Speak Out Now Republicans, Or You’ll Regret It
Going public with your
concerns about Trump is vital, and it could still make a difference.
Oct 30, 2024
I HAVE A QUESTION FOR FORMER Trump
administration officials, Republican electeds (and former electeds), business
leaders, and conservative writers and pundits who recognize Donald Trump for
the threat he is. Actually, it’s a question for anyone on the right who knows
what Trump’s re-election could mean for the country, for liberal democracy, and
for the world—and, who, in the face of this threat, has decided to maintain
either a posture of silence or both-sides-are-bad neutrality.
My question is this:
How are you going to feel if Trump
wins on Tuesday by an extremely narrow margin?
I suspect you’ll spend the next four
years holding your breath.
Because if Donald Trump does a tenth
of what he has promised—pulls the United States out of NATO, abandons Ukraine
and sides with Vladimir Putin, puts RFK Jr. and Elon Musk in charge of serious
parts of the American government, rounds up 15 million undocumented immigrants
into camps and deports them, seeks political retribution on those who opposed
his candidacy—I suspect you’ll come to regret your silence when you could have
made a difference.
I can see you holding up your hands to
show us how clean they are. Saying, “But I said Donald Trump
was a threat! I said I wouldn’t vote for him! What more do you
want from me?”
And I get that. I do. The problem is
that this moment demands more from all of us.
It demands clarity. And it demands
your leadership.
Over the course of your career you’ve
asked people to trust you. Either by voting for you, or listening to your
advice, or relying on your judgment and analysis.
So why is it suddenly a bridge too far
for you to tell everyone what you really believe?
I understand that this moment is hard.
Trump could win. Even if he doesn’t win, coming off the sidelines could
alienate you from career networks, business opportunities, or even friends and
family.
But being a leader means standing up
and telling the truth even when it’s hard, or costly, or scary. Especially when
it’s hard, or costly, or scary.
It’s still not too late. Every day,
more people are speaking out—people with reputations,
and reservations, but whose consciences won’t let them sit this one out.
You shouldn’t sit this one out,
either. You should not decide, after a career in leadership, that this time
you’d rather just be a spectator.
Maybe you think that adding your voice
wouldn’t matter to voters. After all, so few things seem to move the
needle. Well I’m here to tell you that it matters. It all matters.
Every little bit. You do not know who’s listening as the moment approaches to
cast their vote. You do not know who you might persuade at the eleventh hour.
And you do not know what the margin will be. If this election is decided by
9,000 votes in Pennsylvania—which is absolutely a real thing that could
happen—then every single input could be the tipping point.
I can’t see the future. I don’t know
if your endorsement would be the difference maker. Just like I don’t know what
price you would pay for speaking out more clearly.
What I do know is this: If you
abdicate the obligations of leadership in this moment and the thing you fear
comes to pass, you will regret having stood down when the country needed you to
stand up. You will regret it for all of your days.
MAYBE YOU ARE A RETIRED FOUR-STAR
GENERAL, or cabinet secretary, or someone who took a job as a political
appointee in the Trump administration and saw things that shocked your
conscience. And maybe you’ve told reporters about what you saw; or written about
it in a book. That’s not enough because books have a relatively small reach and
your words are mediated through paper. What’s needed is for you to look voters
in the eye and give them a direct warning about what a second Trump term might
mean. Especially now that you won’t be on the inside to try to protect the
country from him.
Maybe you’re a former Republican
president, or presidential nominee. Maybe you were once the leader of the party
Donald Trump has destroyed. I am sorry but the unpleasant fact is that you
cannot preserve your influence for some future GOP. This is actually the last moment
in which you have a chance to influence it. Your party, every bit as much as
your country, needs you. Right now.
Maybe you’ve led venerable
conservative publications. You’ve acted as a thought leader. Someone shaping
our political culture. But today you want to keep your hands clean by writing
in Edmund Burke on your ballot or some other nonsense protest candidate—as a
sign that you kept your purity. I understand this impulse. But
it’s wrong. You know that if yours was the single deciding vote, you’d vote for
Harris. So just say so. This isn’t an academic exercise and it’s not about
you.
Maybe you’re a billionaire, to whom
this country has given everything. Your wealth insulates you from the
consequences of the worst case Trump scenarios. And yet, you see Trump’s
transactional nature, his willingness to provide favor if you provide obedience,
and instead of standing up to Trump, you cower. This might seem like wisdom,
but it’s not actual safety. There will be more demands. The only way to
actually protect your business is for the rule of law to be victorious and
democracy to be stable.
FOR MONTHS, YOUR COUNTRYMEN have been
waiting for you to tell them the full, unvarnished truth about the danger you
believe Donald Trump presents. To tell everyday Americans the same words you
say in green rooms, at dinners, and in off-the-record conversations. You
haven’t gotten there yet, but you still can. Before you make your final
decision, think about Liz Cheney’s warning that some day Donald Trump will be
gone, but the choices we make today will be with us forever.
Choose honor. It’s the choice you’ve
made again and again in your professional lives. It would be a sin to stop
choosing it because of a mountebank like Donald Trump.
I want to tell you about some
Republicans who are already putting themselves on the line for democracy. They
don’t have security details, or staff, or budgets. They’re just regular people
who voted for Trump before, but refuse to support him again. They joined Republican Voters Against Trump to
get the word out to their friends and neighbors. A few of them have lost jobs.
Some of them have lost family. All of them have lost friends. None of them
regrets it.
They’ve put their faces on billboards across
the country. They’ve appeared in millions of dollars worth of paid ads running
in their own communities. They’ve taken part in text campaigns, spoken to
the media, knocked on doors, and traveled to swing states in the hopes of
making a difference.
If Kyle from
Alabama, or Jackie from Michigan, or Robert
from Pennsylvania, or Jim from
Wyoming can speak out, then so can the generals, politicians,
and thought leaders.
THE REASON I BELIEVE THAT every little
bit counts is because conservative-leaning voters say that to me all the time.
In swing-voter focus
groups, one thing I hear again and again is that voters are open to
hearing from the leaders who served under Trump, who were in the room with him.
The messenger is as important as the message, and these people are ready to
believe the words of a lifelong Republican or flag officer much more readily
than they’ll believe a Democrat telling them the same things.
So if you’re one of the small number
of people who can make a difference in this moment, the question is: What are
you going to do?
Courage is contagious. And I have one
last piece of advice: No one ever regrets doing the right thing.
You won’t regret it, either. So stand
up. Do the right thing. It’s our last chance.
