Sen. Lisa Murkowski isn’t your typical undecided voter. She’s not only extremely well informed about the presidential candidates and their positions on important issues. She also has an excellent view of the inside workings of Congress and the Republican Party. But when it comes to voting in the upcoming election, she says she stuck on “none of the above.”
That’s not a responsible option, according to former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.).
“I don’t believe that we have the luxury of writing in candidates’ names, particularly in swing states,” she said when endorsing Harris earlier this month. “As a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this. Because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris.”
Cheney is doing that even though Wyoming is the reddest state in the country. And Murkowski, who has been questioning Trump’s fitness for office since before the last election, should understand why.
Let’s step back to March when Trump installed Lara Trump, his daughter-in-law, to be the co-chair of the Republican National Committee. Donald Trump Jr. immediately declared that “America First, the MAGA movement is the new Republican Party.” And he referred to traditional Republicans like Mitt Romneyand Liz Cheney as “a rare and dying breed.”
Cheney’s a relative newcomer to that group. She was a staunch conservative who tolerated Trump’s character flaws until he refused to accept defeat in the 2020 election and followed that two-month-long act by refusing to call off the hundreds of his supporters who violently attacked the Capitol.
She wasn’t the only Republican to be repulsed by his behavior that day. But the moral outrage expressed by most of the others was short-lived. All but 10 House Republicans found excuses to vote against the impeachment resolution approved by Democrats. And all but the seven Senate Republicans voted to acquit him.
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) held Trump “practically and morally responsible” for the attack on the Capitol. It was “a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories, and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth.”
But he used the fact Trump was no longer in office to justify acquitting him. But he also argued that “former presidents are not immune from being held accountable” in the nation’s criminal justice system.
Then after Trump was indicted, Republicans accused President Joe Biden of weaponizing the Department of Justice against his political opponent. His attorneys argued that presidents have absolute immunity against criminal prosecution. The U.S. Supreme Court didn’t buy that entirely, but the six conservative justices did grant him a level of immunity that was nowhere to be found in the Constitution. And all but a few Republicans cheered that ruling.
Murkowski wasn’t one of them. She still believes personal character matters. But to appease a compulsive liar and his faithful supporters, the party shelved that idea long ago.
Republicans also betrayed one of their traditional law and order ideals. They may still claim to believe that the integrity of our justice system is undermined every time a defense attorney successfully uses technicalities to get criminal indictments against their clients dismissed. But for Trump and the lawyers representing him, they’ve conveniently carved out a huge exception.
And because the MAGAfied Republican Party and the justice system failed to hold him accountable, Murkowski knows that responsibility has fallen to the voters.
She needs to follow Cheney’s lead and endorse Harris. She may strongly disagree with some of her liberal policies. But she can strenuously oppose them from her seat in the Senate.
What she won’t be able to do if Trump wins is ensure his extreme, divisive rhetoric doesn’t lead to more political violence. Or prevent his narcissistic impulses from doing long-term or permanent damage to the constitutional order. And she definitely can’t trust that the Republican Party flying under the flag of MAGA will do anything to check his likely abuses of presidential power.
That makes sitting on the “none of the above” fence sets an irresponsible example for other undecided voters seeking to fulfill their civic duty.
• Rich Moniak is a Juneau resident and retired civil engineer with more than 25 years of experience working in the public sector. Columns, My Turns and Letters to the Editor represent the view of the author, not the view of the Juneau Empire. Have something to say? Here’s how to submit a My Turn or letter.
