President Donald Trump has maintained the support of his base throughout his time in office, but he’s made few — if any — real, new fans. Among those who he’s ostracized are segments of his own Republican Party, including Michael London, who’s a former leader of the GOP in Connecticut. He was elected as a Republican to the Trumbull town council five times, and for many years, he says, he served on the local GOP town committee.
Now, though, he’s left the Republican Party, registering as an unaffiliated voter and explaining his decision in a piece published in the Hartford Courant.
The focus of his arguments against the GOP is President Trump, but he also faults Republican leaders around the country for refusing to stand up to the belligerent businessman turned president.
At one point in his piece, London explained:
‘I blame President Trump for turning the Grand Old Party into a lame, extreme right-wing group of people unwilling or unable to see the truth. But Trump is not alone in causing my disillusionment. I have had it with the state and federal branches of the Republican Party that tolerated the president’s behavior. None of our GOP candidates for governor denounced Trump. None of the leaders of Connecticut’s GOP will speak out.’
It’s true that under Trump, extreme right-wingers have come out into the open in larger numbers than they were before. It’s under the Trump administration that large numbers of white nationalists turned out to Charlottesville, Virginia, last year to host a rally that turned violent and ended with three people dead, including one counterprotester who’d been run over by a racist demonstrator and two police officers who died when the helicopter they were using to monitor the scene crashed.
Trump has buttressed public displays of white nationalist fervor with policies targeting minorities. Just recently, for instance, it came out that his administration was questioning the citizenship of Hispanics living in the U.S. near the border with Mexico. That comes after other measures and proposals like the border wall and the unilateral separation of undocumented immigrant families arriving at the border seeking refuge.
London commented:
‘Trump is simply the worst president our country has had — ever. He is encouraging increased pollution and disavowing the need to halt climate change. He is taking credit for a strong economy when it was the previous president (like him or not) who set the current strong economy in motion. He has separated immigrant mothers and children. He has, more likely than not, supported (or participated in) collusion with an enemy.’
Not even his allegiance to Republican economic ideals gives him enough common ground with the president to keep his faith in the GOP intact.
As he continued:
‘My search for redeeming qualities falls woefully short. What about his tax cuts, some Trump loyalists will ask? Don’t you like tax cuts? Trump’s tax cuts were for the extremely wealthy.’
Trump may continue to seek to avoid the scrutiny of people like London, hiding behind his lies about his approval rating, but he can’t run from reality.
Featured Image via YouTube screenshot
