Former Republicans opposed to Donald Trump are working to give conservatives "permission" to vote for a Democrat

Robert Nix, a 62-year-old lawyer from Philadelphia, was a lifelong Republican before Donald Trumpcame to office.
He’s voted red in every election since he turned 18, and things were no different in 2016 when he voted for the GOP candidate.
⭐️But Nix quickly felt he had made a mistake. He was bothered by Trump’s boisterous comments and attacks on freedom of the press.
By the time the next election rolled around in 2020, Nix put aside his ideological differences with President Joe Biden and voted Democrat for the first time in his life.
“I wasn't happy about it, but I didn't see any choice,” Nix said in an interview with Salon. This year, he’s encouraging others to do the same.

❇️ Nix is one of hundreds of Republicans sharing their experience in the hopes it will resonate with center-right voters in swing states like Pennsylvania.

He is part of "Republican Voters Against Trump" ( #RVAT ),
a $3.5 million ad campaign started by "Defending Democracy Together",
an advocacy organization for conservatives "dedicated to defending America’s democratic norms, values, and institutions."

In 2020, the same group launched a similar project, dubbed Republican Accountability, to share testimonials from conservative voters on their decision not to vote for Trump and encourage others to vote blue.

This year's campaign has the same objective:
to use personal stories to reach center-right voters in battleground states who are concerned about Trump but hesitant to vote Democratic for the first time.
“The campaign is a community of these voters who feel politically homeless, who need a new home, who want to reject Donald Trump, but don't necessarily identify as Democrats,” John Conway, RVAT's director of strategy, said in an interview with Salon.

⭐️RVAT’s website has over 300 recorded testimonies from former-Trump voters who are voting Democrat this time around.
Voters share the dangers of a second Trump term and encourage other conservatives to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Many of the testimonies, including Nix’s, are also on billboards and streaming service ads in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Kyle Sweetser, a 35-year-old construction worker and father of two from Mobile, Ala., voted for Trump in both 2016 and 2020.
As a small business owner in the South, Sweetser liked that Trump was "business minded" and thought he would bring a fresh perspective to the Oval Office.
When Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum in 2018, Sweetser directly felt the effects on his construction business and started to question Trump's economic policy.
He still voted Republican in 2020, but did so reluctantly. After the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, however, Sweetser lost all faith in the former president.
Trump winning the Republican primary earlier this year "shook" Sweetser "to the core," he said.
He decided he would vote Democrat for the first time in his life this fall.
Like Nix, Sweetser started speaking out against Trump, mostly criticizing his views on the economy and approach to foreign policy.
With his children's futures in mind, he even spoke at the Democratic National Conventionin August.
"I really started to really look at Trump's record under a microscope and realize how wrong he was, you know, on foreign policy, on trade, on the economy," he said in an interview with Salon.
"I've never really been somebody that goes online and talks about things, but I felt like it was the right thing to do."

salon.com/2024/09/17/depressed…

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Federal Judge #Aileen M. #Cannon, the controversial jurist who tossed out the classified documents criminal case against Donald Trump in July,
⚠️failed to disclose her attendance at a May 2023 banquet funded by a conservative law school.

Cannon went to an event in Arlington, Va. honoring the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, according to documents obtained from the Law and Economics Center at George Mason University.

At a lecture and private dinner, she sat among members of Scalia’s family, fellow Federalist Society members and more than 30 conservative federal judges.

Organizers billed the event as “an excellent opportunity to connect with judicial colleagues.”

⭐️A 2006 rule, intended to shine a light on judges’ attendance at paid seminars that could pose conflicts or influence decisions, requires them to file disclosure forms for such trips within 30 days and make them public on the court’s website.

It’s not the first time she has failed to fully comply with the rule.

❌In 2021 and 2022, Cannon took weeklong trips to the luxurious Sage Lodge in Pray, Montana, for legal colloquiums sponsored by George Mason, which named its law school for #Scalia thanks to $30 million in gifts that conservative judicial kingmaker #Leonard #Leo helped organize.

propublica.org/article/judge-a…

A photo that captures the bravery of Iran’s women: On the anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s killing, we must honor the movement that she sparked.

"This photo was taken by acclaimed Iranian photographer Yalda Moaiery a year after Amini’s killing. 'I found it fascinating how calm and relaxed this woman was, despite not adhering to the government-mandated dress code,' Moaiery said. 'It was as if she was living in a country where compulsory hijab had not been enforced for years!' It is one of the last photographs that Moaiery, who spent months in prison for covering the uprising, took before leaving Iran.

The events of Oct. 7 in Israel have brought Iran back to the world’s attention — for its ongoing support of Hezbollah and Hamas. Inside the Islamic republic, however, the state still considers Iranian women — not Israeli assassinations or U.S. sanctions — to be the biggest threat to its continued control of the country."

#Iran #misogyny
washingtonpost.com/opinions/20…