As a registered Republican who has typically voted for Republican presidential nominees since voting for Gerald Ford in 1976, I would be delighted to see a true conservative Republican in the White House in 2025. Unfortunately, that choice is not available on this year’s ballot. I assume most readers of this essay plan to vote for former President Trump, who I believe is neither a conservative nor a true Republican. I wish there was a way to change the election so that the new president would be a successful Republican governor such as Chris Sununu (NH), Larry Hogan (MD), John Kasich (OH) or Mitch Daniels (IN).
Doing his presidency, Donald Trump had some real accomplishments, yet he managed to follow his triumphs with dangerous failures. He decided to vanquish ISIS and their caliphate was erased; the U.S. supplied the airpower, artillery and intelligence, but the fighting and dying were done by Kurdish troops. When the president of Turkey phoned President Trump and asked for American troops to no longer supply security for the Kurds, Trump moved our troops without consulting his military or diplomatic aides.
His Warpspeed process accelerated the development of successful COVID vaccines, yet his administration botched communications to the public, which caused massive confusion and led to unnecessary deaths, President Trump stopped folks from bringing the virus here from China but failed to stop people carrying the COVID virus from arriving in New York from Europe, making the city a COVID killing ground.
He declares that if elected he will round up and deport eleven million undocumented aliens, with no regard for the consequences. How about the children of these aliens who are U.S. citizens by birth? How are we to deport people to Syria, Venezuela, China and other nations with who we have strained relations? Who will fill the jobs in hotels, restaurants, food processing and agriculture that would be held by the deported?
So how do I plan to vote? I have no love for President Biden and I cannot vote for Trump. I must go back to 1968, when I was flying bombing missions over South and North Vietnam. I had minimal access to current events and I had no interest in voting for Humphrey or Nixon. On my return home from the war, I read a magazine article which recommended voting “against Nixon”. This made sense to me since I had studied Richard Nixon and knew, despite his exceptional experience, he really was a crook.
I voted against Nixon by voting for Humphrey and my fears about Nixon were realized. So, this year I will hold my nose and vote against Trump by marking my ballot for Biden. I will then pray that in 2028, we will have a real Republican candidate who will supply the presidential leadership our nation so desperately needs.