Advice for the GOP

This is an exercise in futility if ever there was one. I am a registered Democrat and am offering Republican primary voters election-winning advice I know they will not follow: Move away from crazy to the middle where independents and moderates live, where American elections are nearly always won. Secure your party’s nomination for an electable candidate such as Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.

I often disagree with his policies, and I know many of you find him to be too moderate, perhaps not even a real Republican. But the nation knows Asa is a widely respected and responsible conservative. He won’t excite your rage, pander to baser instincts, or seek favor through scarcely veiled racist, antisemitic, or misogynistic innuendo. He will put our nation’s interests before his own, won’t cozy up to dictators or place more faith in the word of Vladimir Putin than our intelligence agencies.

He’ll actually care more about governing than self-promotion and personal profit and will surround himself with advisers who dare to tell him the truth, are deeply knowledgeable, and have more to offer than their personal loyalty. He won’t have an egotist’s need for daily headlines and you won’t have to cringe or hold your breath or look the other way every time he appears on the evening news. He’ll respect the rule of law, and won’t deny the undeniable or incite his followers to riot. He won’t be under multiple criminal investigations, and won’t need teams of lawyers to argue his innocence in state and federal courts. Such baggage as he carries will be in his suitcase.

My point? On election day 2024, a thoughtful, moral, personable, and reasonable nominee such as Hutchinson could very likely be the first Republican presidential candidate in 20 years to win a popular vote majority. Best of all, he would take the oath of office and promise to uphold the Constitution of the United States without needing to cross his fingers. And after his years of service, of course, he would not return to Arkansas with boxes of classified documents, some of them stamped “Top Secret.”

NEIL R. McMILLEN

Little Rock