Anti-trump Republicans: Election is about principles
Disaffected Republicans and others who oppose President Donald Trump said Monday that more is at stake in the November election than policy differences.
“At this moment, while we can have the big policy fights on health care and things like that, that’s not what the country is looking for. It’s not what the country is hungering for. They’re hungering for leadership that brings the disparate parts of the nation together,” said Michael Steele, a former Republican National Committee chairman.
Steele was among the speakers at the Convention on Founding Principles made up of Republican dissidents, independents and others fighting Trump’s reelection, including former FBI Director James Comey and former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci.
Speakers on the streaming digital convention painted the election more as a war for America’s heart and principles than disagreements over federal law and regulation.
Former Franklin County Auditor Clarence Mingo called on viewers to search themselves for solutions to racial injustice, spotlighted this summer by protests over the police killing of George Floyd, rather than relying on elected leaders.
“Ultimately the political class in America, the policies around it, will not end this issue. This must be a personal task. Every single American has to examine his or her own heart and begin thinking about whether they are contributing to this challenge or whether or not they are solving it,” Mingo said.
He was among the Ohio Republicans who opposed Trump in 2016 as well after campaigning for former Gov. John Kasich’s presidential bid in the Republican primary.
On Monday night, though, he never mentioned Trump. Instead, Mingo, who is Black, recalled the racism he experienced in his youth.
As a child, a group of white men on motorcycles surrounded him and a friend as they rode their bicycles and used a racial slur as they threatened them, he said. When his family moved to a predominantly white suburb, neighbors started a petition to force them to move and used racial slurs to address him and his family. Someone burned a cross in his family’s yard, too, Mingo said.
But Mingo said his mother answered their neighbor’s with “love and fellowship,” and years later one would attend his sister’s wedding.
“Irrespective as to whether you are black or white, you have a duty and obligation to have some measure of understanding about those who you are unfamiliar with. That understanding leads to wisdom. It allows you to embrace truth. And it allows you to appreciate the plight of others,” he said.
Steele, who on Monday joined the anti-trump group the Lincoln Project, said the country under Trump has lacked the leadership necessary to help it navigate civil unrest.
“We don’t have that. Instead it’s about whose side are you on,” Steele said during a panel discussion with Comey, who Trump fired.
Comey said the November election is more about American principles than policy squabbles.
“We have principles. We hold truths. We believe a certain set of things. That’s what keeps this country together. At the center of that is the belief that the truth is real and that it matters and it must be spoken and at the center of our national life and our government,” Comey said. “Donald Trump is an assault on all of that.” rrouan@dispatch.com @Rickrouan