I know it can be dangerous to draw large-scale conclusions from personal, anecdotal experiences, but I think it can also be misleading to ignore what those experiences may signal.
As readers of this blog know, I spent some 35 of my adult years as a Republican, and–as the saying goes–I didn’t leave the party, the party left me. (These days, I wonder whether my political allegiance “back then” was based on a flawed understanding of what that political party really stood for, or whether, as Stuart Stevens has written, it was all a lie. In any event, that party no longer exists.)
There are, of course, the high-level “Never Trumpers” who–like Stevens– have shared their horror at the current MAGA fascism of the once “Grand Old Party.” As he recently wrote, “as someone who worked in five presidential elections and helped Republican governors and Senators in over half the country, my conclusion is that what we [Republicans] called values turned out to be mere marketing slogans.”
After a diatribe about the embarrassing recent “summit” with Putin, Stevens took out after the cowardice of Congressional Republicans.
Like every turning point in the ongoing Trump humiliation of Republican leaders, no Republican has stood up to defend American dignity and Decency. In February 2025, the Republican Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Roger Wicker, said on CNN: “Putin is a war criminal who should be in jail for the rest of his life, if not executed.” He’s right, of course, but what has Roger Wicker said publicly since the president he campaigned for invited the mass murderer to American soil? Not a word.
The devastation being wreaked by an ignorant and corrupt madman simply would not be possible without either the profoundly unAmerican acquiescence or the despicable cowardice of elected Republicans, as the Never-Trump former Republicans are right to remind us.
But it isn’t just high-level dissidents who have come to that recognition.
Closer to home, I’ve been incredibly impressed by my own sister’s activism–an activism I would not have anticipated “back in the day” when we were both young housewives and occasional precinct workers. (An artist, she’d help the local GOP when elections rolled around, and she always voted, but otherwise she was politically inactive.) These days, she and my brother-in-law (formerly considered the family’s most politically conservative member) have attended multiple protests, written and called elected officials, and otherwise made their displeasure with MAGA very visible.
My sister has been especially critical of Indiana Senator Todd Young, who has replied to her messages with unresponsive form letters and absented himself when she and other constituents visited his office. Her most recent missive to Young was succinct and entirely appropriate. She wrote:
I just wanted to let you know that I will always hold you personally responsible for all the deaths and suffering caused by the ignorant, incompetent, venal candidates you confirmed for vital positions in this administration. You knew better, but you were too cowardly to stand up for your constituents and your country. Please don’t insult me by responding to this message with one of your canned replies.
To which I say: Bravo!
It’s one thing when Stuart Stevens and other high-profile Republicans reject what the party has become. When the GOP loses people like my sister and brother-in-law–informed citizens who are anything but rabid leftists, citizens who simply care deeply about this country and are unwilling to stay silent, unwilling to “go along to get along”–I believe it’s a sign that the tide is turning.
Perhaps even in Indiana…
Depressing. Activism is slow. Destruction of our institutions didn’t take very long at all, did it? And the destroyers told us what they were going to do all along. Why didn’t our democracy work? Republicans have been outside of the activist camp for decades. You’re right: marketing slogans, not values, not patriotism, not anything but pandering to the corporate moguls who pay their salaries.
Sheila; I join you in your “Bravo!” to your sister’s response to Young. Strange that this morning I have been reflecting on a special family member who can now only be considered my enemy, no excuse for turning from her humanitarian mind set and her career as a pediatric heart surgery nurse saving lives of black babies in Uganda and yellow babies in China to believe the Republican and Catholic diatribe fed to her by the man she married. Each of her Republican votes were against her family members white, black and brown on Social Security, Medicare, active military duty and veterans, lesbians and gays. I continue to try to separate the Republican today from the Humanitarian in her recent past. Too many of us today are faced with this same family problem but those unresponsive form letters and absent elected officials when out of session are the facts which cannot be denied.
