This country is bigger than one man or one party. In my experience, the political party of your choice will let you down. That was my experience years ago with the Republican Party. It is my experience now, although I am not a member of either party. I left the Republicans years ago during my run for sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona (again, a story for another day). The following is a few thoughts on why I support President Trump and why I think it is now time for him to withdraw and let us as a country move forward in our grand tradition of peaceful transfers of power. This was a very difficult conclusion for me to come to. I love my country and I wish for it to continue as a nation. I would rather be part of the loyal opposition than see our nation dissolve.

I became a member and supporter of the Republican Party when I was a teenager and followed the activities of a governor of California, who in 1976, became the unofficial leader of the conservative Republican movement. These Reagan Republicans were different from the rest of the party in that they looked to serve the people and bring the United States out of the misery of the past decade and into being a world superpower once again instead of maintaining the status quo.

The Republican Party fought this new leader wishing to maintain the truce between them and the new left that was slowly rising in the Democrat Party. That truce maintained the steady flow of power and cash to both sides of the aisle. Ronald Reagan dragged the Republican Party out of their comfort zone and established a great comeback of American influence and power. For the next two decades, the Republicans were the loyal opposition to the rising leftward movement of Congress.

Of course, there were setbacks, no one is perfect and mistakes were made. President Reagan’s successors could not fill the gap left by the Gipper. They had no stomach for fighting the good fight to maintain the spirit of the American people. Without a leader like President Reagan, the Republican leadership once again fell into that uneasy alliance that maintains everyone’s power and cash flow. With few exceptions, the last 30 years has shown all of us that the major political parties are rife with corruption and all about the maintaining of power and money with little thought towards how we the people were feeling. We became complacent, simply voting for someone based on the letter after their name without much critical thinking. That’s on all of us.

Up until 2016, it didn’t much matter who was in the White House or who held the speaker’s gavel in Congress. It was all the same and nothing would change. We were told that there would never be peace, that we had to be taxed more and more to maintain various programs that were inadequate or never really seemed to launch, that our jobs were gone and never coming back, that our military had to be on a constant state of deployment overseas, etc. No one in our country’s leadership disputed these statements. Not Republicans and certainly not the Democrats, who are now so fully infiltrated by the left that they are nothing close to the party of Jack Kennedy and Harry Truman.

In 2015, Donald Trump entered the scene and was disliked by Republicans and Democrats alike. He was saying things that us disgruntled people had been thinking for a long time. Beyond all odds, the people heard him and he was elected. I must admit, I had my doubts. What could a TV reality star, real estate mogul with an incautious use of language really do to turn things around? I voted for him mainly because the alternative was way worse in my opinion. He put my doubts to rest by doing the things he promised to do and despite 24/7, non-stop attacks from both political parties, the media, other world leaders, and problem employees throughout his own administration, got things moving in the right direction, economically and foreign policy wise.

His failing is in his apparent inability to understand that economics is not the only thing Americans concern themselves with. Not everyone is or understands a brash New Yorker who thinks out loud and says outrageous things as part of his deal making strategy. The same middle-America people the president was winning over with his economic solutions and foreign policy advancements were recoiling from the perceived harsh way he conducted the affairs of state. Now, in his defense, I am not so sure many of us could have as many successes as he did while withstanding daily personal and political attacks and misinformation dumps from the so-called news media and not slapped back at our tormentors. Be honest. In his position, you may have gotten surly yourself. I did not vote for him to be my pastor or demonstrate social etiquette for me. I voted for him to do the things he said he was going to do and he did what he said…

I still wish for the return of Ronald Reagan, who could eviscerate his opponents with a smile, a twinkle in his eye, and a cutting, but polite turn of phrase. President Reagan would do battle with a Democrat Congress during the day and share a drink and conversation with Speaker Tip O’Neill, his political enemy, after dinner at the White House.

But I realize, that Ronald Reagan never had to endure the barrage of the 24/7 news media and the wild lands of social media. I wonder how the Great Communicator would have weathered that environment. He never had to deal with the empty and borderline treasonous suits that are the Democratic leadership and makeup the congressional leadership, now. I wonder how President Reagan would have handled Nancy Pelosi’s crude and self serving rants from the speaker podium or a senator’s “Spartacus moments,” or the almost daily backstabbing from people in his own administration. The Democrat Congress of President Reagan’s time fought him politically, but never gave signs they were seeking to “burn it all down” because he had won the presidency over their favored candidate. These are different times. The Democrats are willing to burn everything down because of one man.

So, I still support the change President Trump brought to our country. I support his efforts to bring back American industrial power and energy independence so we don’t have to go off to war in foreign lands to fight for resources we have right here in our great country. I support his efforts to make life a little easier for us here on the ground through tax reform and support for law enforcement. I support the effort to get our allies off their collective backsides and participate fully in all of our alliances and not just let the U.S. do it all. I support his efforts in the Middle East to bring stability and conversation between our allies there and decrease the influence of the bad actor nation in that region. I support his historical support of the pro-life movement and his respect for our ways of worship. I support his efforts to secure our borders for our security both politically and economically. He gets things done and I appreciate his efforts and thank him for his service these last four years.

I am fully cognizant of the devolved state of our communication because of the constant barrage from all sides onto us. I am fully aware of those that just automatically write my opinions off because I support and respect President Trump without ever giving me and my opinions the respect one citizen should give another. I do not ignore faults or misdeeds, but I understand that we are all flawed human beings. There is only one perfect person that walked this Earth that has my devotion.

All of those we respect or admire have “feet of clay,” as do we. Again, I love this country too much to see it go down because my favored candidate did not win an election. If you cannot put aside your partisan hatred and engage in a reasoned dialogue about what went wrong, respect the grievances of fellow citizens, and seek solutions, I ask that you respectfully withdraw from the conversation.

Now is the time to withdraw from this particular field of political struggle. I do not say this lightly. I say this with the full knowledge that there was egregious wrongdoing in the way our elections went in November and that needs to be remedied before we can go forward. I say this believing that the new administration got to power through cheating on a scale we have never seen before. The country needs to push forward.

We of the loyal opposition must become vigilant and fight the agenda of the left with every Constitutional means at our disposal on the federal level, but also at the state and local level as well. To engage in that fight, we must keep our heads and speak our case calmly and reasonably. (I’m working on that. It’s why I’m writing this all down.)

I ask President Trump to do as he said and insure a peaceful transition of power. Doing that will maintain the credibility and political capital for the loyal opposition movement he started and I anticipate that he will continue to lead as a former president and private citizen.

We of the loyal opposition do not burn it all down, disrespect law enforcement or the military, or violently storm the seat of our Republic. We get angry and we take legal, reasoned action to protect our country, our families, and each other.

Thank you for your time.