To Be a Republican, Look What they Make you Give

Clive Owen as “The Professor” in 2002’s The Bourne Identity.

In Doug Liman’s 2002 smash The Bourne Identity, Clive Owen’s assassin, dying in a wheat field rasps, “Look what they make you give.” At the end of his career, of his life, Owen’s character was left with nothing: Full of holes and alone after a life of destruction. In that moment, he was asking, was any of this worth it? All the things you had to sacrifice, compromise, accept, do?

That’s the question I ask my (former) fellow party-mates in the Republican Party. It’s been nine years of willful ignorance, moral compromise, and acceptance of a man and a movement that represents nothing of the party we came up in.

Donald Trump asks all this of you, but doesn’t stop there. He always demands more of you. More ignorance, more acceptance, more moral relativism. His movement, Make America Great Again, is not yours, but he expects you to fall in line.

To relate all the ways Trump hijacked the party and betrayed any sense or principle or decency would take more time than I have to write or you have to read. We know it, though. In the Republican Party, character counted. Now you’re a chump for having a conscience.

Are you a chump?

Since the end of World War 2, Russia has been America’s primary political, military, and philosophical opponent. Republicans and Democrats alike recognized this. The Russians (in the person of Vladimir Putin) weren’t good during the Cold War and they’re not good now. Led by a homicidal, bloodthirsty maniac, to be a Republican means to accept that Putin and company are our allies and that America is as bad as he is.

Do you consider Putin a friend to America? Do you believe he’s a force for good in the world?

Likewise, many of us love America and love to be Americans. We see the United States as a beacon of freedom, liberty, and decency around the world. For Republicans, this wasn’t just an opinion, it was an article of faith. The idea of America is more than just soliders, fighter jets, and tanks. It’s an ethos - that we can and should lead the world into a better and more peaceful future. Now, Trump muses about abandoning NATO and our allies. Europe, seeing Trump’s return on the horizon, is preparing to go its own way on Ukraine and beyond.

Do you want America leading on the global stage, or falling into the ranks of third-rate banana republics led by crooks and thieves?

A key pillar of the Old Republican Party (the OGOP) was individual liberty. The Constitution was meant not to allow the government to control its citizens, but constrain centralized power from impacting individual Americans. Most of us still carry that vestigial streak of libertarianism (as do most, regardless of party.) Now, however, Trump is preparing to utilize the power of the state to dictate our lives.

I wrote this about the GOP during the 2016 campaign. It’s more true today than it was eight (8!) years ago:

“Republicanism, the Party of Lincoln, that once professed belief in freedom of the individual before all else, is now a bloated, corrupted, angry Dorian Gray version of itself. It suffers appropriately and accordingly for its sins.”

Whether it’s the 2022 Dobbs decision, and its draconian follow-on laws in MAGA states, the banning of books that politicians or radical activists disapprove of, or the determination of what school kids can or can’t learn based on ideology rather than facts is part and parcel of the modern Republican Party.

Trump’s allies are urging him to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act on his first day in office (when he’ll be a self-described dictator) to ensure that anyone objecting to his return to office is rounded up. He’s also planning to take his revenge on political opponents. This sounds like Pinochet’s Chile or Franco’s Spain.

Do you believe in the arbirtrary arrest and punishment of American citizens for their political beliefs and acts? Or do First Amendment and the rule of law still mean something to you?

Anyone with whom we choose to associate: Friends, professional colleagues, civic assocations, and yes political parties, are a reflection of ourselves. Whether by learning politics from our parents, in college, or in a book you couldn’t put down, each of us joined the Republican Party for some basket of reasons.

Today, you must take a long look in that mirror and ask if you’re okay with what stares back at you. Trump doesn’t just stand with the likes of Vladimir Putin, but Alex Jones, the Camp Auschwitz guy, and politicians like North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson who denies the Holocaust, thinks women belong in the home, and gay people are ‘filth.’

Do you stand with these people? Would you stand with them if they came for your family? Your children? What will you tell your wife and kids when they ask, “Why did you vote for that man in 2024?”

I ask these questions of my Republican friends, and millions of Republican voters not to insult or indict but to express that I understand the choice you’re making. To go against a political party that you’ve called home for years or decades, can seem like betrayal. But even Trump himself (along with his daughter-in-law Lara) say the GOP has no place for moderates and ‘RINOs’ like you, Mitt Romney and Liz Cheney.

You are not homeless. You never have been. There is a growing pro-democracy movement in this country - not Republican or Democrat, but American, that is prepared to welcome you with open arms. As I tell the Democrats we work with, we don’t have to agree on every thing. We just have to agree on one thing.

That one thing? That Donald Trump should never again occupy the Oval Office or any position of power in the United States.

How did you answer these questions? I bet I know.

Are you willing to give what Trump demands? Do you believe that he and his Republican Party are worth your support? Your conscience? Your vote? They’ve told repeatedely that you’re not welcome.

The choice you make will echo down the decades and perhaps centuries. You, dear Republican, have the chance to be part of something so much bigger than yourself: The chance to save American democracy!

If you’re interested, join us at LincolnProject.us or find a local organization near you to get involved at The Union.

News and Notes:

Please check out the latest episode of The Lincoln Project podcast featuring bona fide freedom fighter, Trygve Olson.

Also, check out my column on why Trump can’t win in November, up now over at Project Syndicate.