Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/08/05/bbye-trump-many-in-gop-including-former-trump-staffers-join-republicans-for-harris.html
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If they were leaving Trump for the reasons they claim, they would have already done it back when Biden was the candidate. Or heck, in 2015- it’s not like he wasn’t exhibiting the exact same behavior back then. I suspect the percentage of “Republicans for Harris” that vote for Trump on election day will be a high majority. If they’re telling the truth, good for them, and we could use the votes. They’re still not to be believed or trusted ever again.
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Right? They had plenty of opportunities to pick someone else. Yet here we are.
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I know at least Christine Todd Whitman has been vocal against Trump since 2016. I’m not sure about the others.
On February 26, 2016, she endorsed John Kasich in his bid seeking the GOP nomination for presidential candidate.[69] She said that Donald Trump was using “fascist” tactics in his campaign and after Chris Christie’s endorsement of Trump said that, in the case of a Trump nomination by the GOP, she would vote for Hillary Clinton.[70][71] In 2018, Whitman wrote an op-ed calling Trump unfit for office and urging other Republicans to pressure him to step down.[72]
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Kinzinger has been pretty vocal for a long time.
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I could almost understand if this had happened in 2020. Trump was an obvious danger in 2016 but very few people actually thought he had any chance of winning. I could see horrible people voting for him, getting their wish, and saying “wait, I’m not that horrible, what have I done?”. But the fact that these people waited until now to do this means they saw four years of Trump, said “yes, I want more of that!”, and voted against Biden in 2020. Where were “Republicans for Biden” as an organized movement back then? Based on the comments here, there are a few exceptions who have remained anti-Trump the whole time, but the rest of them have already shown us who they are, and I believe them- which means I don’t believe their sudden claim to be decent people with any kind of moral standards who suddenly want to be rid of the nasty orange felon they’re been worshiping as a god for the past eight years. If they really are going to vote for Harris, it’s only because they think Trump’s already lost (a good sign all by itself) and they’re opportunists who just want to be on the winning side. But if another, more competent fascist ready to end democracy comes along, they’ll be more than willing to throw all the rest of us under the bus in a heartbeat.
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Y’know, I’d rather accept their support than slam them for being part of the problem for the last 40 years. Right now, they’re not the immediate problem.
Think of them like chemotherapy drugs. They’re fucking awful poison, they make people vomit, and they’re toxic as hell. You never want to see them. But you also fear you might die from cancer without them.
So anything that normalizes the rejection of Trump in the eyes of his followers is a good thing. Anything that visibly shrinks his tumorous support is a good thing. Just hold your nose until November. You can do it.
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RATs deserting the sinking ship…
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Is staying on a sinking ship a brilliant strategy?
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Pasted here as the SFP button is still knackered.
B’Bye Trump! Many in GOP — including former Trump staffers — join “Republicans for Harris”
Carla Sinclair 9:30 am Mon Aug 5, 2024
Image: a katz / shutterstock.com
Move over Lincoln Project and Republicans Against Trump! Republicans are joining the Kamala Harris campaign in droves, forming a new anti-Trump group called “Republicans for Harris.”
Some of the GOP’s pro-Harris members include former U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, former Republican Congress members Adam Kinzinger, Joe Walsh, and Susan Molinari, former governors Governors Jim Edgar, Bill Weld, and Christine Todd Whitman, and former Trump staffers Stephanie Grisham and Olivia Troye. (See full list along with Republicans for Harris statement below, posted by Kinzinger.)
“As a national security official and lifelong Republican, I witnessed firsthand the threat Donald Trump poses to our country while working in the Trump White House,” said Troye, a former Homeland Security and Counterterrorism advisor to former Vice President Mike Pence, via The Independent. “The stakes are too high to let partisanship jeopardize our freedoms and the Constitution.”
Former lieutenant Governor of Georgia Geoff Duncan is another disenchanted Republican who now supports Harris, who said on Saturday, “Millions of Americans are fed up with his grievance-filled campaign focused only on himself. Tonight we heard a particularly unhinged, angry version of the same Donald Trump that Georgia rejected in 2020. … As a lifelong conservative Republican, it was not an easy decision for me to endorse Vice President Harris, but I know that she fights for all Americans, right, left, or center, and will stand up for the Constitution.”
Duncan went on to call Trump a “felonious thug” on CNN, via Meidas Touch, “who walks down the street and throws sucker punches at people like Brian Kemp, like African American journalists, like John McCain and the list goes on and on again.” (See clip of Duncan in video below, posted by Republicans against Trump.)
And as for Kinzinger, who served on the House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol, “As a proud conservative, I never thought I’d be endorsing a Democrat for President,” he said. “But, I know Vice President Harris will defend our democracy and ensure Donald Trump never returns to the White House.”
Harris has surged ahead of Trump in at least seven national polls since she became his Democratic rival two weeks ago, with her fired-up crowds are only growing. And now we know where at least some of her new fans are coming from.
Former Georgia Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan endorses Kamala Harris for president: "I don’t agree with Kamala Harris on everything….I’m willing to eat a little bit of humble pie here to do the right thing. And the right thing is to beat Donald Trump…He’s reckless on a good… pic.twitter.com/Tectq8m8P5
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) July 25, 2024
Thanks Carla.
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Better late than never!
When is their mass zoom rally?
Kinda like when the USSR joined with the Allies in order to defeat Hitler.
Once he was defeated, then self-interest took over; even before then, when some of our B-29s had to land in the USSR, they released the crews & kept the planes… reverse-engineered 'em & modernized their own air force.
With friends like those…
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The enemy of your enemy may not be your friend.
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I get the skepticism, I really do.
But if we don’t get over the first hurdle of defeating the repugnofascists, then we are truly effed.
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Maybe the difference between now and then is the difference between the “moderating effects” of Pence (yeah, whatever) and the not-even-pretending-to-be-the-adult Vance. Even if they were willing to roll the dice so they could use Trump as a useful idiot, they might not like the idea of a true believer in Christo-fascism being next in line this time around. Say what you want about Trump (mostly horrible things), but he doesn’t really give a shit about Christianity beyond babbling nonsensically about it occasionally to get the adrenaline rush from a MAGA cheer. The fundies are great for votes, but they’ll be a lot less fun if they get even more power. After all, they ain’t all prosperity gospel types. Some will want stoning as a punishment for infidelity, which will put a real crimp in some DC lifestyles.
Pure speculation on my part, and I agree there isn’t necessarily any redemption here. Just speculating on more mercenary motives.
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Is this something that happens frequently? XXXX for the candidate on the other side? (Republicans for Obama? Democrats for McCain, etc.)
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I was driving home from the store this afternoon and I saw my first “Kamala Harris for President” sign. It was in the exact spot a “Nikki Haley for President” sign was 6 months ago.
I was shocked frankly. The republican numbers here a small, and every person that puts out a republican sign or any sort is even smaller. I bet the entire town takes notice.
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There was a phenomenon decades ago called “Regan Democrats” but that was about voters. This is different in that it is politicians. I think that’s more uncommon.
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I’m not saying we shouldn’t work together to defeat Lord Dampnut.
“Maxim 29:
The enemy of my enemy is my enemy’s enemy. No more. No less.
-The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries”
― Howard Tayler
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