Thread by @andrewstrutts

🧵For the third time, I will not be voting for Donald Trump for President of the United States. This will not shock anyone who knows me personally/politically, as I have been publicly vocal and unchanging on this issue these past 9 years. Consider this another marker. (1/18)

From his descent down the escalator in 2015 to the present day on this final weekend before the 2024 election, he has time and time again demonstrated a rank, wholly disqualifying unfitness for the office that I cannot in good conscience reward with my vote. (2/18)

His actions as a private citizen before coming down the gold escalator in 2015 and as a candidate in 2016 were disqualifying, and many of the now-loudest voices in support of Donald Trump vociferously agreed with me on this point at the time. They were right. (3/18)

As POTUS, a term of leadership-based chaos, dysfunction, and would-be authoritarianism culminated in an administrative effort to overturn an election he lost. To supplement this, he disgracefully riled up a mob that did his bidding in by attacking our Capitol. (4/18)

Many of Trump’s now-fiercest defenders agreed with me at the time that at the very least, he should not be the standard-bearer of the Party moving forward. They were right. These actions were worthy of impeachment–they were not ‘mean tweets’, and the GOP would be (5/18)

in a far better moral/political position had they done so. They alone are disqualifying for another term in office. They violate conservative belief in the rule of law, fidelity to the Constitutional order, small l liberal governance, and moral character in leadership. (6/18)

Since then, he has only tightened his grip on a supermajority of often well-meaning Republicans, transforming a major faction of the Party into a full-blown personality cult that is dangerously pliant to his whims. He has made lies about a stolen election and a desire for (7/18)

unlawful political retribution fulcrums of his candidacy in 2024. He lusts to use the levers of power to punish perceived enemies, whether they be ‘human scum’ as he termed NeverTrumpers or his Democratic opponents. 'Cooler heads' et al will not dominate this Admin. (8/18)

Many others in the Party who would not self-describe as 'MAGA' recognize this folly but have decided that political tribalism is indeed a suicide pact, or at least the necessary cost of potential political power to be levied against ones enemies. They are wrong. (9/18)

There are myriad other reasons for my continued opposition, but I do not want to write a tome and am not so arrogant as to believe my words will persuade fellow conservatives who do not agree. Others more thoughtful have written well on principled opposition to him. (10/18)

In my home state of CO, the GOP and conservative-leaning interests should run as far away from Trump and Trumpism as possible. This reflects an earlier reality, where CO's delegation and its Assembly-goers were vocally anti-Trump. Embracing him has cost us dearly here. (11/18)

It is not enough, as some well-meaning pundits have opined, to say that the right in CO should just abandon a full-throated endorsement of his lies around 2020 and his disgraceful actions after–this is the equivalent of sticking a Snoopy bandaid on a shotgun slug wound. (12/18)

Electeds and candidates in CO should reject Trump and what he represents wholesale. This represents the only path forward to a semblance of long-term political relevance here. Like-minded donors must also step up to defend those willing to chart a new path. (13/18)

Win or lose, we must dump the former POTUS, his rhetoric, defense of his actions, and chart a course that puts reachable voters in a position to trust us again as a Party grounded in reality and willing to govern as such. This is a worthwhile fight--have the courage. (14/18)

I have spent my adult life in politics, working diligently with the talents God has given me towards conservative outcomes and causes/issues I believe in. I am proud of that work. My political persuasions have also not changed; if anything I have become more strident (15/18)

in particular conservative positions as they have been maligned and abandoned by a MAGA movement that knows no policy, no ideological mooring save a would-be authoritarian and his oscillating takes driven by malice and megalomania. I am nobody's liberal/progressive. (16/18)

This path these past nine years has not been easy as a result, and my inflexibility on Trump has jeopardized business opportunities through self-selection or the inability of others to respect my views. In the case of a particular op-ed, it affected my personal safety. (17/18)

I've been limited in the kind of work I can do to advance a movement conservative agenda here and elsewhere. But that's ok. Only God knows the future and my place in it, but in this case my conscience is clear. ‘Here I stand–I cannot do otherwise.’ Thanks for reading! (18/18)