Posted on 11/08/2016 8:09:26 AM PST by servo1969
It is very hard to publicly affirm a position for nearly a year and to then, at the last minute, change one's mind.
Nevertheless, even as late as Election Day itself, I wish to address those conservatives and Republicans who have declared themselves Never-Trumpers.
I was one of you in vigorously opposing Trump's nomination -- on my national radio show and in my syndicated column. And I paid a price, as you have, in losing longtime supporters -- in my case any number of listeners who supported Trump from the outset and found my strong opposition to him disappointing and worse.
Unlike you, however, I did say from the beginning that if he were to be the nominee, I would vote for him.
On this Election Day, I am more convinced than ever that this was the right position. I even have to believe that in the wee hours of the night -- when worrying about the current and future state of our beloved country keeps you awake -- many of you have at least wondered whether you have taken the right position.
Most of you are simply too intelligent, too idealistic and too self-questioning not to have at least on occasion had second thoughts. If you understand -- and I cannot believe that most of you don't -- how destructive another four years of any Democrat in the White House, let alone the truly corrupt Hillary Clinton, would be, it is inconceivable that you have never questioned your Never-Trump position. Never-Trump, after all, is not the same as Never-Question.
To prove my point, one of my favorite Never-Trumpers, Jonah Goldberg, wrote in May: "If the election were a perfect tie, and the vote fell to me and me alone, I'd probably vote for none other than Donald Trump."
In that moment of exquisite honesty, Jonah acknowledged one of the most important moral arguments to be made for voting for Trump -- the Lesser of Two Evils argument.
To which conservatives who won't vote for Trump often respond: "The lesser of two evils is still evil."
Now, forgive me, but that it is a complete non sequitur, morally and intellectually unworthy of any conservative, religious or secular, who makes it. The only relevant moral lesson here is not that the lesser of two evil is still evil; it is that choosing the lesser of two evils, by definition, increases good. Would you amputate your leg if it might save your life? Or would you say that because losing your life and losing your leg are both evils, you won't amputate your leg because the lesser of two evils is still evil?
Then there is the Never-Trump argument that Donald Trump isn't a conservative. I agree that he hasn't been his whole life, because he probably never gave the subject of the differences between left and right five of minutes of serious thought (nor, if we are to be honest, did Republican presidential nominee John McCain, whom I also worked hard to elect). But Trump and Mike Pence and his top political advisors are well to the right of Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party. As Victor Davis Hanson wrote last week, in his plea to Never-Trumpers:
"On the Supreme Court, Obamacare, the debt, rebuilding the military, the Second Amendment, school choice, abortion, reforming the tax code, re-examining regulation, energy exploration and production, illegal immigration, sanctuary cities, and a host of other issues, the Republican ticket is the antithesis of Clinton/Kaine -- and is recognized as such by nearly all progressives."
Why isn't all that enough to vote for Trump?
Then there is the argument that electing Trump means that in the eyes of many Americans, especially young Americans, Trump will embody conservatism and Republicanism, and that would be a calamity.
On that noble concern, I am not willing to turn America over to four more years of leftism. First of all, the damage the left will do, if not permanent, will almost certainly last a generation. And I happen to think it could very well be permanent. Can you name a country outside of some formerly Communist countries (which had Communism forced on them), that chose to go left and has fully recovered from a generation of leftism?
Given the arguments in favor of voting for Trump, I see only three possible explanations for conservatives helping to elect Hillary Clinton.
One is that they are certain Donald Trump is so psychologically imbalanced that he will jeopardize America and the world. But they have to be certain of this. If they have any doubts, they have to vote for him -- because they are certain about Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. And between certitude and incertitude, one must always act on what is certain.
The second is their self-image: How can they, truly decent people, vote for someone who has exhibited the uncouth speech and behavior that Trump has? Or, as some have expressed it, "How can I explain to my daughter that I supported Donald Trump?"
As someone who also thinks of himself as decent, I think that saving America from Hillary Clinton, the Democrats, and the left is the most decent thing I can do. And as for your daughter, just have her speak to any of the millions of wonderful women who are voting for Donald Trump. They will provide your daughter with perfectly satisfying moral and woman-centered answers.
And the third explanation for the Never-Trump conservatives is they that they believe we will survive four more years of left-wing rule, and that America is really not in such bad shape anyway. That argument was made this weekend by a writer for National Review. "The United States of America is not a wreck," he reassures us. "The people who are telling you that it is -- on both sides -- are trying to sell you something. Don't buy it."
