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Steve Kahl is a retired professor of science and an independent voter. He lives in Waterville.
Fiscal conservative and former Republican here. I left the GOP after accepting that the party had become fiscally irresponsible. It began with Reagan-era “trickle-down” tax cuts to make the wealthy more wealthy, resulting in the largest deficit in U.S. history. George W. Bush created another record deficit with more tax cuts for the wealthy, followed by Donald Trump, whose 2017 tax cuts helped add $8.4 trillion to the national debt, a whopping 23 percent increase — and still counting!
Trump is now proposing more budget-busting inflationary tariffs and regressive tax cuts that will ironically cost the average Trump supporter about $4,000 a year. And his supporters forget that all four Trump budgets during 2017-2020 called for cuts in Social Security and Medicare.
In addition to massive budget deficits, the Make America Great Again GOP now uses minority rule to intimidate opponents in order to take over the country. Pick any issue and MAGA positions are largely inconsistent with public opinion.
Pro choice or anti-choice? Even red states have voted against recent Supreme Court rulings on abortion.
Supporting Ukraine? MAGA apparently thinks Russia is our friend because Trump calls Vladimir Putin a “savvy” and “a genius.”
NATO? Trump will likely minimize our leadership in the world to support Putin. His former advisors believe he will withdraw from NATO.
Gun control to reduce mass shootings? Polls show that Americans overwhelmingly agree that we need stronger limits on who can buy guns.
Other traditional GOP positions have also been abandoned: Free trade agreements? In addition to tariffs that may start trade wars, Trump withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, ceding regional domination to China.
Education? MAGA doesn’t support public education, likely because the more educated people are, the less likely they will vote Republican (unless they are billionaires).
Climate Change? MAGA considers it a Chinese hoax, and the GOP “drill-baby-drill” mantra profits oil companies.
Iran nuclear agreement? Trump’s withdrawal allowed Iran to accelerate nuclear weapons capability.
Immigration? MAGA supports deporting millions of immigrants, some of whom are here legally, or putting them in detention camps, despite businesses desperately needing more people to fill vacant jobs.
Environmental protection? Not a MAGA priority, despite Dwight Eisenhower and both Bushes supporting environmental laws and land protection, and Richard Nixon creating the EPA.
Law and order? The GOP used to be the party of law and order, but Trump has made it acceptable to lie daily, to invade the Capitol, to ignore the Constitution, to use donor money for his personal gain and to mishandle and keep classified documents.
Sexual escapades? Acceptable. Racism? Acceptable. Free speech? MAGA supports jailing the media, weaponizing the Department of Justice against opponents.
Project 2025? Do we really want more MAGA judges to take away our rights and create a Christian Nationalist country? Or the Project 2025 plan to replace thousands of federal career employees with Trump yes-men?
Hundreds of Republicans from past administrations (including our Bill Cohen, who was a U.S. senator and secretary of defense) have announced that they are supporting Kamala Harris because Trump is too dangerous, too cognitively diminished and too focused on his wealth to serve. Trump has called for a televised military tribunal to convict U.S. Rep Liz Cheney of disloyalty and remarks from he and his vice presidential pick have incited armed militia to hunt down FEMA hurricane relief workers in North Carolina.
The peaceful transfer of power is a hallmark of our democracy, yet many MAGA candidates say they won’t accept the results of the election unless they win, which will continue to undermine public confidence in our election process. Trump has said many times that he wants to remain president for life. Imagine a further-diminished Trump as president at age 82 or 86!
It is time for traditional Republicans to speak in unison in order to defeat Trump and help convince MAGAs to accept the results of the 2024 election, to prevent MAGA violence after the election. Even many evangelicals are now supporting Harris. It’s time for everyone to put our country first, even if you think you might be a die-hard Republican.
