Josh Barro, Business Insider Senior Editor, did not pull any punches as he went after the GOP and Donald Trump after quitting the party.
Josh Barro explains why he left the GOP
Business Insider Senior Editor Josh Barro left the GOP and wrote a stinging op-ed castigating the Party as he officially joined the Democratic Party. Barro wrote the following.
The most important thing we have learned this year is that when the Republican Party was hijacked by a dangerous fascist who threatens to destroy the institutions that make America great and free, most Republicans up and down the organizational chart stood behind him and insisted he ought to be president. Some did this because they are fools who do not understand why Trump is dangerous.
Some did it because they were naïve enough to believe he could be controlled and manipulated into implementing a normal Republican agenda. Of course, there were the minority of Republicans who did what was right and withheld their support from Trump: people like Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, and Hewlett-Packard CEO and megadonor Meg Whitman, with her calling Trump “a threat to the survival of the republic.”
Josh Barro went after Republicans who knew Donald Trump was dangerous but decided to support him for political expediency.
I want to focus on a fourth group: Republican politicians who understand exactly how dangerous Donald Trump is but who have chosen to support him anyway for reasons of strategy, careerism, or cowardice.
He called out Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Paul Ryan. “These men are not fools like Ben Carson,” Barro said.
Barro said he remained a Republican because of his upbringing and belief in some restraint. But he was forced to leave.
The Republican Party had a fundamental vulnerability: Because of the fact-free environment so many of its voters live in, and because of the anti-Democrat hysteria that had been willfully whipped up by so many of its politicians, it was possible for the party to be taken over by a fascist promising revenge.
Barro explained why he chose to become a Democrat as opposed to an Independent.
My editor asked why I became a Democrat instead of an independent. I did that because I believe political parties are key vehicles for policymaking, and choosing not to join one is choosing to give up influence.
More Republicans need to follow Josh Barro’s lead.