A lifelong Republican looking for a different president

Until Donald Trump was elected in 2016, I had been a lifelong registered Republican — first voting for Eisenhower in 1956, and in subsequent presidential years for Nixon, Ford, Reagan, both Bushes, McCain and Romney. All told, an 11 out of 11 proRepublican presidential voting record. But my past personal knowledge and experiences with Trump were such that I could not support him in 2016 and certainly do not in 2020.

A former Marine Corps captain, a full scholarship kid through college and law school, I was then a Republican state senator from the Pittsburgh area for eight years, 1962-1970. I was founder of the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team in 1966, served in the Nixon administration from 1971-72, and later was a CEO, a COO and general counsel of three significant U.S. publicly traded companies. While with two of these three companies, I became a close friend with the governor of New York, and then of Connecticut. Trump leaned heavily upon me to arrange for untoward business favors from each of the governors, even suggesting that “working together, we can own New York” (and later, Connecticut). He was crude, full of himself, and a fast-talking blowhard.

I did not succumb then to his offensive “charms.” And I could not, in good conscience, support him in 2016.

I now have even more basic concerns about Trump as our president. He has been (1) a disabler of U.S. global alliances; (2) a toady to dictators Vladimir Putin and the North Korean joke; (3) a congenital, pathological liar; (4) a self-admitted sex maniac; (5) unfaithful to his wives and contractors; (6) an apparent congenital tax cheat; (7) unable to attract and retain first-class aides; (8) a nonreader of intelligence briefings (and books); (9) a lifelong experience of corner cutting and at least borderline corruption; (10) a failure to build a border wall, much less make Mexico pay for it; and (11) a failure at learning. He’s content with just winging it and making things up, and last, but certainly not least, Trump has proven beyond all reasonable doubt that he is incapable of effective leadership during a calamitous widespread disaster such as the coronavirus. His pronouncements that it will “magically disappear,” that it’s “no worse than the flu” and that it will “go away in the summer” will live in infamy.

In my mind, nothing is more important in a U.S. president than the “character” factor. Lincoln had it in abundance, as did both Roosevelts, Eisenhower, Ford, both Bushes, McCain and Romney. Trump quite simply, and regrettably, does not. He was not born with it, nor has he acquired it.

My father and both grandfathers, lifelong Republicans, probably rolled in their graves when I reregistered as an independent following Trump’s election. But I’m convinced they’d roll right back if they could now learn of Trump’s basic indecency, inappropriateness, ineffectiveness and lack of character.