Editorial: Florida Republicans wisely toss out loyalty oath

The Republican Party of Florida did the right thing.

By scrapping a loyalty oath requirement for access to its presidential primary ballot next March, the party’s executive board was simply retracting what it should never have adopted last May.

Had that unprecedented rule remained in effect, it would have kept former President Donald Trump’s name off the ballot because he refuses to pledge to support the eventual nominee — unless it’s him.

The vote was a big win for Trump and a major defeat for Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose grip on the Florida party seems to be weakening as quickly as his prospects for the GOP nomination.

Choosing sides between these two is ordinarily a quandary, but Trump clearly held the higher ground this time.

Trump is right. Wait, what?

No American should be required to pledge loyalty to anything except the Constitution — which puts this editorial board in the highly unusual position of actually agreeing with Trump on something.

The Florida GOP’s short-lived loyalty oath demanded that candidates commit to supporting the nominee, no matter who it might be.

Assuming the nominee will be Trump, which seems likely, the others would have promised their support to him regardless of his four pending felony indictments and the possibility that he might convicted on one or more counts before November 2024.

They would be pledging their loyalty to him, not to the Constitution that he tried to overthrow after losing the 2020 election — the Constitution to which those who are or have been public officials long ago swore their support.

Possible prison time

They would be professing unconditional support for someone facing the possibility of prison time who, at the moment, appears more qualified for the Big House than for the White House.

But they remain stuck, at the moment, with the national Republican Party’s demand to pledge support for the nominee, whoever that may be, in order to participate in the remaining pre-primary debates.

The national Republican Party should repeal that rule too. Besides being unenforceable, the requirement also gives Trump a very handy excuse to boycott debates and thumb his nose at the public.

Voters have a right to see whether he would flummox himself or his rivals, who ought to be entitled to a showdown with him. The party rule lets him weasel out of that.

The difference between the national party policy and the repealed state rule is that only the latter had the force of state law behind it. Florida law allows each recognized party that holds a primary to decide which candidates will be on the ballot (the Florida primary is Tuesday, March 19, 2024).

Given the enormous role that primaries play in presidential elections, that law might not survive a court challenge, and it shouldn’t.

No backroom deals

For the same reason, the party should not make any pertinent decisions behind closed doors, as it did over the loyalty rule last May and again last week.

Rutherford B. Hayes, who was a genuine Civil War hero and a mediocre president, is best remembered for the deal his supporters made to resolve his contested 1876 election with Democrat Samuel J. Tilden. That was to withdraw federal troops from the South and end Reconstruction, which condemned Black people in the South to some four score and ten years of subjugation.

Hayes carried out the evil bargain despite having declared in his inaugural address that “only a local government which recognizes and maintains inviolate the rights of all is a true self-government.”

In that speech, which Democrats boycotted, he tried to put to rest their suspicions of him. What he said is as relevant today as it was then:

“The President of the United States of necessity owes his election to office to the suffrage and zealous labors of a political party, the members of which cherish with ardor and regard as of essential importance the principles of their party organization; but he should strive to be always mindful of the face that he serves his party best who serves the country best.”

He serves his party best who serves the country best.

The only loyalty oath required of the president is to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” That is all that should be demanded or pledged by anyone seeking the office.

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