Putting Country Before Party

You may think all Republicans-- from Paul Ryan and Miss McConnell right on down to the dregs of the South-will-rise-again Republicans like Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III and Newt Gingrich-- are outright traitors to the country for backing Trump. And I'm not going to argue with you about that. But I have to say that there have been a growing number of #NeverTrump stalwarts who are now opting for the lesser of two evils and publicly proclaiming their intention to vote for former Republican Hillary Clinton. George Will is not just in the #NeverTrump camp, he quit the GOP, reregistered as an independent and hinted that he's going to vote for Hillary to make sure he contributes to Trump's defeat. 

Except that she's too militaristic and too much a captive of the Military Industrial Complex, there are no real reasons-- other than sick and dangerous hyper-partisanship-- for any Eisenhower Republican to shy away from backing Hillary. She's one herself, even if she calls herself a Democrat these days. Remember her appointees on the platform committee killed a Medicare-for-all plank, killed strengthening the $15 minimum wage plank, killed an anti-fracking proposal, killed Keith Ellison's attempt to stop the TPP... all the stuff Republicans get woodies over.

People who thought it would just be Kissinger, Brent Scowcroft and the Republican foreign policy establishment who would broadcast their intentions to vote for Hillary, might have been surprised when George W. Bush's God-awful Treasury Secretary, former Goldman Sachs CEO Hank Paulson-- the TARP guy-- wrote an OpEd for the Washington Post Friday explaining why he's voting for Hillary. Wall Street Republicans like Paulson and Hillary were made for each other every bit as much and she and the GOP's foreign policy establishment, like Clinton enthusiast and former Bush Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, were. (Armitage announced his intention of voting for her last week.)

Paulson is so worried that "we are witnessing a populist hijacking of one of the United States’ great political parties" that he hs made his intentions very public, enabling others to take the same step. "The GOP," he wrote, "in putting Trump at the top of the ticket, is endorsing a brand of populism rooted in ignorance, prejudice, fear and isolationism. This troubles me deeply as a Republican, but it troubles me even more as an American. Enough is enough. It’s time to put country before party and say it together: Never Trump... The tactics he has used in running his business wouldn’t work in running a truly successful company, let alone the most powerful nation on Earth. Every good businessman or-- woman-- carefully analyzes all the available facts before making a decision. Trump repeatedly, blatantly and knowingly makes up or gravely distorts facts to support his positions or create populist divisions."




Last week Hillary's efforts to woo top corporate executives-- including dyed-in-the-wool Republicans started paying paying off as dozens of them announced not just that they wouldn't vote for Trumpy the clown but that they intend to vote for her instead.

Republicans backing Clinton include Dan Akerson, former chairman and chief executive officer of General Motors Co., and Jim Cicconi, a former Reagan and George H.W. Bush White House staffer who is a Washington executive at AT&T Services Inc.

Cicconi has supported every Republican candidate for president since 1976 but can’t do the same this year because “it's vital to put our country's well-being ahead of party,” he said in a statement. "Hillary Clinton is experienced, qualified, and will make a fine president. The alternative, I fear, would set our nation on a very dark path."

Also endorsing Clinton is Hamid R. Moghadam, a Republican who is chairman and CEO of real estate investment trust Prologis, Inc. “Our country is about tolerance and inclusion and that's why, as a lifelong Republican supporter, I endorse Hillary Clinton for president in this election,” he said in a statement.

Cicconi and his wife have given tens of thousands of dollars to Republican candidates over the years-- from Mitch McConnell to Barbara Comstock and including a $10,000 check to Jeb Bush's Right to Rise PAC a year ago and multiple $5,000 checks to the NRCC. Moghadam gave the same Bush PAC $100,000 last year and has contributed hundreds of thousands more to GOP committees and candidates around the country, including $30,800 to the RNC and to candidates like Mitt Romney, Scott Brown, Ed Royce and John Boehner.