At first the specter of a serious threat that Donald Trump would play any kind of role in American politics seemed remote. The man was a joke. Nothing to worry about.
Suddenly those far-off alarm bells, those faint sirens, have become loud and piercing. There really is an emergency. This vile, vulgar, violent man could conceivably inhabit the White House, remote as the possibility is. He could actually be the representative of America on the world stage. He could continue to occupy the national stage, cheered wildly when he so much as clears his throat. This is no joke. And it must be stopped.
I have been saying for weeks now that my only alternative, with a possible exception listed below, is to vote for Hillary. I will not stay home on election day. I will not throw away my vote on a third-party candidate just so I can say that at least I didn’t go over to the Democrats. I will go to the polls and I will vote for Hillary Clinton, much as I disagree with her.
I am ashamed of and embarrassed for the Republican Party and also for the evangelicals who are so desperate to hear what they want to hear that they will accept anything Trump has to say. I am appalled at Franklin Graham’s introduction at Trump’s meeting with evangelical leaders held in New York City in which he said that Trump had made mistakes, but so had Abraham, Moses, David, and Peter, conveniently leaving out that these men in the Bible were men of faith. I am boggled that now James Dobson is saying that Trump, at some point over the past week or so, has truly become a Christian, truly accepted Christ. Well, fine. I don’t have the power to see into the man’s heart. But isn’t there something about “by their fruits ye shall know them”?
We cannot allow this man to rule over us. If he were to be elected, God forbid (and I mean that sincerely and not rhetorically), here’s what will happen:
He will make the White House into a circus act that will cause any previous presidential shenanigans look like a Sunday School picnic. At some point he will do something impeachable.
The mid-term elections will result in a Democratic majority and he will indeed be impeached and removed from office. Even if I’m getting carried away by my sense of the dramatic here and I’m wrong about the impeachment, it is indisputable that once Congress can block his actions they will do so. The argument that conservatives must vote for Trump because he will get to nominate Supreme Court justices is weak and short-sighted at best; there is no real assurance of whom he would appoint, and he would have only two years in which to do so anyway, as no Democratic-controlled Congress would confirm his nominations. I would venture to guess that the three oldest justices (Kennedy, Breyer, and Ginsberg) will hang on and refuse to retire during a Trump presidency in order to deprive him of the power to nominate a replacement.
Once Trump becomes President the Republican Party will be effectively dead. No truly conservative, decent candidate will ever be able to win if he or she runs as a Republican. The party of Lincoln and of Reagan will have been destroyed by its own members, not by any outside forces. It will have to be rebuilt and revivified from the ground up, an almost impossible task, or a new conservative party will have to rise to take its place, a process that would take years. In the meantime, there will be no meaningful debate in American politics, as there will be only one side with any credibility. The election of Donald Trump will have done exactly the opposite of what his supporters think it will do.
We have a little over four months until the election. Principled men and women are speaking up. What does it say when a man of impeccable conservative credentials, George Will, announces his exit from the Republican Party and all Trump can say in response is to make fun of him? There’s Trump in a nutshell. Never respond with reason when you can respond with ridicule.
I am so proud that a delegate from Colorado, Kendal Unruh, is spearheading an effort to release delegates from their commitment to nominate Trump. I do not believe that the spineless, gutless Republican Party leadership will stand with her, and I don’t know who could possibly be nominated at this late date. I will say, though, that if she and her supporters succeed in getting another nominee I will vote for that person in the spirit of principled opposition. There is no way, though, short of divine intervention (which I also mean devoutly and not rhetorically) that someone nominated in July could possibly mount an effective campaign. As I often say, I will be happy to be proven wrong.
But I don’t think I am wrong. Our only hope for true conservatism and not knee-jerk reactionism is that this whole fiasco will be a wakeup call, that the Republican Party will nominate a decent candidate in 2020, and that he or she can win.
I would urge that, if you are at all interested in the actual issues at hand, you read at least some of the articles listed below:
“An Open Letter to Trump’s Supporters from His Top-Strategist-Turned-Defector” by Stephanie Cegielski, xoJane, March 28, 2016
(Cegielski, who was the head of a Trump SuperPAC—not really his “top strategist”–that was later closed down, makes a convincing case for something I’ve been saying for quite awhile: that Trump never expected to be nominated and is totally unqualified for the office. I had wondered what Trump thinks about in the dead of night as he ponders actually being elected, but Cegielski is probably right in saying that he has no self-doubt.)
“An Open Letter to Donald Trump on his Recent Christian Conversion” by Michael de la Torre, Baptist News Global, June 23, 2016
(Totally biblical take on the whole “Hey, Trump’s now a real Christian!” story.)
“Trump Is Not Hitler—He’s Marion Barry” (July 1, 2016)
“5 Most Sickening Parts of Trump”s Meeting with Evangelicals” (June 25, 2016)
both by Rebecca Cusey, The Federalist
(A whip-smart , spot-on young woman speaks out.)
And, finally:
“I’m Endorsing Hillary Clinton—The Devil We Know” by P. J. O’Rourke, The Daily Beast, May 10, 2016
(Don’t read this if you’re not a fan of political invective; O’Rourke is the opposite of diplomatic and a funny, incisive voice for conservatism/libertarianism.)
There is much, much more material out there from thoughtful conservatives who warn of the danger of a Trump presidency, but the above constitute a good start.