By Bob Gaydos

Donald Trump and J. D. Vance … the Republican presidential ticket.

    “Not all Republicans are …”

     I noticed that tantalizing phrase in a comment on a recent Facebook post on my feed. I stopped right there. Didn’t fill in the blank. Rather, I scrolled on and let myself imagine what had so troubled this Republican about the post that he or she felt the need to rise to the defense of at least some Republicans.

     Not all Republicans are what? (1) racist? (2) spineless? (3) stupid? (4) misogynists (5) sheep? (6) bigots? (7) liars? (8) hypocrites. … fill in your own blank.

      I didn’t bother to read the whole comment because I’ve been reading excuses and writing about the surrender of the Republican Party to Donald Trump for more than eight years now. It’s the same old story, only worse. Party leaders and rank-and-file Republicans handed Trump the reins to the party and followed him to what they apparently thought would be fame and fortune, or at least power. Trump and some rich supporters got the fame and fortune. Trump and a lot of Republican politicians also got the power. America, including a lot of Trump supporters, got the shaft.

    Now, with Trump promising an authoritarian regime of retribution as detailed in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 if he is elected to a second term as president, Democrats and other concerned Americans are calling him and Republicans out as a threat to democracy.

     And yes, to me that means all Republicans who support Trump or refuse to speak out against him publicly.

     The MAGA crowd with their red hats and bandaged ears don’t much care about being tagged with one of those labels I mentioned above. They’re all in on Trump and at this point it appears nothing he can say or do can change their minds. That includes being labeled, say, racist because they accept Trump’s blatant racism as displayed once again in an “interview” with female black journalists. He actually ran out before it was over.

     Trump is what he is. If you accept it, either vocally or with silence, then so are you. Enough is enough. Eight years of enough.

       And for those elected Republican officials who slide silently through life hoping that no one asks them how they can support a convicted felon, adjudicated sex offender, congenital liar, racist, misogynist, intellectually challenged fraud for president, yes, you are him, too. You enable him, you legitimize him, you are him until you say otherwise.

     Speaking of labels, Democrats have recently taken to calling the Trump/Vance team and their Republican supporters “weird” for some of their statements. I guess it’s a more socially acceptable way of summarizing all those labels I mentioned.

      Also recently, the Republican mayor of Mesa, Arizona wrote an opinion piece for a newspaper saying Trump was all those things I said above. The mayor said he’s voting for Kamala Harris. Even put his name on it. John Giles. Took guts.

       So, I guess not all Republicans are weird.

        It’s a start.

rjgaydos@gmail.com