IN MY OPINION: Because they fear for democracy, many Republicans will not vote for Trump

Many of us voted for Republican candidates for most of our adult lives. We stood for the time-tested ideals of fiscal and individual responsibility, a strong national defense, influential leadership in global affairs, and common-sense restrictions on abortion. With our votes, we defended freedom of religion and upheld the Second Amendment.

For the first time in the 248-year history of our nation, on Sept. 10, 2024, during a presidential debate, a Republican candidate adamantly refused to admit he lost an election, despite a clear defeat by millions of votes and over 60 failed court cases to attempt to litigate that loss.

Consider this contrast: In his first inaugural address, Republican President Ronald Reagan said, “The orderly transfer of authority as called for in the Constitution routinely takes place as it has for almost two centuries and few of us stop to think how unique we really are. In the eyes of many in the world, this every-four-year ceremony we accept as normal is nothing less than a miracle.”

The denial of this miracle by the current Republican candidate is the denial of the very foundation of democracy, the power of the people. This miracle is what makes America great—nothing else.

As if democracy denial wasn’t dark enough, this man’s crazed lust for complete power grew even darker during the debate. Without evidence and in the face of a direct fact-check to the contrary, the Republican candidate attempted to provoke mass fear by regurgitating a xenophobic and racist hoax about legal Haitian immigrants stealing and eating community members’ pets in Springfield, Ohio.

Elected officials and citizens there tell a very different tale: that these Haitian immigrants are hardworking and family-oriented people of faith, enthusiastically filling critical labor shortages and revitalizing what was, until very recently, a city on its last legs.

If only we could just chalk this hateful rhetoric up to simply the rantings and ravings of a deranged and demented old man. But this cruel language is coming from a former president and current candidate with a very calculated point—to make us believe that we are in grave danger from some invading element. If there was still any question as to the true motives of the Republican presidential candidate, he drove home in the debate the current world leaders he admires the most—not our longstanding democratic allies, but despotic strongmen across Europe and Asia. The authoritarians who rule Hungary, Russia, China, and North Korea with iron fists are the apple of the Republican’s eye and set the example he wishes to follow. They enact rule by decree and authorize military crackdowns; fill government agencies with incompetent family members and boot-licking sycophants; hijack the media to spew propaganda, insisting religiously-warped, state-sponsored myth is fact while doubling down on hate toward minority groups.

Donald Trump himself has openly aspired to being a dictator on day one and floated the termination of the Constitution. We’d do well to take those threats at face value. It is no exaggeration to say that a Trump re-election would usher in the death of the U.S. democracy.

There is only one issue of consequence in the 2024 election—which candidate will preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.

For this reason, a multitude of Republicans will not be voting for Trump.

Because upholding the miracle that is democracy matters most—not allegiance to a political party.

The author lives in Waubeka.