Why do Republicans still work for Trump? Especially when the White House is a COVID hotspot?

I get asked all the time, “Why do people who you know find Donald Trump reprehensible, still work for him?” Based on the numerous conversations I’ve had with my own Republican friends over the last four years, the answer I always give is simple, and yet complicated to those unfamiliar with the inner workings of Washington D.C. and politics.

There are some, who I would charitably describe as true believers. People who genuinely support an anti-immigrant, white nationalist, isolationist agenda that masquerades under the alias of “America first.” Stephen Miller comes to mind.

Putting those few aside, I believe the majority of people who serve in the Trump administration do so because they are programmed to work for the person with an “R” next to their name. These people have been bred into a system that only views the world in terms of “Rs” and “Ds.” Never mind the fact that all of the things that used to constitute Republican orthodoxy — fiscal restraint, government accountability, oversight, and limited executive power — have been completely abandoned. This is their team and it’s the only team they have ever known.

My history with the Republican Party

When I left the Republican Party after the 2016 election, there was no Lincoln Project waiting to embrace me. It would be another four years before that pirate ship would set sail. In recent months, I’ve had a fair number of people tell me that if the Lincoln Project had existed four years ago, maybe that’s where they would have ended up instead of still serving a master who makes them cringe.

They were not willing to gamble with the uncertainty that I confronted at the dawn of Trumpism. Candidly, I had no idea where my next paycheck was going to come from. I lived off my credit card. Fell into debt. The professional network of Republican operatives, consultants and lobbyists I had spent a decade of my life in Washington cultivating was now gone.

This is the conundrum that keeps so many people locked in place, working for a political party that is no longer recognizable to them. The people I’ve talked to have spouses, kids, mortgages, financial responsibilities that won’t just evaporate. Like most people, they act out of self-interest and necessity.

In recent weeks, COVID-19 has swept across the upper echelon of the Republican Party, infecting everyone from the president of the United States to the chair of the Republican National Committee. Three U.S. senators, Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien, outside advisers like Chris Christie, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany and two of her deputies have all tested positive for the coronavirus.

To those who have resisted acting out of conscience and continue to prop up this radicalized incarnation of the Republican Party, to this point, I understand. I disagree with you, but having walked that path of uncertainty for many years, I know why you’ve allowed that fear to hijack your conscience. But the time has now come to act, not just out of conscience and the common good, but out of self-interest as well.

Dangerous president: Trump made it hard for me to protect America. How could I vote for him again? How could anyone?

We know that the White House knew about senior adviser Hope Hicks’ positive coronavirus test before a fundraising event in New Jersey took place, but, though he was in close proximity to her, without wearing a mask, Trump and his top aides allowed the event to move forward, thereby risking exposure to everyone who attended the event. On Thursday, we learned that the White House outbreak was larger than first reported, with 34 staffers contracting the coronavirus.

Anyone who might have been hoping that the president’s run-in with COVID-19 would sober him up to the recklessness of his conduct and rhetoric was once again sorely disappointed. Tweeting last week before he left Walter Reed hospital on Oct. 5, Trump declared, “Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life…I feel better than I did 20 years ago!” Upon his return to the White House, Trump defiantly removed his mask and said in a video: “I know there’s a risk, there’s a danger, but that’s OK.”

A week later he was back on the campaign trail at a Sanford, Florida rally where his fans sat and stood shoulder to shoulder, without social distancing, and many did not wear masks. "I’m very young and I’m in such perfect shape," Trump said, and suggested he would kiss everyone in the audience.

Your president put you in harm's way

The White House entourage is considered so high-risk that some news organizations are refusing to travel with Trump, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said last week he hasn't been to the White House since early August due to lax COVID rules.

To my former Republican colleagues, I ask you, is working for Trump worth your own life or the lives of your spouse, children and loved ones? It doesn’t matter what job you get next, what contract you land, what promotion you’re up for, if you’re dead.

Think about it. Those you serve have knowingly put you in harm’s way. They don’t care about your health. They don’t care about your life. Knowing what they know now, they would gladly sacrifice your well-being again. To them, you are invisible. You are replaceable. You are disposable.

Tainting the nation with incivility: Trump hasn’t 'saved Christianity' and Christians shouldn’t save his presidency

Go home tonight and find the people you hold most dear, look at them, talk to them, Zoom with them. Ask them, how would their lives change if you were no longer in theirs. Take an inventory of what they say. How they make you feel. Now ask yourself if the people you go to work with, who you report to, who you answer to, make you feel the same way. Ask yourself if the president you serve would even notice if you were suddenly gone from the face of this Earth.

You weren’t willing to quit and speak out for the good of our country. Are you willing to do it for the good of your own health and life?

Kurt Bardella is a senior adviser for The Lincoln Project and a member of USA Today’s Board of Contributors. He was the spokesperson and senior adviser for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Republicans from 2009-2013. Follow him on Twitter: @kurtbardella

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: COVID hotspot: Trump aides are risking their lives at the White House