Opinion: If you think Democrats fear Trump, you should hear Republicans who worked for him

Conservatives and independents shouldn’t pay much mind to liberals like me who fear what might happen if Donald Trump becomes the next president. We are legion, but our opinions are predictable.

No, the people worth paying attention to as we close in on next month’s election are the Republicans who fear what might happen if Trump wins. They are also large in number, and growing, but more important, their voices are anything but predictable.

They are, in fact, remarkable. I certainly can’t recall a time when this many high-ranking and notable members of a political party have outright rejected their own party’s presidential nominee. With former President Trump, it has happened and continues to happen over and over again.

Respected Republicans from two key swing states endorse Harris

On Thursday, influential former U.S. Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, a Republican who served in Congress for 36 years, endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, saying of Trump: “He's just totally unhinged. We don't need this chaos. We need to move forward, and that's why I'm where I am.”

Also Thursday, Wisconsin’s longest-serving Republican lawmaker, state Sen. Robert Cowles of Green Bay, announced: “I plan on voting for Harris.”

“Trump has to be defeated, and we have to protect the Constitution. And the country will go on even with some liberal things that Harris might do, or might not do,” Cowles said. “You have to have the foundation of the Constitution, to protect democracy. If you don’t have that, we will disappear.”

Opinion: Fox host defends Trump's praise of Hitler's generals. Maybe they weren't Nazis?

That’s two key Republican leaders in two key swing states, both denouncing Trump and endorsing Harris on the same day, less than two weeks before the election.

Let's not forget Trump's former VP won't even back him

Of course, any conversation of Republicans recognizing how wildly unfit Trump is to be president should start and stop with former Vice President Mike Pence. In March, the man who served next to the former president said he “could not in good conscience” support Trump.

Pence told Fox News: “It should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year.”

It still comes as a bit of surprise, though, one that often gets overlooked. Trump’s own vice president doesn’t think he’s fit to be president, largely because of the whole “trying to overturn the election” and “almost getting Mike Pence killed” thing on Jan. 6, 2021. That should be a pretty big red flag for voters.

But Pence is one of oh so many.

Generals who served under Trump make clear he's unfit

In the news this week you’ve heard about Trump’s former chief of staff, retired four-star Marine Gen. John Kelly, saying Trump envied Adolf Hitler’s generals and repeatedly claimed Hitler “did some good things.”

Kelly also said Trump “certainly falls into the general definition of fascists.”

Opinion: Trump's MAGA base might want to brace themselves – Harris could win

Earlier this month, we learned in a new book by Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward that retired Gen. Mark Milley, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump, called the Republican presidential nominee “fascist to the core."

Mark Esper, Trump’s former secretary of Defense, told CNN this Jan. 6: “I do regard him as a threat to democracy, democracy as we know it, our institutions, our political culture, all those things that make America great and have defined us as, you know, the oldest democracy on this planet.”

'If you vote for Kamala Harris in 2024, you're not a Democrat. You're a patriot.'

Stephanie Grisham, who served as White House press secretary under Trump, endorsed Harris and spoke at the Democratic National Convention this summer, saying that Trump has "no empathy, no morals and no fidelity to the truth.”

Lifelong Republican and former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan also spoke at the DNC and said, “Let me be clear to my Republican friends at home watching: If you vote for Kamala Harris in 2024, you’re not a Democrat. You’re a patriot.”

Last December, Alyssa Farah Griffin, communications director in the Trump White House, told ABC News: “Fundamentally, a second Trump term could mean the end of American democracy as we know it, and I don't say that lightly. I'm very concerned about what the term would actually look like.”

Cheneys and former Bush attorney general? Not exactly liberals.

In September, Alberto Gonzales, former U.S. attorney general and counsel to the president in George W. Bush’s administration, wrote in Politico: "As the United States approaches a critical election, I can’t sit quietly as Donald Trump – perhaps the most serious threat to the rule of law in a generation – eyes a return to the White House. For that reason, though I’m a Republican, I’ve decided to support Kamala Harris for president.”

Both former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter, former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, conservatives to the bone, have denounced Trump and endorsed Harris.

More than 200 Republicans who previously worked for former President George W. Bush, Sen. Mitt Romney and the late Sen. John McCain signed an open letter in August endorsing Harris over Trump.

The letter read, in part: “Of course, we have plenty of honest, ideological disagreements with Vice President Harris. ... That’s to be expected. The alternative, however, is simply untenable.”

Not enough room to list all the GOP endorsements of Harris

I could go on listing Republicans who have spoken out about the threat Trump poses, but I don’t have the space or the time. That fact alone should be disqualifying for Trump.

As the final days of this campaign tick away, I hope voters see the red-flashing lights and hear the warnings coming from liberals like myself who believe that a second Trump term would be calamitous.

Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store.

But I hope even more that they hear and listen to the people who served alongside Trump, the people who know him best and are part of the same political party, the people who are flashing those same red lights and sending the same loud warnings.

Fear of Trump, in our wildly divided nation, is a strikingly bipartisan issue. That should tell you something. I pray it does.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on X, formerly Twitter, @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk

You can read diverse opinions from our USA TODAY columnists and other writers on the Opinion front page, on X, formerly Twitter, @usatodayopinion and in our Opinion newsletter.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Opinion: GOP endorsements for Harris grow as they admit Trump is unfit