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Evan McMullin – For Many Of Us, Why in the World Not?
@dickfrombrooklyn (oh, dear…or was it @ctlaw? I had already had a few beers) and I were talking with Rob Long last night at the meetup, and I was lamenting that there isn’t more discussion on the site about Evan McMullin. Today, I actually used the Ricochet search function (something I don’t usually do, though I am a champion Googler) and found that, in fact, there have been a couple of posts. Anyway, last night, Rob’s response to my lamentation was: “Write something!”
OK.
If you are a committed NeverHillary conservative and you are (i) NeverTrump (not voting for Rodham or Trump), or (ii) ReluctantlyTrump (holding your nose and voting for him) even though you think he has no chance of winning, or (iii) ReluctantlyTrump but live in a blue state where your vote doesn’t make a difference anyway, why not vote for McMullin – the only true conservative in the race?
Rather than refraining from voting, or voting for someone you don’t like and think can’t win, or voting for someone you don’t like in a state where your vote “doesn’t matter,” why not vote for the one who expresses to the world, “This is who we are?”
If every single person that met the descriptions (i), (ii), or (iii) voted for McMullin, wouldn’t that be a wonderful thing?*
I’ve heard that there’s a possibility McMullin will win Utah. Wouldn’t that be a wonderful thing?*
If McMullin won non-trivial numbers of voters in other states, making him more than a just a forgotten footnote in this election, wouldn’t that be a wonderful thing?*
The only problem I see (I am NeverHillary/NeverTrump) in voting for McMullin as a write-in is a minor, procedural one. It’s ridiculous, but apparently, even though McMullin has named the delightfully-named Mindy Finn as his running mate, his legal running mate is another person — a friend of McMullin’s who acted as a placeholder in the paperwork. I can’t even remember the guy’s name. But I believe you can’t write in Finn’s name as Vice President — you have to write in this other guy’s name. Sheesh! Fortunately, this is an issue that some quick Googling could resolve. It’s easy enough to go to McMullin’s website and figure out how to vote for him in your state.
I do wish there was a groundswell of like-minded people willing to turn out and make a declaration, via their vote, that’s collectively less of a whimper and more of a shout.
It’s probably naïve, but I like to think that McMullin’s candidacy could be, as he suggests, the beginning of a new conservative (“Conservative?”) party in the US. I’m beginning to think this is something that needs to occur.
* When I say “wonderful thing,” I am obviously describing the perspective of someone who falls into categories (i), (ii), or (iii) above. I don’t need to hear from folks in the comments saying, “Of course it’s not a wonderful thing, because only Trump can fix!”
Published in General
I can’t vote for McMullin. He is a one trick pony. After this election, there is nothing that follows from McMullen’s candidacy. Even Ross Perot tried to create a new political party.
Plus, McMullin is effectively running against his own party. Sure, Trump is an unacceptable horrible candidate who would be an unacceptable horrible President and his nomination ensured Hillary’s victory in the White House, but he won the nomination fair and square. Trump deserves to lose the general fair and square.
You denounced McMullin as a “hipster social justice warrior” and then went on to say that the problem with social justice warriors is that they are people who are only concerned with labeling others in order to signal their own virtue. How on earth do you think calling McMullin a hipster social justice warrior isn’t labeling?
Perhaps he has seen some of the Deplorables on Twitter. He’s not the only person to think “Holy cow. Those guys really are racist.” I’ve read several conservatives who have written with alarm at the prevalence of a viewpoint they thought hardly existed in GOP.
This is my alternative to leaving the top blank, or writing in Johnson (space cadet) or whatesername (loony toon). ]
BTW, I really like the picture of the little kid in the…hamper? Drawer? SO cute!
And: can your son come to the meet-up in Dallas again this year?
You’re free to vote however you like, but it’s the outcome of the election that matters. Comparisons of McMullin vs. Trump are beside the point. The two possible outcomes are a Hillary administration or Trump administration.
In the words of Donald Trump: “WRONG!”
Nice to see the trump supporters up in arms over McMullin but I’m sure still arguing “that Mexican” judge should quit being so sensitive…….come on. Disagree if you like but spare the outrage please. He called no one a racist. I’ve been watching and listening to dozens of his interviews and McMullin, if anything, is completely inoffensive to the point of boring. The irony of defending DT while feigning sensitivity towards name calling is unreal.
Can I ask the McMullin voters, would you have voted for him if he’d been running in the primaries against Cruz, Rubio, et al? By voting for him, are you saying he is who you would vote for in 2020, even if those other candidates run?
Since the primary there has been only one possible outcome and one giant con. I’ll vote for McMullin cause I’m not voting for Hillary or her donor. Peace
I’ll be writing in Evan McMullin (remember, it’s McMullin with an “i”) and Nathan Johnson, the not-really-a-candidate pseudo-running mate.
Why? Because I want to vote for president, as I have every four years since 1972. I will actually feel good about voting for a committed, competent conservative, who also seems to be a nice guy. Also, there’s a message there, when down-ballot Rs get more votes than Trump.
I don’t know, great question. I would have liked to have seen that primary play out….
I voted Rubio and still would have loved to see him dismantle grandma in the debates and can’t imagine what his positive campaign would be like in the awful race. But of course because of Gang of 8 we decided to guarantee a Hillary Presidency so there ya go.
True. This is my dream as well. It is the true victory, like casting the One Ring into the fires of Mount Doom. It is a long shot, but we have to try.
