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I am a Republican—have been for a long time. Indianapolis-area citizens of a certain age—who might remember what I said, did, and stood for as Marion County prosecutor and later as Mayor Ballard’s first director of public safety—know I’m not likely to be mistaken for a “softie.”
Despite my 34-year pedigree as a steadfast Indiana Republican, I’m not proud of my GOP affiliation as we approach this election. It bothers me that I feel this way about our presidential candidate, and it bothers me even more that most Hoosier Republicans remain silent. We know better!
In the last election, those of us who held our noses and experimented with a hoped-for change-agent in Donald Trump made a grievous error. We need to admit it and take responsibility for removing this disgrace from the national scene.
Let’s face it. A vote for Trump is a vote for a man we suspected four years ago would not be worthy of our trust. The only difference now is that we know for certain that Trump is not worthy of our trust. We cannot plead ignorance.
A vote for Trump is an act of complicity, a vote to force-feed this country a giant everlasting-gobstopper of thoughtlessness, autocratic rule, inattention to global threats from notorious enemies, craven kowtowing to the most contemptible world dictators, utter failure to provide the most fundamental protections owed to our citizens regarding their health, and contempt for our Constitution’s mechanisms for protecting all of us from government overreach.
It is time to get back to what makes our country worthy of the world’s respect: freedom, justice, fairness, compassion, hard work and optimism—a reassuring pillar of strength to the world, not a laughingstock.
The first term of Trump’s hostile occupation of the presidency has gone a long way toward destabilizing our uniquely blessed and balanced constitutional democracy. And Republicans have, for the most part, gone along quietly. Even the appearance of engagement on real issues in this election has never materialized. Republicans actually convened something called a “convention,” but voted not to tell the public what they stood for—meaning the only “issue” voters can reliably consider is, “What will [or won’t] make this Trump guy angry?”
The first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, knew that our democracy, by design, is fragile. Allow the government’s limited grant of power from its citizens to be placed at the mercy of a grasping self-absorbed individual careening from one self-made crisis to the next, and you are well on your way to trying on your own shackles.
As bad as Trump’s first term was, I really start to revisit my lunch when I hear him and his newest clutch of enablers promising that “the best is yet to come.”
“The best,” you say? “The best” is putting aside excuses and exercising our right to replace him with a leader worthier of support.
As I write this piece into the night, the date has changed to the same September date in 1858 when Senate candidate Abe Lincoln told a crowd in Edwardsville, Illinois, that they must never stop prizing and stoutly defending liberty: “Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere.” Allow yourself and others “to trample on the rights of those around you,” he predicted, and “become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises.”
We know just such a man. He is cunning, he is rising, and for now he is us. Let’s summon our inner strength, reaffirm the values of our founder, and restore our democracy while we still can.•
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Newman is a former Marion County prosecutor.
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I am grateful that Scott Newman is speaking up, and urge other Republicans to do the same. We must not reelect this tyrant who disgraces the office of President of the United States.
I too am grateful for Newman and Mutz, it lets us know that they are for anarchy and destruction of our western civilization in lieu of rule of law, liberty and freedom. Thank you gentleman for exposing your true colors, most limousine liberals like to hide behind some fancy named organization or buried in the bowels of bureaucracy.
Three cheers for Scott Newman who has the courage to speak up for many fellow Republicans.
What’s up with Indianapolis Business Journal’s new campaign to smoke out RINO Republicans to speak out against President Donald Trump? First former Lt. Governor John Mutz and now this hit piece.
Consider this, all you RINOs and would-be acolytes out there: In 25 years, Joe Biden will certainly be dead (his brain will likely die before that, given his easily-observed early-stage dementia) and Donald Trump may well be dead. But The United States of America will most likely still exist in one form or another. And what form do you want that to be? The increasingly leftist tilt proposed and undoubtedly likely to be enacted by Democrats with the attendant loss of The Right to Bear Arms, the Right to Life, and onerous taxes imposed to finance their secular-humanist agenda, or some extension of the country we now enjoy?
I’ve never seen such short-sightedness from a party that normally plays the long game for the good of the country. Every so-called Republican bailing on Donald Trump and encouraging a vote for Biden and the extreme leftist Kamala Harris deserves the tortuous life they’ll be forced to lead for having done so. It’s too bad those of us who can see farther than the ends of our noses will have to share that misery. I must agree that people accusing Indianapolis Business Journal of tilting left as did The Indianapolis Star once it was sold to Gannett, may have a valid point.
What bothers both Newman and Mutz is the fact that Trump has gone to Washington and is changing Washington instead of Washington changing him. Trump knows the slime that is Washington politics and he refuses to play the game. Newman and Mutz because of past political successes feel they must defend the political elite in order to maintain what is left of their ego and status. They do this by coming out against the one man that has actually stood up for the average American. Even union workers are seeing that we’ve been lied to by both our leadership and the politicians that we’ve given billions to over the years only to have our jobs shipped out and our factories shut down. Trump is the one fighting for us both domestically and abroad. It’s a little man that allows envy to distort his view and attack the one man doing right by the country.
Or could it be possible that they’re valuing character, integrity, and country over blind, partisan politics?
Oh, you mean character like killing unborn children and now even children after they are born (Virginia, Ralph Northam, Gov.), or the anarchist group Antifa that is burning, looting, and threatening people who will not agree with them, or the Marxist organization BLM? Or maybe it’s the character that even though they knew it was a lie, they continued on with the Russian probe, or maybe it’s the way they tried to destroy a man and his family, Bret Kavanaugh. If these are the people and groups Newman and Mutz would rather align themselves with then I think it speaks more about their character and blindness than Trumps’.
Well-stated, Don B. Thanks. And a great reply to Michael S, too.
Gary Kah said 30 years ago that 35-40% of the Republicans in the State of Indiana were Establishment globalist, check and check.