NORTHAMPTON – Local Republican Party activists stand on both sides of the schism over the rise of presumptive nominee Donald Trump.
As the first day of the Republican National Convention kicked off in Cleveland, Republican leaders from western Massachusetts offered both criticism and tributes to Trump.
“How can I put this?” asked John Andrulis, a state committeeman for the Massachusetts Republican Party who lives in Leeds. “I think Donald Trump is the worst thing to happen to the Republican Party since Watergate.”
Andrulis said he believes that Trump has run a “nasty” campaign and is unqualified to be the nominee for president.
“The man is irrational and inconsistent,” he said. “He does not strike me as intelligent.”
But this is a party divided. As a show of protest, a number of Republican governors and senators chose to forgo the convention, citing Trump’s lack of experience in government and erratic Twitter behavior.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who ran against Trump in the primary elections, still has not declared his support for the candidate, despite the convention taking place in his state.
Meantime, several politicians have even given their best excuses for not showing up, further deepening the rift.
Florida Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart has been quoted as saying that he will be busy getting his hair done. U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona told the Associated Press, “I’ve got to mow my lawn.”
There was even a failed last-minute attempt last week to allow pledged delegates to amend their initial votes and choose someone other than Trump.
Andrulis said that he joined the Republican Party because he looked up to Republicans like Dwight D. Eisenhower and Abraham Lincoln, and because he supports the idea of a free market.
In this election, however, Andrulis said he fears what Trump will do on a day-to-day basis if he becomes president, and predicts that come November he will either leave his ballot blank or vote for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson. “I think Trump will lose,” he said, though he added with sarcasm that “Hillary (Clinton) is every bit as good as Trump.”
Joseph Tarantino, chairman of the Northampton Republican City Committee and a guest at the RNC this year, said he would ask Republican Trump dissenters to “think long and hard” about what he described as the “Clinton-Obama” approach to leading the country. He believes they should ask themselves if they want another four years of that.
“I think that it’s time for everybody to kind of get together for a common purpose, which is to stop Hillary Clinton,” Tarantino said. “The time to complain about Trump being the nominee is over.”
Tarantino, who also was a guest at the 2012 convention which nominated Mitt Romney, said he voted for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in this year’s primary election. He said that while some of Trump’s comments can be a “shock to the system” and off-putting to fellow Republicans, he believes Trump has a viable chance at winning the election in November.
Tarantino said the 2012 RNC was much more rehearsed, and that there was no dissent directed at Romney. But Trump’s campaign, Tarantino said, is only strengthened by “Republican establishment types” who refuse to support him, because Trump is appealing to those who dislike establishment-type politicians.
“It’s almost as if they’re doing him a favor,” Tarantino said of mainstream opposition within the party. “It’s his to lose, at this point, regardless of what the polls say. I think people are going to be surprised with how successful it is.” While Tarantino admitted that the convention could get rowdy this year, with tensions regarding recent incidents of terrorism and police shootings, he said he is not nervous for his personal safety.
Tarantino said he hopes some topics of discussion at the convention center around government corruption, which he believes includes Clinton’s email problem while secretary of state.
Jourdain, the Holyoke delegate, said he is looking forward to “great entertainment” at the convention and a chance to mingle with elected officials and national media personalities. “It’s akin to going to the World Series,” Jourdain said. “It’s the World Series of politics.”
Jourdain has been to five Republican conventions and has cast votes for Romney, John McCain and George Bush over the years. He said he has faith that Trump will address issues such as the national debt and trade deals with Mexico and China.
“The party is very much united around his candidacy … and very opposed to Hillary Clinton,” Jourdain said. “There’s a real gridlock in Washington, and he is somebody that will cut through that paralysis of both parties.”
Robert Grove, chairman of the Western Massachusetts Republicans Political Action Committee, said this campaign is unlike anything he has seen before, so it will be interesting to watch Trump complete his platform. Grove said he hopes Trump will make clear his stances are key points, such as foreign policy and employment for American workers.
“I think I’m going to be as interested as everyone in seeing how this plays out this week,” Grove said. “The Trump campaign has broken all the metrics. This is something entirely different than we’ve seen in the past, and I think people are still looking at this campaign to try and get a good sense and feel of it.”
This isn’t the first time the RNC has been chaotic, Grove said, and just because things are not “buttoned-down” does not mean that the entire party will unravel. Ultimately, the campaign should be a good platform to smooth things out and make them clearer, he said. “Sometimes these things are chaos just by their nature and construct,” Grove said. “Politics is chaos.”