ensure democratic government that works on behalf of all of its citizens. All sober-minded conservatives, Republicans and fellow travelers should understand the urgency to defeat the demagoguery and nihilism of present Republicans so that they can get on with pursuing their time-honored goals for smaller, more responsible government, free markets, minimal taxation and individual rights.
*See my October 12, 2021, post “Conversations With My Dogs,” potlatchga.com