Last Sunday, former secretary of state under George W. Bush, Colin Powell, announced that he would be voting for Democratic candidate Joe Biden in November. This is not exactly a surprise as he has been endorsing Democratic candidates since 2008, Barack Obama twice and Hilary Clinton in 2016. But after Powell's interview, it became clear that there was a trend among Republican officials.
Former President George W. Bush will not vote for Trump, neither will Senator Mitt Romney, nor Cindy McCain, the widow of late Senator John McCain. Many Republican officials have declined to confirm whether or not they will vote for Trump in the general election, with some stating that they are seriously considering voting for Joe Biden. Many Republican citizens are also following suit. A new coalition called Republican Voters Against Trump has begun a campaign to convince other conservative voters to vote against the Republican incumbent.
While the majority of Republican officials have not formally denounced Trump, there has been an unprecedented level of disapproval by the Republican Party in terms of Trump's divisive actions. Many Republicans vocally disapproved of Trump's publicity stunt in front of St. John's Church and openly denounced Trump's tweet defending police officers who shoved a 75-year-old protester backward causing him to bleed from the head, claiming that he was a member of Antifa.
Most notably, however, is the wide swaths of Republicans now supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. 74% of Americans support the movement, including a 53% majority of Republicans. Even though Americans were about evenly divided over whether the protests were violent or not, 53% of those who believed they were violent supported them anyway. Trump on the other hand clearly does not support the movement, in fact encouraging the police to attack unarmed protesters anyway, and that no longer reflects the majority of his constituents.
Republican officials have also taken it upon themselves to act against Trump's wishes and take accountability for their racist beginnings. Hours after Trump declared that his administration "will not even consider the renaming" of army bases named after confederate generals, the GOP-led Senate Armed Services Committee privately adopted an amendment for the Pentagon to remove the names of Confederate generals from military assets within the next three years.
Trump promotes division and stokes blatant racism, not even trying to hide it and it is clear that the Republican constituency and officials can no longer ignore the fact that Trump is tearing America apart. Even though we see this trend of disapproval, we must not let this movement waver. It is not enough for Democrats to vote blue - it is actually up to conservatives to make the decision against their party. This is why it is so important for liberals to educate their conservative family members - make it clear that changing their mind is not humiliating or admitting defeat, it is simply coming to terms with America's sins and learning how to unify the country.
