Michael Steele, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, writes:

I am an American, a conservative and a Republican, in that order. And I am voting for Joe Biden on Nov. 3.

Why?

It certainly is not because of political expediency. For me, it never has been. As a teenager growing up in a monolithically Democratic community, I recognized that the values articulated by President Ronald Reagan echoed those of my mother — a sharecropper’s daughter who worked in a laundry. I was, and am, convinced that conservative principles, individual initiative and free enterprise are the most effective means of empowering people to achieve the American Dream.

As an adult, I worked to advance those principles, first as GOP chair in one of the nation’s most Democratic counties, and, later, as party chair in one of the most Democratic states. I later chaired the Republican National Committee after two of the most devastating election cycles in GOP history.

An opportunist, I am not.

Yet, I cannot support the nominee of my party. [Continue reading…]