Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
A Trump Compromise
The republic is dead. Long live the empire.
No matter who wins in November, the next President of the United States will be a self-absorbed multi-millionaire who doesn’t see the Constitution as binding on his or her power, who doesn’t believe in the rule of law, and who is willing to use racial and class grievances to get elected. As such, I had been planning to leave the presidential line of my ballot blank, as I could not fathom voting for either of the two realistic candidates. I’ve felt like Claudius stammering, “B- b- but I want a republic!” as others debate which candidate will make the better emperor.
But — and you knew there was a “but” coming — I was honored to have my friend and fellow Ricochet member Sabrdance over for dinner on Wednesday. He’s a non-tenured professor at a state college in flyover country, specifically, in a state where the Democratic Party barely exists. Despite this, he and his colleagues are scared to teach fundamentals of Western Civilization like Augustine’s theory of natural law. If a student complains that a philosopher dead for 1,500 years is “triggering” by modern PC standards, then the professors will likely find themselves out of a job; from experience, they know that the university president cannot be relied on to defend academic integrity in the face of political correctness. Only the fact that their governor is a mini-Trump — willing to defy the orders of the enormous executive agencies that really run the country — prevents them from being overrun by even more ridiculous imperial dictats.
This isn’t isolated to academia, of course. Ask member Skipsul, as a business owner, how heavy the imperial burden is on his business. Ask member Bryan Stephens about trying to help the less fortunate with the imperial minions constantly in his way. Even in my own business of real estate appraising, the burden on the appraiser to comply with every crazy rule (such as answering any possible concern a computer program can muster) is driving good appraisers out of the business. In a country like this, stomping my foot and saying “But I want a republic!” is going to be just as effective as when Claudius did it.
So here’s the deal: If the race in my state is competitive (as defined by the candidates being within five percent of each other, as of the last poll before Election Day), I will do my part to ensure our next ruler is the emperor wearing the red ribbon instead of the empress wearing the blue one. In exchange, I ask two things:
- Please stop telling me that less-than-wholehearted support for Trump is tantamount to voting for Clinton. I know she’s terrible. I know she’s a chronic liar, corrupt to her core, who has wasted American lives for nothing and who ought to be in jail. That she remains not only at liberty, but within reach of such power is yet further proof that we no longer live in a country where all citizens are equal before the law. Conceded.
- Please stop telling me that Donald Trump is somehow a conservative. He belongs with me in the Republican party to the same extent Caitlyn Jenner belongs with me in the women’s restroom. Whether it’s a wall with Mexico that will violate water treaties, or a trade war that will violate trade treaties, or a ban on Muslims that violates the Equal Protection Clause, or his unsubstantiated attacks on the judiciary, or his praise of the Chinese massacres in Tienanmen Square, the man clearly has no sense of what the Constitution says, nor any respect for the rule of law. My possible vote for him has nothing to do with his (dubious) merits or (lack of) character. Rather it’s that, as a red-ribbon emperor, he will probably bring more red-ribbon cronies into the executive branch than the blue-ribbon empress will, and that I will likely find his dictats to be less distasteful than hers.
I am called by God to honor the emperor, and I will. If my vote is likely to make any difference, I will vote for the marginally better emperor. But if my vote won’t make any difference, please let me keep voting for either of these two off my conscience, and leave me to mourn the passing of the republic in peace.
Published in General
Considering Trump and Hillary as individuals, it is easy to understand those who have difficulty favoring one over the other. They both appear to be fairly despicable — at least as portrayed in public.
A president, though, must be more than an individual. Without a network of political alliances, a president is almost helpless. Hillary brings with her the political machinery of the Democrat party as represented in Congress and the bureaucracy, as well as the financial web of the Clinton Foundation.
Trump has no political organization other than that cobbled together for this campaign season. If he were to be elected somehow, he would have to start building alliances (making deals) with the other power structures in DC.
The Clinton machine concerns me much more than whatever Trump can put together. I expect him to eventually be co-opted by the Congressional party or the bureaucracy. If he resists, gridlock may have a whole new meaning. I can live with that for a term.
I expect Putin to march into Poland before Trump figures out how to use the phone.
By the way, thank you for that.
If only he had a reset button.
That’s “over-charge!” to you, comrade.
Yes, but it is not just a comparison of D. Trump versus H.R. Clinton. You have to compare Team Trump to Team Hillary. Hillary will inherit Team Obama, an awful mess of enthusiastic Leftists who are constantly working to bring down the supports of American culture, values, strength and finances. There are two thousand reasons to prefer Trump to Hillary.
http://ricochet.com/leftist-horde-two-thousand-reasons-to-vote-for-trump/
It is my gentle conjecture that it is all the same thing, described by people in the terms most comfortable to them.
Midge, How is this not just another way of saying what I have said? That prioritization right there is the heart of the matter.
Granted, there are some true-believer pot-bangers out there, but I think the only one on Ricochet just got the heave-ho.
No wait a minute. I changed my mind. Trump sucks, and you all are a bunch of dupes. Wake up Trumple! He has small hands. He would be a bad president.
Who got tossed?
So many aliases, so little time… EThompson.
It’s no secret, but it was EThompson. The editors were clear in describing the cause as repeated CoC violations. Also she rolled an alt at least once. This is all public, and while there must have been quite some hoop-lah, I didn’t see it. I’ve been in and out these days.
I concede there’s a fair amount of people-using-different-words-to-describe-the-same-thing — that’s what I expect on many issues. Nonetheless, there also seems a fair amount of ideological diversity among Trump supporters, many of whom do not seem to share your intention of using Trump as a hammer to smash GOP corruption.
Some support Trump because they believe he’s pro-life, others are delighted to finally have a GOP candidate who is not pro-life. Trump has pro-protectionist-tariff supporters as well as some anti-tariff supporters. And so on. Those already part of various political establishments who are supporting Trump often express optimism that Trump can be “worked with” — that he can be persuaded to not smash up cozy establishment relationships.
Stopa is still around, still a Contributor. And very much a true believer – he is the one advancing the formulation that Trump, like God, must first be believed in to be understood (credo ut intelligam, etc).
I credit guys like TKC with not being true believers, but with being willing to bang the pots just as hard all the same.
I am no fan of Trump; I opposed him stoutly right up ’til Super Tuesday. I moped around for a week after that.
But now I am all in for Trump.
I am not motivated by any attraction to Trump, but by fear of Hillary. She presents a grave danger to America. Much worse than Trump, not because she is worse as a person, but because she would clearly cause greater lasting damage to the U.S.A.
BDB- She insulted me once, but it wasn’t a big thing to me. Why was she bounced?
She was suspended a few times, and on multiple occasions she re-upped under a false identity. That’s a violation of the terms of service.
Please do not trust the polls.