Tuesday, September 20, 2016

#NeverTrump Thoughts

A few #NeverTrump thoughts:

1. I asked this question of Mark Davis (a talk radio host filling in for both Dennis Prager and Hugh Hewitt in the past two weeks) on twitter:

If @BernieSanders was the R nominee, would you support him over @HillaryClinton? #NeverTrump #NeverHillary

If I could go back and ask the question a little differently I'd choose a recent liberal New York mayor such as Bill DeBlasio or Michael Bloomberg. The point is that Trump is just as liberal as them, yet I'm being asked to support him because he's worse than Hillary Clinton? Sorry, I can't. He is just as bad as them, and therefore just as bad as Hillary Clinton, so therefore there is no choice.

2. Let me ask a question: how do Congressional elections typically go for the party that doesn't hold the White House? The answer in a word is "poorly" (see 2010 and 2014 for the most recent examples). Let's say that Donald Trump is elected. I think it's reasonable to say that the off-year elections would go very poorly for the Republicans, meaning a loss of definitely the Senate and probably the House as well. What would that mean? It would mean we would have a liberal President and a liberal Congress. Do people saying to vote for Trump think that he would veto legislation passed by a Democrat-led Congress? What about his Supreme Court picks? Do you think he'd stick to his guns or would he compromise his deeply held conservative principles in the interest of getting things done?

3. "But but but...Hillary is worse." No, they are equally bad. Which means that for the first time in my adult life I will not vote for the nominee of the Republican Party, because the Republican Party nominated a Democrat. There is no choice.

I realize this is pretty defeatist sounding, so what do I suggest as a positive actions?

1. Get involved in your local races. Work to elect good solid conservatives to local offices, which will continue to build up the bench and to help serve as a firewall between the federal and local governments.

2. Involve yourself in the culture. Support things that promote conservative values. When the Left intrudes, fight back. Voice your disapproval, and ignore the Left's cries of "racist!" "sexist!" "homophobe!" because frankly they don't mean anything any more.

It's going to be a rough 8 years, but it's already been a rough 8 years. We're used to it, and we can learn lessons on how best to fight.