When
lifelong Republican and former Ronald Reagan aide Doug Elmets publicly
declared his support for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump, backlash was
swift. A longtime mentor called him up to ask: “‘Have you lost your
goddamn mind?’” Elmets recalled. There have damaged friendships, even
death threats. But there has been an outpouring of enthusiasm as well.
“I’ve heard from a lot of Republicans who appreciate that I’m speaking
out,” Elmets said. “Many people feel the way I do, that Donald Trump is
unhinged and totally unfit to be president.”
A small, but growing, number of
Republicans are turning their back on the party’s presidential nominee
and rallying around Clinton as the days tick down to the general
election. Earlier this week, Representative Richard Hanna of New York
broke with his party to become the first sitting Republican member of
Congress to announce
that he will vote for Clinton over Trump. Republican fundraiser Meg
Whitman came forward to say that she too will support Clinton—personally
and monetarily—in order to defeat Trump.
There may be more defections ahead.
“People are starting to panic,” said Ben Howe, a contributing editor at
the conservative website RedState who tweeted#ImWithHer
the day Ted Cruz dropped out of the race and effectively handed the
Republican nomination to Trump. “People want to make sure their voices
are heard in opposition to Trump before it’s too late,” Howe said. “It’s
becoming a Titanic situation, where everyone wants to grab a lifeboat.”
Republicans who can’t stand Trump face a
difficult choice. If they publicly denounce him and go so far as to say
they want Clinton to win, they risk retaliation from within the ranks
of their own party. If they stay silent, they will have to live with the
consequences and very likely their own guilty consciences. Elected
officials have taken to saying things that sound strange and
contradictory as a way of navigating that challenge. House Speaker Paul
Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have committed to
supporting Trump, though they have also attempted to distance themselves from him—weakly opposing offensive episodes of the candidate’s own making without actually disavowing Trump himself.
It’s a strategy that risks damaging the
credibility of anyone who pursues it—that is, if the credibility of
Republican leaders has not already been irrevocably damaged. “There’s no
way to lie down with somebody like Trump without getting fleas,” said
Max Boot, a former foreign-policy adviser to Marco Rubio, Mitt Romney,
and John McCain who has said he will vote for Clinton. “Being associated
with him, I think, will do long-term damage to the Republican Party and
to individual Republicans who have endorsed him.”
“The vast majority of Republicans in
elected office are weak-kneed,” Elmets said. “That includes Speaker Ryan
and Mitch McConnell, who are acting as if Donald Trump is simply an
out-of-control toddler rather than potentially the next president of the
United States.”
Conservative resistance to Trump, and
the mixed reaction of scorn and admiration it has provoked from within
the ranks of the Republican Party, is testament to the tumult on the
political right. There will always be partisans who don’t want to fall
in line behind their party’s presidential candidate. But the extent to
which prominent Republicans are condemning Trump, and making clear that
they would rather see Clinton win instead, is remarkable.
Read the full report at The Atlantic
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