I led the Missouri GOP. As long as it’s for Donald Trump, I won’t attend Lincoln Days | Opinion

Beginning on Feb. 16 through the 18th, the Missouri Republican Party will host Lincoln Days. The state committee will also meet at the Hilton at the Kansas City International Airport on the 17th. This has been a tradition since 1900, when it was organized by the Young Republicans of Missouri, and in the early 1940s became the Missouri Association of Republicans, according to the State Historical Society of Missouri, where records kept by historian Herbert Douglas and later added to by William C. Phelps are deposited.

As a former member of the Missouri GOP’s state central committee and past president of the Missouri Association of Republicans, I was invited to the traditional Past Presidents Breakfast on Saturday by the current president, Kevin Corlew. I will not be able to attend.

Since I wrote in an op-ed to The Kansas City Star in August 2017, regarding the need to change to a more effective and fair primary voting system out of concerns for our democracy, our current political environment has underscored this need. At a presentation by Jon Meacham with David Von Drehle on Nov. 30, 2022, at the Unity Temple in Kansas City, Meacham, a distinguished presidential historian and scholar, stated that at the present time, our democracy is at its greatest danger since the 1850s, prior to the Civil War.

I became alarmed as a lifelong Republican when in 2015 Donald Trump posted a news article on Twitter (now X) calling John McCain a “loser.” Then at a conservative (?) forum in Iowa in 2015, Trump said he didn’t like “losers,” dismissing McCain’s war service: “He’s not a war hero. … I like people that weren’t captured.” As a previous serviceman myself, I reject Trump’s refusal to honor the American veterans buried in a military graveyard as “suckers“ and “losers,” according to the Marine Corps general at his side, his longtime chief of staff John Kelly.

Trump’s latest insult to the American people occurred Feb. 10, when speaking at a rally in Conway, South Carolina, he stated that he would withhold U.S. help from NATO member nations and “encourage” Russia and Vladimir Putin to “do whatever the hell they want.” And just days later, USA Today reported that Russia was moving troops up to the borders of NATO allies in the Baltic states and Finland.

Book burnings and defunding libraries are current topics among Jefferson City lawmakers, reminiscent of the same things in the past in other countries. Add in the latest efforts by Republicans in the capital to quickly blame a so-called “illegal immigrant” for the shooting at the Chiefs Super Bowl victory rally in Kansas City, not mentioning anything of the guns that actually killed and injured so many. This was quickly debunked as false by The Star.

In Washington, D.C., Republicans who for years called for control of our southern borders defeated — on the command of Trump — a bipartisan bill to work on the problem. This was done to continue the divisiveness and insecurity for purely political reasons, to use as a political campaign issue again and again. Let no doubt be known: Republicans do not want to address control of our border at this time. No bill is perfect, but this bipartisan bill — proposed and negotiated by Republicans for four months — would have been a start.

I have good friends who are engaged in the present “Republican” Party with whom I disagree on many issues. We have become entrenched in power and the need to win, but negotiating legislation, with give and take, is necessary for good government. The world is wondering who our friends and allies are. Until our elected officials become reasonable and return to what I have believed was good government for all people, for those of all religions and social status, and perhaps what I thought were historical principals of Republican values — small government, strong military, and fiscal responsibility for government and all citizens — I will not be able to attend Lincoln Days.

This was, in part, my response to the nice invitation to breakfast:

“I volunteer at Blessings Abound, a thrift store in Overland Park, and they have called for an executive/volunteer meeting for this Saturday. I unfortunately will have to miss your breakfast.

“I find myself disappointed in the presumptive nominee of the GOP since he has called upon Putin to invade our friends and allies. Donald Trump is a ‘false prophet’ favoring dictators rather than democracy, calling our military traitors.

“I think I can do more good as a Christian and Republican at the thrift store. Sorry to be so late on notifying you.”

We should all remember what Benjamin Franklin said at the Constitutional Convention: Our republic is the best form of government — “if you can keep it.”

Do we believe in democracy or a pied piper? The silent majority must be vocal and vote.

Marvin A. Singleton is a former Missouri state senator and president of the Missouri Association of Republicans. He lives in Overland Park.