Sheila worked in the Mayor Bill Hudnut administration as I did; I put 20 years (as an Independent voter) into working for Indianapolis City Government from 1972 to 1994 when I became disabled. It is only recently that I have questioned my total support of Mayor Hudnut, while being totally against Circle Centre Mall, that I have opened my mind to the question…was Mayor Hudnut bought and paid for by Melvin Simon Association and his national chain of Malls?
Our local officials are a big part of those Cowards who are the Guardrails of the destruction of the Republican party nationally. The Republicans are rapidly leaving American priorities and values (with full support of SCOTUS) and we are nearing the possibility of an internal Revolutionary War to save our democracy from the current pseudo-Royalty. Those gold embellishments in the White House cheapen us in the eyes of true Americans and globally and it has been said (possibly by Stephen King), “You can frost a turd, but it is still a turd.”
I also contact Sen Young from time to time and get the same lame replies. I’ll keep doing so.
He’ll deserve to be sidelined next go round even if by Beckwith or Rokita. They will do no worse than Todd. Maybe a Democrat will beat one of those two.
I am not now, nor have I ever been, a Hoosier. I live in reliably blue New York, so I have to bow out of the excoriation of Hoosier political followers (I sense that there are no red leaders anywhere to be found).
I hope to live long enough to know if we will ever have our version of the Nuremberg Trials, which I was too young to appreciate then but have both read about and been at the locale of since.
I think voters will choose to execute the red party over time by starvation, and maybe that will be the passing of red gas that will finally reclaim the republic for liberal democracy.
Relief at last.
Stay on Todd Young. I remind the people who answer the phone to pay attention because their future I being crafted. I find the responses non responsive bordering on insulting and condescending
I get the same dumbed down, mimeographed, un-answers from Sen. Scott, here in Florididia.
Check this out, as an unintended commentary on the current situation:
“imagine a country far away, from which Rhyme and Reason have been banished. Where politicians repeat each other’s words, using synonyms to disguise their true meaning. Where words are bought and sold in a market, and where officials decide which words are to say and which ones not to say, which ones to write and which ones not to write. Where half-baked ideas are what you get for supper, and where people are made to eat their own words. Where people are thrown into prison for mincing words. Where people are silenced. Where as long as the answer is right, nobody cares if the question is wrong. Where the logic of the economy dictates that the more you want, the less you get-and the less you get, the more you have. Where petty tasks and worthless jobs fill people’s evert day, and where demons of insincerity lie in wait around every corner. Where people are not supposed to distinguish between reality and illusion. Where rules are arbitrary and incomprehensible. Where everything is forbidden and anything is possible.” From Maria Nokolajeva’s critique of “The Phantom Tollbooth,” by Norton Juster.
The book is wonderful, funny, sly, and brilliant!
Trump’s Cowardly Guardrails are one reason he believes his full support of Putin and Netanyahu are hidden behind his lies of seeking peace. His decades of wanting the name “Trump” on all of his claimed developments is now appearing at America’s top federal level in areas where he has never had a part in developing
John Kennedy was a known World War II hero and published author of his own writings before becoming President; as President he stared down Khrushchev to block Russia’s storage of nuclear materials in Cuba, 93 miles from Miami, Florida. He was then assassinated by an American citizen, a known Russian supporter, with our government fully aware of where the assassin was living in Dallas. Where were President Kennedy’s guardrails at that time? Who were they?
Trump now wants to rename the Kennedy Center to Trump while having his nose up Putin’s butt. Their names shouldn’t be used in the same sentence so I apologize for placing them in the sentence above. Cowards have been Guardrails found in both parties for as long as political parties have existed in this nation. President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination could have been prevented. Cowardly Guardrails? We need to name them and shame them publicly for the cowards they are before Trump is crowned sitting in the Oval Office surrounded by gilt rather than stopped due to his guilt of betrayal to all Americans.
Not sure if it’s a defense of Young, but there are about 50 Republican Senators who are worse than he is. Compared to our Jim Banks, he looks pretty darn good. Young at least has shown some spine standing up to Trump and doing what’s right. Not nearly enough in my book, but everything is relative.
