Last fall, Kyle Sweetser was a Republican, but an unhappy one. For the third time in a row, Donald Trump had secured his party’s nomination for president — this time without anyone being able to credibly deny what MAGA actually meant for America. The GOP candidate had already been president once, during which time he floated bleach as an antiviral and rejected the outcome of a free and fair election, urging a mob of his supporters to march on the U.S. Capitol and demand that he remain in power despite a majority of Americans asking him to leave.
As a small businessman in Mobile, Alabama, Sweetser, who voted for Trump the first time around, had been hurt by the president’s rejection of a traditional conservative value: free trade. Tariffs on steel imports had raised costs for his construction firm, but the president, from his perspective, seemed unperturbed by the impacts of his erratic approach to trade policy. Still, what was a Republican to do in 2020: Vote Democrat?
