After some hesitation, Sen. Susan Collins has declared that she will not vote for the presidential nominee of her party, citing his many personal failings.
Among other reasons, Collins cites Donald Trump’s abuse of minorities and people who cannot defend themselves, his “complete disregard for common decency” and his reckless, uninformed grasp of national security matters.
The senator adds, however, that in this most fateful of elections, she won’t vote for Trump’s Democratic opponent either. Who knows what she will do in the privacy of the voting booth, where she will confront her conscience?
As former U.S. State Department employees, both career and civil service, we are not admirers of Hillary Clinton’s tenure there.
For four years she ran our foreign ministry with a coterie of personal loyalists. Her decision to manage her communications using a server at her home in New York, insulating herself from the government department for which she was responsible, was a symptom of this unfortunate management style. Her travels around the world involved too many photo ops and too few negotiations in which her prestige might have been put to good use. The shambolic “reform” of the State Department she commissioned devalued a career in the Foreign Service.
That said, this election is not a choice between the lesser of two evils.
In explaining her decision not to support Trump, Collins cites his lack of empathy toward the Muslim-American Khan family, who lost a son in Iraq. She has recalled that her father, a World War II veteran, taught her to respect the sacrifices made by our men and women in uniform.
She might have noted as well that the most consequential of presidential responsibilities is to serve as their commander in chief. Like his or her predecessors, the next president will be a wartime president. Under the 2002 Authorization to Use Military Force, the United States maintains forces in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and many other places around the globe. As commander in chief, the president holds their lives in his hands. This is the most solemn responsibility the chief magistrate of our republic is called upon to discharge.
Trump boasted that he knows more about defeating Islamic State than “the generals.” He said that he gets his information about military matters from “the shows,” meaning the cable news programs he watches obsessively.
He suggested that his time at a military-themed high school, where he was probably not sent for good behavior, involved “ more training militarily than a lot of guys who go into the military.” He demeaned the military service of Sen. John McCain, a fellow Republican and an American hero.
One of us served for three years at the U.S. Central Command as political adviser and another period in dealing with counterterrorism. The other conducted table-top war games and high-level discussions on critical national security, political and economic challenges.
Both of us have seen enough of our men and women in uniform over the years to have a deep admiration and affection for them. The prospect that a man like Trump could be their commander in chief fills us with loathing. Trump is not fit to lace the desert boots of a man like Capt. Humayun Khan. Despite some shortcomings, only one candidate has the personal qualities to serve as commander in chief.
Voters in Maine and across the country should pay attention to the positions of an overwhelming majority of officials from past Republican administrations who have come out squarely against Trump’s candidacy, many of them saying they will vote for Clinton. They include Brent Scowcroft, the national security adviser to President George H.W. Bush, and Richard Armitage, deputy secretary of state to Colin Powell.
On Aug. 8, 50 top Republican leaders, including former top officials of the CIA, State and Defense departments, even a close aide to Dick Cheney, released a statement that said Trump has “little understanding of the nation’s vital national interests,” and would be “the most reckless president in American history.” They added:
“He is unable or unwilling to separate truth from falsehood. He lacks self-control and acts impetuously. He cannot tolerate personal criticism. He has alarmed our closest allies with his erratic behavior. All of these are dangerous qualities in an individual who aspires to be president and commander-in-chief, with command of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.”
Collins is to be commended for breaking with her party. At the same time, she would do well to recall one of President John F. Kennedy’s favorite lines from Dante: “The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who, in a period of moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.”
Laurence Pope served in senior positions in the Department of State during a 30-year career, and as charge d’affaires in Libya after the assassination of Ambassador Christopher Stevens. Frederic B. Hill was a foreign correspondent for The Baltimore Sun and later a policy analyst in the State Department. Both live in Maine.