The Republican Party is a RINO: Republican in Name Only. In substance the Republican party turned into the MAGA Party when Donald Trump touched it. “Everything Trump Touches Dies,” as Rick Wilson of the Lincoln Group aptly titled his 2018 book. Rick’s rule has become an immutable law of nature. Trump touched it; the Republican party died; “Long live the MAGA Party.” For members of the former Republican party, that’s the sad state of affairs.
The rest of us in the country can only ask: why are members of the MAGA Party attempting to foist on the rest of us this man who snuffed their old party? This man, Donald Trump, who:
Parasitically killed off his host, the elegant, honorable Republican party of William F. Buckley Jr., George Will, Bill Kristol, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney, replacing it with something cruder, far less educated, and openly lawless, the MAGA Party with the help of men dismissive of honor, Steve Bannon, Paul Manafort, and Roger Stone (all later indicted for crimes but pardoned by Trump), along with Rudy Guiliani (later indicted, suspended from the practice of law, in bankruptcy, and headed to trial);
Dedicated the MAGA party to the MAGAfication of his own image in the reflection of the most powerful looking glass in the world, the Presidency, so even the Greek god Narcissus could only stare alongside him in envy;
As leader of the Article II Branch of Government, collected into Washington six thousand MAGA thugs and threw them as a ready-to-explode grenade against the doors and hallways of the Article I Branch of Government, to stop the Article I Branch from performing its Constitutionally mandated duty to certify the peaceful transfer of power to his duly elected opponent so he could remain in power;
Caused the House and Senate members to flee their chambers for their lives to stop the electoral count while his violent MAGA lynch mob yelled to hang his own Vice President because Pence would not cooperate with the coup attempt to overthrow the election and discard the Constitution and democracy itself;
Garnered 88 criminal counts in four indictments resulting from his presidency, but instead of attempting to clear his name through early trials, has sought only to delay his day of reckoning with justice and accountability for as long as he can;
Dares to have his lawyers argue the Supreme Court must grant him the same absolute immunities King George III had enjoyed to cover crimes he committed while President even though he now ranks as a private citizen like anyone else, claiming to be above the law as if the American Revolution rejecting kings had never happened.
Alienated women by taking credit for ending Roe v. Wade and for the ensuing chaos and peril across America for women’s safety, bodily autonomy, reproductive rights, personal freedoms and family privacy;
Told the Leader of the House of Representatives not to solve the border problem during Biden’s Presidency but to kill a bipartisan border bill in the House, delaying the border fix until President Biden rescued it with funding as part of the recent “must pass” bill to keep the government from shutting down;
Successfully held up aid to Ukraine in the Congress for six months by pressure on Leader Mike Johnson while Ukrainians were dying in their flattened apartments and in the trenches for lack of air defense and shells at the bleeding front edge of liberty and democracy;
Would end participation in NATO, American leadership, and alienate our allies;
If reelected, promises to concentrate all government power following the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 manual, to replace our democratic government with a government of overwhelming executive power focused on exacting revenge on perceived enemies, and to choose the most extreme, disruptive and demagogic policy choices;
Has never ceased for a moment lying about his loss of the 2020 presidential election, or apologized for attempting to end our democracy by nullifying the votes of all the rest of us;
Has made his BIG LIE about losing his election the touchstone of his run for reelection, and the litmus test of loyalty to his MAGA party;
Whose life of non-stop lies is no example for anyone’s children; and
Above all, who has demonstrated he cannot be counted upon to faithfully execute the laws of the United States when inconvenient to himself, or to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
Again, MAGA friends of the formerly honorable party, why do you seek to foist this man of criminality and danger to the nation’s Constitution on the rest of us? Decency and honor call for a different choice.
Robert P. Wise is a Northsider.