Question: What exactly am I, or Victor Davis Hanson, or Thomas Sowell, or at least half of The Wall Street Journal columnists, or millions of religious Jews, Protestants, Catholics and Mormons trying to "sell you"?
And second, that writer and others who think like him seem to be living in a different country than I am. Because compared to America at any time in its history except for the Civil War years, the country I am living in is indeed a wreck -- and getting worse each day, and in every way. After another four years of a Democrat in the White House the country called the United States will still be here, but America as envisioned since its founding -- as the world's beacon of individual liberty, Lincoln's "Last Best Hope of Earth" -- won't.
To think otherwise is willful self-delusion.
I admire Prager for his sanity. Medved, not so much.
This country has been in a functional interregnum for 8 years, IMO. There has been someone who has pretended to be President (The King, Le Roi, His Majesty, The Czar, blah blah blah)but it’s been nothing but lawlessness with respect to the US Constitution, and anarchy in the way its agencies oppress us - dearly.
Drain the swamp? Great idea, but the need is there still to suck up all the muck and mire, filth, turds and toxic waste that still doesn’t go down the drain. Not nearly enough - it has to be full cleansing, like a Super Fund cleanup, but in earnest and for reals.
Win or lose today we need to make sure that we purge the GOP of the never-trumpers. They are disloyal and are willing to sacrifice the party for their own ego.
I’m going to purge myself of the GOP, much easier to accomplish.
I have no use for these people, and there is no reason to support their ***damned party.
Never Trumpers simply aren’t leaders.
They are the flock of the flustered.
Let me just say what I said to my little sister when she asked me what I thought:
If Trump becomes President things may go bad or they may go quite well. It remains to be seen.
If Hillary becomes President things are going to go very bad, no doubt whatsoever. It’s not even a question of ‘if’ - only how soon and how bad.
That’s the choice before us.
I had no problem explaining my decision to vote for Trump - and in doing so vote for America - to my daughters. And I felt no need to resort to the "lesser evil" argument in order to do so.
Trump wasn't my first choice but you go to war with the army you have and he quickly became my only choice. I have become well acquainted with the concept of "insufficiently conservative" - to some, practically no one can ever possibly measure up. And many have examined Donald Trump and found him wanting. But there exists in him a combination of pragmatism and force of character and courage that I believe is exactly what our nation needs most - especially after nearly sixteen years of mealy-mouthed nitwits.
All in all a good essay from Prager.
“I admire Prager for his sanity. Medved, not so much.”
I agree. Medved cannot tell the difference between good and evil. Same with Beck and others.
Exactly, the Flight 93 argument. Hard to argue with. Fortunately, I’ve been an unabashed supporter since he and Melania descended the escalator. No one ever had to persuade me. Good job.
It’s funny what the ‘lesser evil’ has devolved into for Republicans during this election cycle. It used to be abortion and even the death penalty question among Catholics. Apparently not any longer! It’s prezel logic now.
Now I don’t even know what the ‘lesser evil’ would be for the NeverTrumpers who are Republicans. They just do not like Trump (even before accusations and audio tape) and I think it’s because he goes against their common wisdom and isn’t ‘pure’ enough.
"I am not among those who fear the people. They...are our dependence for continued freedom. And to preserve their independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds...our people...must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses; and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they (the British) now do, on oatmeal and potatoes; have no time to think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account; but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers....This example reads to us the salutary lesson that private fortunes are destroyed by public, as well as by private extravagance. And this is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from the principle in one instance, becomes a precedent for a second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery, to have no sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering. Then begins, indeed, the 'bellum omnium in omnia,' which some philosophers...have mistaken for the natural, instead of the abusive, state of man. And the fore-horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression." - Thomas Jefferson
If you live in a closed primary state it’d probably make more sense to change party registration so you can have some control over the kind of lunatics emerging on the left. That might be the best long term strategy
Never Trumpers are BETA MALES, some even Omega males and females. Alpha Males are SCARY to Beta males and intimidating!!
Both groups are motivated by personal conviction.
One group is guided by moral conviction.
They refuse to endorse a man who has lived a morally reckless life and frequently bragged about it.
The other group is guided by political conviction.
They are center-left Republicans, who support most of the Democratic Party agenda.
Win or lose, the GOP will not exist as a coherent political party after 2016.
Medved is a Krauthammer
Social lib
The New Republic bred so many neocons
Medved is a Krauthammer
Social lib
The New Republic bred so many neocons
Medved is a Krauthammer
Social lib
The New Republic bred so many neocons
The never-Trump crowd is equal parts warmongers, globalists, and self-important elitist snots like Goldberg.
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