I agree that McMullin is boring. Fortunately, he has a front man who is far more charismatic in expressing McMullins’ views, and clearly delineating the purpose of his campaign. Definitely worth two minutes for anyone considering McMullin as their candidate. Link to RCP
I wrote my masters thesis on racism in the Republican Party. I argued this was a political construct used by the Democrats to run their own very racist campaigns. (No. I was not a popular grad school student.) I know a ton about this particular topic.
However, I am voting for Evan McMullin because while I firmly believe that most Republicans are not racists, Trump has illustrated for me that there is a section of the tent in which people are racists. To deny this subset exists at this point is to be willfully blind to it. To deny there hasn’t been pandering to that subset by Trump is to also be willfully blind.
Look. Hillary Clinton was awful with her “basket of deplorables” comment, and I will never, ever vote for her. But there is a racist element to Trump’s campaign. Not racialist, mind. Racist. And there are Republicans who are attracted to this element. This is not a way to advance the party. This is a way to become the caricature Democrats made up. This is the way to ensure minorities always reject the right.
Anyway, I’m voting for Evan McMullin as well. Enthusiastically.
Because of the research I have done, I almost hope that some deep South states reject Trump because then Republicans can say, “Look. See. That didn’t work.”
If you don’t see the racism… others do. It’s not made up. We should deal with it.
Racism is a human fault, not a political characteristic.
Dont believe it if anyone suggests there aren’t veins of nasty racists in ALL political parties.
Unless they are a party of zebras.
Totally true. And the Democrats pander to racism as well. I want to be better than Democrats.
Even as a dream, it’s absurd. In order for his scheme to succeed he needs to be taking states away from Hillary, not Trump. As a hallucination, well, okay.
So, the DEMedia gives the microphone to the idiot racist Republicans saying, “See, they’re racist.” While hiding the idiots in their own party who are equally hateful.
Oh brother. I’m out of patience
This is a good question. I don’t think I would have voted for him over Rubio or Cruz in the primary (I was a Rubio guy myself, who voted for Cruz in the end to try to stop Trump). But then again he didn’t run in the primary, and given who was running did anyone think we needed someone else to stand up for conservatism? No, the greats stumbled, and so now the small must rise up to carry on. How many passed on standing up against Trump? Everyone, even the Senators of conscience who never endorsed him did not think it worth the effort to try (no matter how long the odds) to give us a true victory. No, McMullin alone stood up, and I think that counts for quite a lot. So if in 2020 he decides to run for the Republican Party nomination I would certainly hold him in high regard and while I can’t say he would be my man in the end he would be a contender for sure. Much more so than Mike Pence for instance who has debased himself utterly shilling for Trump.
Reefer madness, mannnn. Bring it on, Make it legal.
<sarc off>
“Peace” back at ya. Go for it. It’s your vote to do whatever you want with.
No he needs to win one state, and Trump needs to suck less. But Trump as always disappoints. Still, if I am to lose any way why not at least jab Trump and his establishment backers in the eye?
Lol, so McMullen virtue signals and I call him on it and you accuse me of irony. Nice mc esher painting, Sal, but no cigar.
McMullin was describing his experiences in people he met working in the House and in government. I can’t confirm or deny his experiences. When I was younger, I knew a lot of racist Republicans, and I associated Republicans with racism. I didn’t know very many Democrats, so I wasn’t aware of the racism among Democrats. When I got older and learned more, I learned that judging people by their character and not by their skin is actually conservative. So-called liberals believe in identity politics and never-ending racial strife. However, white racists aren’t going to join the Democrat Party post 1964, given the anti-white stance the Democrats have taken. If a white racist wants to support a major party post 1964, they will pretty much have to go to the Republicans by default. I imagine this is what McMullin is talking about.
Romantic revisionism at its finest. The truth is that nobody of stature was willing to sacrifice their reputation with this clearly subversive scheme. After weeks of searching and pleading, this completely unqualified character emerged. He is a cardboard cutout designed to provide comfort to those Conservatives who can’t deal with the primary debacle and face reality. The man has no political future, and will be largely forgotten by 2020.
Hillary must be held under 270. Taking one state wouldn’t help one iota otherwise. Take your jab at Trump if you like, but don’t fool yourself into thinking that the establishment will be troubled one whit by support for McMullin.
To be filed under “for what it is worth”, today I decided I will be writing in Evan McMullin for President. He strikes me to be a good man, sharp and knowledgeable. He understands our country and its place in the world. Perhaps the only small tactical win would be to deny Ms. Clinton a majority of votes to be wielded as a “mandate”. I could conceive of people disgusted with Hillary being amenable to casting a ballot for him with this in mind.
My order of preference in the primaries was (1) Walker (2) Jindal (3) Fiorina (4) Cruz (5) Perry (6) Rubio … (14) Christie (15) Carson (16) Jeb (17) Trump. If McMullin had been running, he might have placed in the top 10. The only other candidate I would have quit the party over, besides Trump, was Jeb.
As far as my 2020 vote, I’d have to see. A lot can happen in four years. As things stand, Walker and Perry have fallen in my estimation, and I prefer McMullin’s experience over Rubio’s. Moreover, he’s shown some spine by organizing and getting on the ballot and campaigning when the others on that list played it safe. He talks of starting a “movement” to continue beyond the election. So he’d probably be a top 5 preference for me. I don’t agree with everything he says, but I’ve come to believe that much of what a POTUS deals with is unforeseen, and I like McMullin’s temperament and priorities.
I’ll likely vote for McMullin. I hope he wins Utah.
McMuffin is a stalking horse for the Hilldebeast, nothing more.