Trump's impeachment prompts Indiana official to leave the 'cultish' Republican Party

Trumpism has inspired a long list of prominent conservatives to leave the Republican Party after many years, from journalist George Will to former GOP Rep. Joe Scarborough to former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt. And similarly, Ed Adams — known for his work as a Republican precinct committeeman in Marion County, Indiana — announced his resignation from the GOP last week. Trump’s impeachment, according to the Indianapolis Star’s Amelia Pak-Harvey, was, for Adams, the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“After watching the impeachment process transpire,” Adam asserted in his resignation letter, “it has become patently obvious that nothing remains of the party I knew and faithfully served. It has become the party of Donald Trump with cultish enthusiasm.”

Adams, born in the early 1960s, has been voting in presidential elections since 1984 —when he voted to reelect President Ronald Reagan. In his resignation letter, Adams explained why, for months, he resisted leaving the GOP and stepping down as a precinct committeeman in Marion County (which includes Indianapolis).

“I really wanted to be one of the last guys hanging around with the janitorial mop and bucket to clean up the mess when it’s all done — because at some point, Trump will be done,” Adams explained. “He’ll be gone. But the question is: what’s left? But right now, I just don’t see anything left.”

During Trump’s impeachment trial, Adams complained, Republicans “repeatedly insulated” him “at every turn.”

“For the life of me,” Adams lamented, “I don’t understand why people don’t want the truth. American people deserve the truth, and why are (Republicans) enabling the hiding of truth?”