OPINION:
Republicans for Harris has released a list of GOP turncoats supporting the vice president, including 15 former members of Congress and several ex-governors.
The only has-been for Vice President Kamala Harris who isn’t an ex or a former is John Giles, the mayor of Mesa, Arizona. As Mesa goes, so goes Apache Junction.
The rest include such political powerhouses as John LeBoutillier, who served one term in Congress 40 years ago, and William Weld, who since leaving the governorship of Massachusetts has been on a futile quest for relevance.
Mr. Weld ran for the Senate and lost in 1996. Then, he resigned from the governorship of one of the 10 most populous states to devote himself to being confirmed as President Bill Clinton’s ambassador to Mexico.
When the Senate Foreign Relations Committee declined to act on the nomination, he moved to New York, ran for the Republican nomination for governor and lost. Then Mr. Weld switched parties and ran for vice president on the Libertarian Party ticket.
Then, he switched back to challenge Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2020. It was a moment of low comedy in a year of high drama.
But the undisputed leader of the “Republican in name only” pack is former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who got star treatment at the Democratic National Convention, including a prime-time speaking slot. Delegates lined up to take selfies with him.
The former Illinois congressman puts himself forth as a champion of conservative values. Here, conservative is loosely defined.
In his last term in Congress, Mr. Kinzinger voted with President Biden 56.4% of the time, with a 60% rating from the AFL-CIO and a 59% rating from the LGBTQ Human Rights Campaign.
He voted to impeach then-President Donald Trump for inciting a “mob action” at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Mr. Trump’s incitement consisted of urging his supporters to protest peacefully.
Mr. Kinzinger supported the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Act — to further weaken our immigration laws — and the Ensuring Access to Abortion Act of 2022, and he has said he’s open to a ban on assault weapons.
But no one reflects the spirit of anti-Trump Republicans better than Mr. Kinzinger. “I never thought I’d be endorsing a Democrat for president,” he intones, but “Donald Trump poses a direct threat to fundamental American values.”
And which fundamental values would those be — open borders, inflation that is crippling the middle class and censorship?
While Republicans for Harris rallied their forces, Mr. Trump picked up endorsements from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., scion of America’s most illustrious Democratic family, and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who destroyed Ms. Harris in a Democratic candidates debate in 2019.
Mr. Kennedy charges that “in the name of saving democracy, a Democratic Party set itself to dismantle it” by maneuvering to keep him off the ballot wherever possible. Democracy means ensuring that voters have as few choices as possible.
Mr. Kinzinger says, “I know Kamala Harris shares my allegiance to the rule of law, the Constitution and democracy.”
Her party’s allegiance to democracy includes packing the Supreme Court, giving the vote to noncitizens, letting our cities burn in 2020, weaponizing the Justice Department, allowing the genital mutilation of minors and undermining the First and Second amendments.
In a 2020 interview, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz told MSNBC, “There is no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech and especially around our democracy.”
“Misinformation” like Hunter Biden’s laptop, which the FBI got Facebook to block, helping to swing the 2020 election? Naturally, the left gets to decide what constitutes hate speech, such as the bigoted remark that there are only two genders.
In part, fear and loathing of The Donald is a class thing. RINOs such as Mr. Weld and Mr. LeBoutillier are to the manner born and hate the idea of their party being invaded by the great unwashed.
Mr. Weld is a descendant of both a signer of the Declaration of Independence and one of the earliest students at Harvard (class of 1650). Two of the university’s buildings are named for his family.
Social register Republicans resent that Mr. Trump has turned the GOP into a true working-class party.
Republicans for Harris belong to a receding past of country clubs, trust-fund babies and disdain for social conservatives.
After the election, Harris Republicans will be rewarded for their service to the establishment.
They’re keeping a seat warm for Mr. Kinzinger on ABC’s “The View,” where he will appear soon after Ms. Harris loses the election, wedged between Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar after he changes his pronouns.
• Don Feder is a columnist with The Washington Times.
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