Bill Bumgarner is a retired former health care executive from northwest Iowa who worked
in hospital management for 41 years, predominantly in the state of Iowa.

I live in a region of Iowa where about 68 percent of voters cast their ballot for Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

Naturally, that overwhelming majority included many of my friends, neighbors, and those with whom I’ve joined to help enhance our community. I like and respect these people for reasons that have nothing to do with electoral politics. 

They’re devoted to the principles of what was the traditional Republican Party, no less than I’m committed to the values of the Democratic Party. My friends wrinkle their noses over Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton just as I shook my head about Mitt Romney and George W. Bush. 

I get all that. Not so long ago, we simply engaged in normal and healthy partisan wrangling.

However, the 2024 presidential election is not normal. We’re not debating tax cuts versus entitlements, or limited government versus a more engaged government.

It’s also not the same as the 2016 election, when Donald Trump was presumed by Republicans and many independents as a “shake things up” kind of guy. Yet there was no doubt, they believed, he’d largely hew to traditional GOP orthodoxy. 

That’s not how it’s played out. Not at all. Things have evolved to grow dark—unhinged really—as Trump’s chaotic and divisive presidential term has given way to his increasingly bizarre and disturbing third campaign for the White House.    

As his campaign rallies and interviews showcase a man in physical, cognitive, and emotional decline, I urge my Republican friends to take a moment to reassess the risks that another vote for Trump portends.

Trump lies in a manner and frequency unrivaled by any major American politician of our time, perhaps any time. His lying is well documented. It’s as if loyal Republicans are expected to accept Trump’s lies as some type of a cute foible rather than the appalling lack of character it actually represents. Lies, by anyone, are often not harmless. My friends know they would never abide such behavior from their children, co-workers, or people who hold positions of trust in our community. 

The former president continues to insist he did not lose the 2020 presidential election. He falsely claims victory was stolen from him due to widespread voting irregularities in several swing states. This lie has been proven overwhelmingly false through both vote recounts and in the courts. Trump’s rantings about election fraud are a shameless affront to good citizens—of both political parties—who work tirelessly year-over-year to ensure free and fair elections.

My friends know Trump’s unrelenting effort to undermine confidence in our election system, one of the hallmarks of American democracy, is dishonest and wrong. While many Republicans may not view the events Trump inspired on January 6, 2021 as an insurrection, they also know it wasn’t a harmless coming together of his supporters. The assault on the U.S. Capitol that day tragically resulted in five deaths and scores of injuries, predominantly to law enforcement officers. Trump has indicated that if elected again, he may pardon some of the criminals who’ve either pleaded guilty or been convicted by juries of their peers. To date, that totals over 1,000 people. That too, my friends know, is wrong.

The Republican presidential ticket, Trump and U.S. Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, advocate for policy positions and make casual statements that are openly hostile to women. In a unanimous jury verdict in a civil court proceeding last year, Trump was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation. Sexual abuse. Yet, he can still rely on broad support from Republican members of Congress and in statehouses across America, including here in Iowa. I shudder to understand how my friends can vote for anyone who holds women in such contempt. 

Time and again, during three runs for the presidency, Trump has dishonored American active military members and veterans. He cringed at the optics of disabled veterans appearing at his public events.  Then, of course, there’s the well documented incident when he called all who have served selflessly, and those who died, as “suckers and losers.” Most recently, The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg chronicled Trump’s “disdain for those who serve in the military” and preference for “the kind of generals that Hitler had.”

My friends—who I witness holding their hand over their heart during the National Anthem or Pledge of Allegiance at community gatherings—fully know Trump’s disrespect for members of our military and veterans is vile and wrong.

Americans also have legitimate reasons to be suspect of Trump’s loyalty to the Constitution. He openly praises autocrats such as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Trump is critical of NATO, a security alliance essential to preserving freedom in Western Europe and North America. For more than 75 years every U.S. president, from both political parties, has steadfastly supported this mutual defense pact. Most of my Republican friends know Trump’s scorn for NATO risks making our world less safe.

In defiance of even many Republicans in Congress, Trump and Vance downplay the urgency of Ukraine’s courageous battle against raw Russian aggression. Might Trump change U.S. policy to essentially surrender all or part of Ukraine to Putin? Also, we’ve yet to learn the full scope of Trump’s alleged mishandling of top-secret intelligence documents when he transitioned out of the presidency in 2021. It’s not hyperbole to be concerned that this former president may be a national security risk.    

Most recently, Trump has signaled his willingness to use the National Guard or the active military to constrain American citizens he perceives to be ardent critics. “The enemy within,” he calls them. I guess that could include me for writing unfavorable commentaries such as this. Would my friends be content to witness me—a vocal Trump critic—be subject to penalty without even-handed due process? Is that their view of a just and honorable America?

Given his many discordant behaviors and deeds, widely outside the norms of historical American politics and governance, no substantial policy position exists to warrant a vote for Trump. There’s no tax cut, regulatory roll-back or small government initiative worth entrusting the awesome powers of the presidency to such an unfit and broken human being. A man, let’s not forget, who’s presently on bail release following a criminal conviction earlier this year—by a jury—for falsifying business records. 

It’s my hope that more of my Republican friends will come to realize, finally, this dalliance with Trump has gone much too far. That preserving our freedoms and way of life—hard earned over many generations, yet fragile—now demand turning away from him.   

But hope is not a strategy or a solution. So I’ll join others in the effort to encourage Democrats—and the Republicans and independents who’ve previously rejected MAGA extremism—to step up and vote in high numbers to ensure America remains free and democratic.