The Republicans I know aren’t cruel or criminal. And I know they still exist | Opinion
For about a dozen years, my job was pretty much talking to Republicans.
Starting just before 2004’s general election and ending just before 2016’s, I was The Kansas City Star’s readers’ representative. My picture appeared on the second page of the paper every day, alongside an invitation to contact me with concerns about fairness or accuracy in news coverage. My phone rang just about constantly, and my email inbox never slowed down. I talked to the good people who read these pages all day, every day.
And as those of you who read any of the hundreds of columns I wrote during those years remember, the vast majority of criticisms I conveyed came from conservatives who perceived bias in how the news was reported. Sometimes it was imbalance among the political affiliations of the sources quoted, and sometimes it was about the choice of subject matter. Sometimes I agreed with those points, and sometimes I didn’t. But it was my responsibility to report the best opinions I heard to a wider audience.
One of my strongest memories of those days is just how nice, polite and factual those interactions were. It was so rare for a voice to be raised or a cuss word flung that I still remember individual instances when someone got horsey — they happened just that seldom.
That’s a big reason the ascent of Donald Trump and his takeover of the Republican Party and our global discourse has been so wildly frustrating and confusing to me. All these slurs about Puerto Ricans, immigrants, LGBT people — that was never what I heard from the respectful and caring conservatives I had good, productive conversations with.
I’ve spent some time looking back on the voluminous notes I took during those years, which I summarized every week in a detailed internal email to the Star newsroom. If I had to pick one topic as the most frequent criticism I heard, it was that journalists gave too much attention or even sympathy to people who have committed crimes. I understand fully the belief that those who harm others or society should pay the penalty doled out by the criminal justice system, period. Conservative readers I spoke to didn’t question judges’ and juries’ verdicts. They trusted the system.
Today, the GOP candidate for president has been convicted by a civilian jury of 34 felony counts. Another jury found him liable for sexual abuse of only one of his many accusers. (The judge didn’t mince words, calling it rape.) We all heard him bragging eight years ago that when he’s attracted to a woman, he will “grab them by the p***y. You can do anything.”
He incited a riot on Jan. 6, 2021, that led to the death of five law enforcement officers. Members of Congress fled as the crazed mob invaded the U.S. Capitol, smashing windows, vandalizing offices and smearing feces on the walls.
Chanting for the death of his own vice president because he wouldn’t violate the United States Constitution.
I simply don’t understand how we got from those kind, patriotic voices I echoed for so long to the current tenor of the Trump campaign. I don’t believe those same conservatives really distrust the military generals and dozens of Trump administration officials — all Republicans — who are warning Americans that he would do terrible things in a second term. We all see the clear evidence of his dramatic decline.
I can’t give any more examples. Everyone reading these words knows. And I think they’ll look back on them four, eight years from now with their own sense of disbelief.
Many traditional conservatives have left the Trump GOP. Lots of them have been doing outreach to Republican voters. Former MAGA stalwarts like Illinois ex-congressman Joe Walsh report they have been talking to huge numbers of former Trump supporters who are tired of the bullying. The insults. The lies. They’re done. They’re ready to give up the White House for four years to break the fever.
I have to believe them. And I have to hope their numbers are big enough to make a difference.
This story was originally published October 31, 2024 at 12:10 PM.
