Open Letter to Adam Kinzinger

Dear Mr. Kinzinger,

I am grateful for your efforts with CountryFirst. I consider your character, demeanor, and intentions to be some of the few sane, healing voices on our political landscape. Being the negligible political contributor that I am, nevertheless, I have contributed more money to your CountryFirst movement than to any other political pursuit in my lifetime.

However, CountryFirst does mistakenly direct much of its content to the notion of “our democracy” and saving it from the Trumpanistas. I’m afraid this language and its emphasis miss the true scope and gravity of our situation in the coming elections of 2024. What’s at stake in 2024 is nothing less than this: Our constitutional republic is at the grave risk of succumbing to democracy.

Democracy alone was distrusted by our founders; rightly feared as a problem to be contended with. Their distrust of democracy was cause for them to leave us a constitutional republic rather than “a democracy.” It’s not democracy we need to be defending at this moment in our history but the very framework in which our democracy hangs.

Trump just might legitimately win a valid election. And if he does, it’ll be a triumph of the very democracy our founders distrusted. A razor-thin win for Trump will result in the slight-majority mob rule our founders knew better than to turn loose on us. Trump is perfectly willing to trash the constitution in service of his own glorified ignominy. And his Trumpanistas (the POT, or Party of Trump) seem perfectly content to champion him in doing so. It’s the constitution itself and its accompanying rule of law that are imperiled by any victory for Trump and democracy in 2024.

The rule of law—including our election laws—sways in the cradle of our constitution. Dump the contents of that cradle, and we have a much bigger problem than imperiled “democracy.” We will have lost the rule of law that allows a democracy itself to be somewhat legitimate. Once the guardrails in the rule of law are wrecked, there’s no systemic determination or enforcement for any difference between legitimate, valid elections and otherwise: political chaos; Trump thrives on it.

If Trump does legitimately win a valid election in 2024, it may be the last valid election we ever see under our currently (and barely) prevailing rule of law, the backbone of which is the constitution and our adherence to it.

With the Republic and its accompanying rule of law at risk, I’m afraid the present CountryFirst agenda is not robust enough to meet that challenge and win. Losing may forfeit the republic.

With our republic and its rule of law both recognized as hanging in the balance, I turn to:

The Old GOP and the New POT (Party of Trump)

I want to suggest that the future of our republic may very well rest with the “disenfranchised minority GOP,” those being the remainder of the GOP who have not cast their lots with the Trumpanistas. I will call them the “Old GOP.”

The New GOP (those former GOP members who have joined the ranks of the Trumpanistas) I will call the New POT, or Party of Trump. They are clearly the majority of the existing “GOP,” and by a wide margin; I think 75–80 percent New POT to only 20–25 percent Old GOP. When considering the full range of activity and demeanors of recent history, January 6 and the ensuing responses to it being especially remembered, the New POT deserves no place on the political landscape of this country. There’s no room for that party in any republic, and certainly not ours.

Throwing an Election to Save the Republic
(and Spank the POT)

In light of the first two sections above, I want to suggest CountryFirst shift to the emphasis of either (or both) of two corrective courses.

The first corrective course is for the remaining 20–25 percent of the Old GOP to simply stay home on election day 2024. Just opt out, sit out the election. There are a few districts where the New POT can win an election without the support of the Old GOP members, but not many. Wins for the New POT at the federal level will be few and far between. This corrective action spanks the entire New POT from top to bottom, from county and city councils to the White House. The more local the level, the more wins the New POT will be able to sustain. But even at most state levels, they will be seriously challenged with relatively few wins. This is a way for the minority Old GOP to clarify for the majority New POT that they can either come off the POT—or sit out their political influence all together.

This first course of action (or inaction) resonates all the way down to the individual POT voter, for them to understand that they will substantially moderate the character and demeanor of politicians they’re willing to support, or they will be dismissed from the political landscape. Full stop. One election cycle will make this message unmistakably clear, while leaving our framework, our rule of law, and our republic intact for future recovery of their (and our) participation. Of the two plans I’m suggesting, this first sends the strongest message for both immediate and long-term corrective action within whatever is the next rendition of the GOP (post-POT).

I do think this first option does the best job of knocking down the whole set of New POT political directives, the vitriol, the divisiveness, the hatred, the thriving on chaos for power. The minority Old GOP needs to make it unmistakably clear to the majority New POT that, “We’re (minority GOP) simply not doing business this way. Either rise above it, or cease and desist as an effective party at the federal and most state levels.”  

The second option is for the minority Old GOP voters to go ahead and participate in the election, but to withhold their vote for any overt Trumpanistas at any level up and down the ballot. AND to leave blank the presidential box on the ballot.

If this option is used in total (especially the part about leaving the presidential box blank), it does buy the republic and the rule of law one more election cycle intact. That might be the best we can achieve right now, and if so, we can be grateful for that much.

Under this second option, it may take two or three election cycles for the rank-and-file POT voter to get crystal clear on the idea that, “This (New POT) approach is no longer working, and I have to do something very different if I’m to have any home on the political landscape.” The more quickly they reach that understanding, the more quickly we can all exhale on the political fronts and get back to the rest of our lives.

Mr. Kinzinger, thank you so much for all your service. I do hope you consider modifying the emphasis of CountryFirst for at least the 2024 election cycle. If it is all about “our democracy,” it’s about our republic being under active threat of our democracy—mob rule rather than the rule of law. We can’t nip that in the bud because it’s already out. But we do need to nip it wherever we can, in any way that we can.

Cordially,