We Finally Found a “Good” Republican

I'm not kidding!

Over the past few months, I’ve written a series of articles that supported this thesis: “There are NO good Republicans.”  In December, I focused on Nikki “I didn’t know slavery was the cause of the Civil War” Haley.  That was followed by my article on  the absolutely awful MAGA Rep. Elise “Jan 6 terrorists are now patriots” Stefanik. 

My latest in this collection came last month when I slammed Trump’s former Attorney General Bill Barr and New Hampshire GOP Governor Chris Sununu. Both had publicly denounced Trump as a threat to our nation, with Barr saying Trump was “a fundamentally flawed person who engages in reckless conduct” and later adding, Trump “shouldn’t be anywhere near the Oval Office.”

However, despite those strong words, last month both Sununu and Barr announced they would be voting for Trump this fall. Barr defended this spineless flip-flop by saying, “I think the real danger to the country, the real danger to democracy, as I say, is the progressive agenda.” Yeah, because to Barr the idea of providing all Americans with paid family leave or expanding Medicare coverage is dangerous to our Republic!!

But given my goal on this front is not to score partisan points but to protect our nation from the fascist threat posed by Donald Trump and MAGA, I must applaud one Republican leader who has not caved but stayed true to his words about the danger Trump poses. That person is former Georgia GOP Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan.

Duncan has been warning the nation—and especially his fellow Republicans since shortly after the 2020 election—of the dangers Trump posed to our democratic Republic.  After losing the election in 2020, Trump pressured Duncan and other Georgia officials to convene a special legislative session to overturn the state's results. Duncan and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, both Republicans, declined that alleged request.

Duncan announced at the time he had reviewed the election results and after the audits and recounts, found there was no basis to overturn the results. After Duncan did that as well as publicly referred to Biden as “President-elect,” he was subject to threats and hate from MAGA members across the nation—as he explained in September 2021 while still Georgia’s Lt. governor. But he still didn’t back down.

From there, Duncan later publicly denounced Trump as having  “the moral compass of an axe murderer.” And in 2023, he directly laid the blame for the Jan 6 attack where it belonged, namely with Trump. “We wouldn’t have had January 6, we wouldn’t have completely soiled the Republican brand for maybe decades, people’s lives wouldn’t have been train wrecked to the point that they are,”  Duncan explained at the time.

Now if Duncan was like Barr or Sununu, this would be the point where he’d flip flop and endorse Trump given absolute loyalty to Trump is what is demanded of anyone who wants a future in the MAGA GOP. But Duncan didn’t do that. Instead, on Monday, he wrote an op-ed in Georgia’s well respected, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution titled, “Why I’m voting for Biden and other Republicans should, too.” Duncan, who is 49 years old and clearly wants to be a leader in a new GOP that is free from MAGA, noted in the articles subtitle that, “Donald Trump has disqualified himself through his conduct and his character.”

Duncan began his op-ed by taking aim at people like Barr and Sununu, writing, “It’s disappointing to watch an increasing number of Republicans fall in line behind former president Donald Trump. This includes some of his fiercest detractors, such as U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu and former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr.”   The former LT. Gov instead explained that the correct approach for Republicans who want to “rebuild” the party and move on from the Trump era is to “pull the lever for Biden” in the 2024 election as he is doing.

Duncan then laid out both what Trump did and how continues to pose a threat to our nation, explaining: “Trump fanned the flames of unfounded conspiracy theories that led to the horrific events of Jan. 6, 2021. He refuses to admit he lost the last election and has hinted he might do so again after the next one.” He added, “Trump has shown us who he is. We should believe him. To think he is going to change at the age of 77 is beyond improbable.”

The longtime Republican also acknowledged that as a conservative he does not agree with many of Biden’s policies. But vying to attract other like-minded Republicans who were disgusted with Trump’s attempted coup and his conduct as President such his “erratic” handling of Covid and his fueling of “racial unrest”—as Duncan put it—they should vote for Biden in 2024 to both save the Republican Party and the nation.

Duncan concluded his op-ed with the powerful lines: “Unlike Trump, I’ve belonged to the GOP my entire life. This November, I am voting for a decent person I disagree with on policy over a criminal defendant without a moral compass.”

I would never vote for the very conservative Duncan. But in the close election that 2024 will be, we need people like Duncan who are lifelong conservatives to--as the first GOP President Abraham Lincoln put it—appeal to “the better angels” of the subset of Republicans who could be persuaded to not vote for Trump and even possibly vote for Biden.

There is also, of course, former GOP Rep Liz Cheney who announced about the 2024 election that “I’m going to do whatever the most effective thing is to ensure that Donald Trump is not elected.”  Her commitment to defeating Trump should also be applauded. But with Cheney, her following in the GOP has certainly dwindled given her amazing work on the Jan 6 committee prosecuting Trump.

That is why Duncan is key—he still has support among many mainstream Republicans. This is especially true because the former Lt. Gov. is well-known in the swing state of Georgia that was decided by just 11,779 votes in 2020. (Which is why Trump pressured Georgia’s GOP Secretary of State after the 2020 election to “find” him exactly  “11,780” votes —one more than Biden.) In an election that could again be decided in this swing state by just a few thousand votes, Duncan could play a meaningful role in defeating Trump.

As historians have noted—such as the authors of “How Democracies Die,” --in the fight against fascism, alliances must be built of people who disagree on policy but agree on the need to vigilantly protect democracy. That is why people like Duncan—who we disagree on when it comes to policy—must still be applauded for working to defeat Trump. This is how we save our Republic.

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