Submitted by Dan Quigley, Greenwich
When I was Chairman of the Greenwich Republican Party I was a Trump skeptic. After the events of January 6th, 2021 my position changed irrevocably.
The subsequent price I paid for speaking out against Mr. Trump has been well documented. Despite that, I remained a registered Republican because I hoped that the national party would eventually reset and return to its roots, and that by remaining a Republican I could help contribute constructively toward that end. I don’t believe this reasoning viable any longer.
Therefore, I have changed my registration to Independent.
It is clear that our federal bureaucracy needs to be made more efficient. Yet, just weeks into the new Trump administration we have seen an impulsive and vengeful approach to governing via wrecking ball. Voters asked for change, but not with this level of chaos and disorder. Hardworking civil servants fired via email; foreign aid frozen; domestic aid frozen, then unfrozen; the DOJ in turmoil; National Nuclear Safety Administrations employees fired, then unfired; demeaning our allies; rewarding our enemies and so on.
For me, the most disheartening part of the past few weeks has been the complicity of Congressional Republicans. Not only abdicated their power of the purse to the executive branch, but they approved cabinet nominees who were uniquely unqualified, embraced debunked conspiracy theories, parroted enemy talking points and made disparaging remarks about the very agencies they were nominated to lead. Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, Robert Kennedy Jr and Kash Patel distinguished themselves from the rest of the pack as singularly inexperienced, unprepared and dangerous, yet they faced little to no resistance in being confirmed.
Recently President Trump posted a simple, yet foreboding quote on social media; “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” This quote is attributed to French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, and suggests that actions taken in the name of saving the nation may justify moral, legal and ethical transgressions. I would argue that what America needs saving from most right now is the imminent threat posed to its Constitution by the President and his cronies.
While the Republican Party has morphed into a cult, the Democrats remain impotent. At the outset of the Biden Presidency Democrats pledged to restore a sense of normalcy to our government and ensure that Donald Trump would not return to the White House. Instead, they failed to deliver on these objectives in spectacular fashion and allowed the Progressive wing of their party to steer them off course and out of sync with most Americans, paving the way for Mr. Trump’s return to power.
The two party system has, for the most part left voters with the choice of either supporting a far-right MAGA agenda or a far-left Progressive one. At the local level, governing should be focused on finding practical solutions, not party doctrine to meet existing challenges. In Greenwich, voters registered as Independent or Unafilliated represent the largest voting block by a wide margin. Is there room for an alternative option that is not beholden to party orthodoxy and is instead focused on delivering good results through collaboration and debate? That’s certainly a question worth pondering.
Sixty years ago while campaigning for Barry Goldwater and only two years after he changed his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican, Ronald Reagan gave what became the speech that launched his political career. It’s title was, “A Time For Choosing.” In it, Reagan said, “You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down.” Given the stark political choices we live with today these words resonate now more than ever.