Following the results of Tuesday’s Indiana primary, THE WEEKLY STANDARD received a letter from two readers, addressed to the Republican National Committee. With the writers’ permission, that letter is reproduced below:
Dear Republican National Committee, It is with the deepest sadness that we (Dr. James Curtis and Mrs. Barbara Curtis) officially resign our memberships in the Republican party. This is a seminal decision for us and is a result of our in-depth discussions, prayers, and contemplation regarding the party and its support of a man who will most likely inflict grave damage to our American way of life, the Constitution, and what our Republican vision of the “shining city on a hill” has stood for these past two centuries. Unlike Reagan’s shining city, Mr. Trump is taking our party into the dark, dank alleyways of hate and division. Even though we have always been proud Republicans, we believe the time has come for Americans who truly believe the Constitution is worth fighting to defend boldly stand up against the possibility of Mr. Donald Trump becoming the President of the United States. For our part, we have been working to communicate our deep concerns with all of the Republican leadership and our own elected leaders in Illinois. Furthermore, the attached article (pg. C3) was published in Southwestern Illinois’ major daily newspaper, Belleville News Democrat (circulation nearing 70,000), in which Dr. Curtis outlines the illegal and unconstitutional position of Mr. Trump in regard to the military and killing innocent women and children and torturing prisoners. We cannot imagine Mr. Trump standing on the Capitol steps taking the oath of office with his hand on the Bible while swearing to “protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America.” That would be the ultimate deception in American history. We are greatly disappointed that the party leadership failed in this moral test of character when you put party above country. You have allowed this non-Republican to hijack our party and betray our values of free trade, compassionate conservatism, individual responsibility, and respect for women and minorities. It was a shameful and cowardly process to witness as the party sold its soul to the con man Donald Trump. Someday, each of us will have to explain to our children and grandchildren where we stood when the Rise of Trump occurred – the Curtis family is proud that we can boldly state that we stood with others who value character, decency, and truth; and, that we fought against a putrid man who preyed upon our citizen’s fears and anxieties. We held to our core values while so many other Republicans rolled over and blindly supported Trump as he pied-pipered his way to victory. Like others across the nation, we will continue to fight everywhere and at every opportunity to deny Donald Trump the presidency. We are writing letters, articles, and emails to as many public organizations as possible and funding organizations and advertisements to defeat him; we will fight against this potential despot with all of the resources and energy we have. Our country is more important than the party and we cannot allow our great nation to devolve into Trump’s reality. Maybe someday the Republican party will regain its core values that were so well represented by our home state presidents Lincoln and Reagan – until that time we will fight Mr. Trump’s Republican party with everything we have – we love America too much not to do so. James (Jim) Curtis, Ph.D. Barbara Curtis, R.N.
