James K. Glassman: The GOP Needs You: Vote Clinton writes in today’s NY Times Op-Ed strong medicine for Republicans like himself who have never not voted for the Republican candidate running for the highest office in the country. As former Secretary of State for public diplomacy for George W. Bush Administration, he draws out the fact that not voting, or voting for third party will in effect allow Trump to win. Even though he reveals he has worked hard for a strong third party independent candidate in the face of a Trump candidacy, he “threw in the towel” and has come to realize there needs to be action taken by Republicans to defeat a candidate he finds appallingly inadequate, unprepared, and with “grotesque policy formulations that mock the principles of liberty and respect for the individual.”
To defeat Trump in conservative states, Republicans are going to have to vote for Hillary Clinton. If the 200,00 voters like himself abstain from voting because they don’t want to vote for Hillary in a swing state like Ohio, then Trump wins the state.
Trump elected by “accident” was a topic of conversation that surfaced at every Labor Day weekend event, dinner party, or cocktail hour by friends and family who haven’t engaged in the mess of this election cycle. But they are worried. The Press has stirred up the picture of Hillary as hiding out from the Press, totally not backed up by facts, in terms of where she has been and what she has been doing. But it would’t stir people to hang beyond the next commercial on MSNBC, CNN or Fox on cable and Facebook or op eds-without such a headline that hints and promises information but only repeats journalist speculation with no new facts, information.
Mostly, it’s hard to take seriously, and yet we must, that there is a contest between Donald Trump, being currently sued by a half a dozen or more bad deals he’s been part of, and Hillary Clinton with the “we don’t trust her” tag built arguably on the case that any woman in power is likely to have that response from segments of the public. This pattern will be what we take all the way to election day. It is on each person to dig in and take action to support the outcome they seek in the election of 2016.
That is why Glassman is calling out the GOP to take the hit and publicly vote for Hillary Clinton, even at the cost of losing friends and business. “Despite Hillary Clinton’s deficiencies” is the best candidate, he states; and what is at risk in this election is the future of the Republican party. The GOP leaders who remain silent even as they recognize the threat and dread of Trump in office, have revealed themselves to be willing to have the “goat” lead the party as the primary elected nominee many have suggested. “The right thing to do is: Don’t just say you won’t vote for him. Vote Against him.”