The Republican party is no longer the party of low taxes, low debt, and a limited but working government. It has become the Trump party supported by a rabid group of Tea party followers who will do anything to please POTUS. This party is exploding all the infrastructure of the existing government, such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Trump makes no beef about pandering only to his voters and running roughshod over any efforts at compromise. Not only that, he has become a model for something quite crude.
Trump has been dragging the Republican party into the gutter as he becomes more offensive and unpresidential. He has promised to bomb any Republican’s chance of retaking their own seats, should he or she oppose him, even privately.
Republicans have reacted in various ways. The former Republican moderates have abandoned their party and retired. Others have remained quiet. Then, there are those like Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) who have slid next to the current president on the golf course and became cloying sycophants. Finally, there has been a number of Republicans who changed parties. State Representative Andy McKean (R-IA) is one of them.
McKean said he could not “support the standard bearer of our party,” according to The Iowa Starting Line:
‘WITH THE 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION LOOMING ON THE HORIZON, I FEEL, AS A REPUBLICAN, THAT I NEED TO BE ABLE TO SUPPORT THE STANDARD BEARER OF OUR PARTY. UNFORTUNATELY, THAT IS SOMETHING I’M UNABLE TO DO.’
In a press conference, McKean said:
‘I FOUND MYSELF INCREASINGLY UNCOMFORTABLE WITH THE STANCE OF MY PARTY ON THE VAST MAJORITY OF HIGH PROFILES ISSUES AND OFTEN SYMPATHETIC WITH CONCERNS RAISED BY THE MINORITY CAUCUS.’
The Republican state legislator from Jones County decided he wanted to leave the GOP and move over to the Democratic side of the Iowa Congress. The representative started out in state politics as a senator in 1978. After several terms, he went back into the private sector. Then, in 2016 McKean returned as a state representative after winning a swing seat.
During the time that he was gone, the Republican party transformed itself into something far different than it was in the ’70s and ’80s. There was no spot for this moderate Republican. McKean found himself siding with the Democrats on a gun rights constitutional amendment. Just last week, McKean’s common sense told him that stun guns on college campuses sounded right, given the increase in rapes and hate crimes. He went Democratic on that vote, too, according to another article in The Iowa Starting Line.
Trump has continued to be a festering thorn in McKean’s side:
‘HE SETS, IN MY OPINION, A POOR EXAMPLE FOR THE NATION AND PARTICULARLY FOR OUR CHILDREN BY PERSONALLY INSULTING, OFTEN IN A CRUDE AND JUVENILE FASHION, THOSE WHO DISAGREE WITH HIM, BEING A BULLY AT A TIME WHEN WE’RE ATTEMPTING TO DISCOURAGE BULLYING, HIS FREQUENT DISREGARD FOR THE TRUTH, AND HIS WILLINGNESS TO RIDICULE OR MARGINALIZE PEOPLE FOR THEIR APPEARANCES, ETHNICITY, OR DISABILITY.’
McKean continued:
‘I BELIEVE THAT HIS ACTIONS HAVE COARSENED POLITICAL DISCOURSE, HAVE RESULTED IN UNPRECEDENTED DIVISIVENESS, AND HAVE CREATED AN ATMOSPHERE THAT IS A BREEDING GROUND FOR HATEFUL RHETORIC AND ACTIONS.’
Republicans have been trying to fill the courts with ultra-conservative judges and even change how Iowa chooses those judges. McKean said this about the bully-in-chief:
‘SOME WOULD EXCUSE THIS BEHAVIOR AS TELLING IT LIKE IT IS AND THE NEW NORMAL. IF THIS IS THE NEW NORMAL, I WANT NO PART OF IT.’
