What does your congressman know that Trump’s senior staff doesn’t?

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U.S. Rep. Brad Finstad of Minnesota’s First Congressional District has endorsed Donald Trump for president. My question is, what does Finstad know that retired Gen. Mark Milley doesn’t? Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President Trump, has said of his former commander: “fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country.”

How about U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota’s Sixth District, who also endorsed Trump’s return to the White House? Certainly he must have some insights as to the character of Trump that John Bolton doesn’t. Bolton, the longtime conservative hawk and Trump’s hand-picked national security adviser, told CNN in August: “He can’t tell the difference between what’s true and what’s false. It’s not that he lies a lot, because to lie, you have to do it consciously. He just can’t tell the difference. So he makes up what he wants to say at any given time. If it happens to comport with what everybody else sees, well, that’s fine. And if it doesn’t comport with anybody else, he doesn’t really care, and he’s had decades of getting away with it. So in his mind, the truth is whatever he wants it to be.”

U.S. Rep. Michelle Fischbach of Minnesota’s Seventh District is also a Trump supporter. Maybe she has some intuitions that have eluded John Kelly, the longest-serving White House chief of staff for President Trump. In a statement to CNN, Kelly said: “What can I add that has not already been said? A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.’ A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’ A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family — for all Gold Star families — on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France.

“A person who is not truthful regarding his position on the protection of unborn life, on women, on minorities, on evangelical Christians, on Jews, on working men and women,” Kelly continued. “A person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about. A person who cavalierly suggests that a selfless warrior who has served his country for 40 years in peacetime and war should lose his life for treason — in expectation that someone will take action. A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.

“There is nothing more that can be said,” Kelly concluded. “God help us.”

U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber of Minnesota’s Eighth District is another Trump endorser. Does he have an understanding of Trump the person that William Barr doesn’t? Barr, Trump’s attorney general who protected Trump from being held accountable for the obstruction of justice evidence detailed in the Mueller report, told CBS in June that the former president “is a consummate narcissist. And he constantly engages in reckless conduct. … He will always put his own interests, and gratifying his own ego, ahead of everything else, including the country’s interests. Our country can’t, you know, can’t be a therapy session for you know, a troubled man like this.”

Barr also told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that “the former president should not be anywhere near the Oval Office.”

U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden of the Third Congressional District in southwestern Wisconsin continues to support Donald Trump. How does he explain his support of Trump to Mark Esper? In 2022 Esper, Trump’s Secretary of Defense, told CNN: “I think he’s unfit for office. … He puts himself before country. His actions are all about him and not about the country. And then, of course, I believe he has integrity and character issues as well.”

Milley, Kelly, Bolton, Barr and Esper are not the only senior advisers of the former president who refuse to endorse another Trump term. Former Vice President Mike Pence, former Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, lawyer Ty Cobb and more than 100 former White House staff and GOP leaders have refused to endorse Donald Trump.

Moving on from Trump, however, will not end Trumpism. That will only happen when Republican leaders, congressmen, legislators and local party officials stop enabling his vile rhetoric, lies and threats.

We should aspire to hold our governmental institutions in high regard, be supportive of our collective need for the structure and the order they provide. Those who choose to serve should embrace their obligation of being held to high standards and the responsibility to be a positive element of a respectful community.

However, it’s not only the responsibility of those who choose to run for office. We, the voters, we all need to do our part. To sustain and preserve the democracy we have inherited, we all need to take personal ownership of the conduct of our governmental institutions and the leaders we elect. At the end of the day, “the government” is all of us and a reflection of who we are.

To my Republican friends, and you are many, you have it in your hands and within your power to take back your once vibrant and proud party. Barry Goldwater was asked what qualities made a good, elected official, and he responded, “A courageous truth teller.” Not voting for Trump is not enough. Congressional, legislative candidates and local leaders hold the key. Let them know today that enough is enough and if they step up and become “courageous truth tellers” that you will have their back in this and future elections. If not, if they refuse to reject the politics of division, as I said, you have the power to hold the enablers of Trumpism accountable.

Tom Shea lives in Owatonna.