Op-ed: This lifelong Republican will be voting for Hillary Clinton

[Zorro]

I spent the past few weeks tramping through the ruins of lost empires. There's a Planet of the Apes surrealism to ancient Corinth, and it's hard not to see parallels between the Delian League and NATO. Delos, Ephesus and Mycenae are the rubble of once-powerful civilizations.

It's impossible to survey the deserted landscapes and not ponder the causes of decline and collapse. Natural disasters made their unique contributions, but military/political strategic disaster and ruler ineptitude play out again and again. Scipio Africanus is said to have wept as he inflicted Roman vengeance upon Carthage because he foresaw a similar fate for Rome. Americans like to think we are exceptional, but that's a fraught assumption.

An airport layover in Dusseldorf left me with some time to kill. There were a couple of women sitting nearby reading German newspapers, which prompted me to ask them what they thought about the American election and Donald Trump. Their responses were carefully measured, but here's the gist: "Why would your country elect such a dangerous person — not just such a danger for you, but such a danger for the rest of us?" "He's just not a serious person; he doesn't seem to know much about the rest of the world." "He is a crazy man."

I've been an active Republican for all of my adult life. That this venerable political party, once home to visionary thinkers and leaders, could hand its presidential nomination to Trump, who seems not to know how much he doesn't know and could not care less, is unfathomable to me. It is unfortunate that so many of those who claim to be leaders of the congressional and presidential wings of the Republican Party have long since made their Faustian bargains and are actively endorsing a totally self-centered know-nothing who behaves like the caricature of a banana-republic dictator.

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/4222913-155/op-ed-this-lifelong-republican-will-be

Utah might indeed go blue this election.

[Funtatlaguy]

1. Kudos to this Republican

May many more do the same.

[procon]

2. Where are the big name spineless Republican leaders?

Don't get me wrong, it's great to see any little inkling that sane Republicans still exist, even if they only seem to be a smattering of GOP state officials, a handful of retirees and also-rans, and some Washington backbenchers. The national leadership isn't deaf and blind, and they aren't immune to mounting damages resulting from Trump's ongoing list of unforced errors, so why aren't they speaking up? As the shocking optics pile up, the stupefying soundbites accumulate, and the astonishing tweets keep coming, where are all the pre eminent, top tier Republican political figures?

You'd think they'd want to rescue their own party, or at least protect the down ballot Republicans, to say nothing about their sworn duty to safeguard and preserve the country. Not even the past presidents, who have nothing to lose, dare to stand up and tell the voters that Trump is crazy. I can only conclude that they are -- all of 'em! -- cowards. Gutless jellyfish, who are only concerned with trying to save themselves from the angry, pitchfork toting mob they created.

[Martin Eden]

3. Good responses in the Comments section. n/t