Regarding one of the commentators, please don’t compare that cretin Senator Rick Scott to Young. Scott is one of the absolute worst Republican Senators. He might be worse than Banks.
JoAnne;
Before we lump Melvin Simon and Mayor Hudnut with the current degenerate Republicans and throw them all under the bus, let’s discuss the environment in which they were operating; i.e. the 70’s.
At that time, Indianapolis Downtown was sinking fast. Mayor Hudnut was trying to be an active cheerleader and throw a life vest to the sinking ship. Circle Center Mall was that life vest, and a civic minded Melvin Simon stepped up to make it happen, just like he did when he saved our beloved Pacers. Sure, he made money off both deals, but he also took on a lot of risk, and had to show a lot of patience before he recovered his investments (there is some question about whether he ever did recover his investment in the mall). Also remember that the Simons also put their name and money on the IU Hospital Cancer Center which is entirely a non-profit investment on their part. Simon Real Estate is still headquartered in downtown Indianapolis. All of these investments have paid a lot of property taxes over the years, as well as supporting a lot of jobs for Indianapolis citizens.
And, if I remember correctly, the Simons have historically been politically aligned more closely with the Democratic party than with the Republicans.
Circle Center Mall was a public/private partnership. The private investors were guaranteed to be paid first before the public’s investment was to be paid.
Ironically, L.S.Ayres was torn down to make way for the mall. The closing of Ayres was the proverbial canary in the coal mine. If an L.S. Ayres could not survive as an retail entity downtown,how would anything else do well DT?
It didn’t. DT tourists don’t want to accumulate stuff when traveling and folks working DT summarily get the hell out of dodge after working.
It was a bad idea….for the public. The private investors did well…since the public assumed the risk(s).
.
CGH; I said I was questioning the long ago possibility. What is the condition of those local Simon Malls at this time whichever party they are affiliated with? I still question the claim of downtown Indianapolis failing being the reason to implode and destroy it entirely; Circle Centre Mall was never a successful replacement and we didn’t have morning news reports about shootouts in front of bars requiring police presence and new curfew laws for groups of teens with nowhere else to go and nothing to do. Personally, I still miss the busy downtown Indianapolis I remember before the destruction began.
Simon’s deals are very Trumpian.
Both Banks and Beckwith make my skin crawl. I have no idea how they got to positions of power given what comes out of their own mouths.
Why any citizen that has been steeped in American culture especially our rights and freedoms, would not now see/realize the danger in the continuous overreach of Maga regime is beyond me. Sending in federal police/military agents into cities, pulling people off the streets by masked assailants, forming inhumane internment camps and working to undermine legitimate midterm elections are authoritarian methods that defy US rule of law.
In this solid red State (Indiana) that is reported to want to gerrymander more extremely to take over all nine districts is a sign that they will never be satisfied until all opposition is thwarted.
Hopefully citizens are recognizing the negative impacts of trump tariffs, dwindling of our rights, and a president that defers to a dictator war criminal and who is soft on pedophiles. What is there to like? We’re all being harmed. Keep pulling back the veil.
For example, Beckwith saying there should be no due process for those arrested by ice and put in those god awful places. What a heartless human being. And he’s a pastor? Gimme a break!
My mom who is 81 has gone to several protests recently–my dad went to the ‘No Kings’ protest in the St. Louis area proudly wearing his Marine Corp hat because there is an assumption the military votes Republican but I noticed that the Marine Corp vets seem to run on the Democratic ticket.
I watched a documentary on Paul Weyrich–conservative activist and co-founder of the Heritage Foundation. What a horrific nefarious individual who shaped the Republican party. His hands and strategy is all over the Republican platform–Watching the documentary and reading up on the history of this POS–no wonder my grandparents hated Reagan. HATED Reagan. I like to mention my grandpa was a minister and my grandma his wife had been active. I state this knowing that at least for the past 30 years–you could not be a person of faith, a Christian and a Democrat. The Fervor is thick because the Evangelicals really believe they have a mandate to takeover our Nation and to save us from the anti-Christ–this in thanks to people like Weyrich