(Photo
by
Michael
M.
Santiago/Getty
Images)
Early
presidential
voting
is
kicking
off.
It’s
time
for
me
to
stop
foaming
at
the
mouth
and
start
trying
to
influence
things.
For
my
friends
who
have
been
Republicans
for
decades
—
who
voted
for
Reagan
and
McCain
and
Romney
over
the
years
—
please
read
on.
Here’s President
Reagan
on
NATO:
“If
our
fellow
democracies
are
not
secure,
we
cannot
be
secure.
If
you
are
threatened,
we
are
threatened.
And
if
you
are
not
at
peace,
we
cannot
be
at
peace.”
Here’s Donald
Trump
on
NATO: “Someone
said,
‘Sir!
Would
you
leave
us
if
we
don’t
pay
our
bills?’
They
hated
my
answer.
I
said,
‘Yeah,
I
would
consider
it.’”
Trump’s
former
National
Security
Advisor, John
Bolton,
made
it
even
more
explicit:
If
Trump
wins
in
November,
“the
U.S.
will
be
out
of
NATO.”
Here’s President
Reagan on
free
trade:
America’s
most
recent
experiment
with
protectionism
was
a
disaster
for
the
working
men
and
women
of
this
country.
When
Congress
passed
the
Smoot-Hawley
tariff
in
1930,
we
were
told
that
it
would
protect
America
from
foreign
competition
and
save
jobs
in
this
country
—
the
same
line
we
hear
today.
The
actual
result
was
the
Great
Depression,
the
worst
economic
catastrophe
in
our
history;
one
out
of
four
Americans
were
thrown
out
of
work.
Here’s Donald
Trump on
the
same
subject:
We
are
going
to
have
10%
to
20%
tariffs
on
foreign
countries
that
have
been
ripping
us
off
for
years,
we
are
gonna
charge
them
10%
to
20%
to
come
in
and
take
advantage
of
our
country
because
that
is
what
they
have
been
doing.
President
Reagan famously
said
that
the
Eleventh
Commandment
was:
“Thou
shalt
not
speak
ill
of
any
fellow
Republican.”
Donald
Trump called
Dick
Cheney,
for
whom
you
voted,
“an
irrelevant
RINO.”
Donald
Trump
had
this
to
say
about
John
McCain,
for
whom
you
voted:
“He’s
not
a
war
hero.
He
was
a
war
hero
because
he
was
captured.
I
like
people
who
weren’t
captured.”
Donald
Trump called
Mitt
Romney,
for
whom
you
voted,
a
“pompous
ass”
—
and
that
was before Romney
voted
to
impeach
him.
Donald
Trump
called
Paul
Ryan,
for
whom
you
voted,
“a
loser
who
left
Congress
in
disgrace.”
I
don’t
remember
whether
that
was
before
or
after
Trump
called
Ryan
“weak”
and
“stupid.”
And
Donald
Trump,
of
course,
stood
silent
for
three
hours
while
a
mob
attacked
the
Capitol
Building
on
January
6,
2021.
Trump
neither
asked
the
mob
to
stop
nor
asked
the
National
Guard
to
protect
the
legislative
branch.
Can
you
imagine
Reagan,
or
Cheney,
or
McCain,
or
Romney,
or
Ryan
doing
the
same?
I
know
that
you’re
a
Republican.
I
know
that
you
think
Democrats
are
the
enemy.
But
please
think
hard
about
Trump
before
you
vote.
Mark Herrmann spent
17
years
as
a
partner
at
a
leading
international
law
firm
and
is
now
deputy
general
counsel
at
a
large
international
company.
He
is
the
author
of
The
Curmudgeon’s
Guide
to
Practicing
Law and Drug
and
Device
Product
Liability
Litigation
Strategy (affiliate
links).
You
can
reach
him
by
email
at [email protected].