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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
Re: racism in Republican Party
A quote I have always remembered from “Gulag Archipelago”
If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956
As @jaynordlinger was mentioned, here are some of his recent comments on McMullin:
For the Christian, the only surgeon capable of cutting out the evil without destroying the person is God.
The amount of sway we have allowed Liberal definitions of thought crimes have on our internal politics is astounding. If they murder, lock them up. If they destroy property, lock them up. The rest is free thought and free speech.
I wouldn’t have. Posters on this board make fair and good points about him being a weenie. He really comes off as a pandering tool when it comes to Republican racism and immigration. His stances actually aren’t all that different from Cruz and Rubio but both are far more grounded about why they believe what they believe.
That being said. For the record. I admire both Cruz and Rubio BUT I will forever have a sour place in my soul for both. Neither should have jumped for the brass ring of the Presidency this year. Both are mere junior Senators. Neither has run so much as a lemonade stand. They let their ambition rule the day and when night fell, Trump was our champion because of it. This mess is partially their fault! Both should pay a price when this is over.
Right, because that is racist. “Black culture” =/= gang warfare. Gang warfare does not have to be black. Black culture is just as much gospel music as it is Tupac.
Only if you imply that inner cities = black, because that’s empirically not true. Other people live there too, and not all African Americans live in the inner city.
Context matters here too, though I’ve already admitted my distaste for the flag in general and this is a dead horse not worth beating.
I agree this is not racist. It would, however, be racist to see a group of Latinos and assume they were all illegal immigrants. Or to meet an American born and raised in Indiana and insist they’re actually Mexican because of their racial background, taking into no account their citizenship and allegiance to the US as their country of birth.
@hoyacon: We’ve been debating for a week now what Evan McMullin meant by these remarks, so yes, I’m comfortable saying they were not precise. Even the remark about racism running deep: what’s the difference between running deep and running wide? I can think of several ways to parse it.
Are you trying to show the type of thing that is often seen in comment streams on articles supporting Mr. Trump for president? Because… yeah. That’s a perfect example.
Evan is a Mormon. But the antisemitism in Trump Land is also hugely disturbing.
To be clear, btw, I’m not talking about all Trump supporters. But there is a vein of this sort of thing that used to be more in the basement of campaigns… at least after a certain decade. Now it’s pretty easy to find. And it looks just like this.
I’d agree with this. Even though it pains me a great deal, I also–per how I interpret his remarks–agree with Evan.
Anyway, I love how you do the counters in the list above. Very good.
My work here is done. We now have the many-but-not-all-Republicans-are-racists meme combining with the many-but-not-all-Trumpers-are-antisemites meme. It’s a super meme!
I’d love to read this. Sounds interesting.
I’d say a mild mischaracterization.
Let’s change at least what I was dishing out to be some-but-not-all-Trumpers-are-antisemites meme combined with the some-but-not-all-Republicans-are-racists meme to create the enough-Republicans-are-something-disturbing-enough-to-warrant-real-examination-rather-than-knee-jerk-defensiveness meme if we ever want to win national office again goal. ;)
I had such high hopes for a Constitution Party. Then Evan Mc Mullin came along.
From my point of view, the vast majority of America’s most serious problems stem from not only a refusal to strictly observe the Constitution but a persistent desire by many ,primarily on the Left, to subvert our Constitutional Republic into a more dictatorial form of government along the Socialist/Marxist path.
The entire Socialist /Nanny /Welfare /Administrative Law Police State we now endure would not be possible if the Constitution were followed. The list of Constitutional abuses is unfortunately a very long one: the imposition of Administrative Law agencies, wholesale takings without any compensation on a mammoth scale, the denial of due process, the squelching of the freedoms of expression, religion and the right to bear arms, to the denial of equal protection in taxation, our educational institutions and the application of our laws just to name a few.
Into this whirlwind steps Evan Mc Mullin. Of all the serious issues a Candidate from the Constitution Party should be talking about, getting embroiled in racist name calling is not one of them, nor is proposing a foreign policy of “no foreign entanglements” ala Washington or Jefferson.
Mc Mullin is simply not serious. America, as a shining beacon of Freedom, is an existential threat to every dictator around the globe and as such will forever have a bullseye on our collective backs . We need every alliance we can get and cannot afford such silly notions.
You’re welcome to do so. Like all such work, it’s published by the university and kept online. I’ll privately send you a link if you tell me how to do this. (I’m a bit of a Luddite.)
Yeah, wonderful in how it would help Hillary by denying Utah’s electoral votes to the only candidate on the ballot who can stop her. Ricochet is, I believe, in the process of proving John O’Sullivan’s First Law of Politics. Any institution that is not explicitly conservative will become liberal over time.
I would offer this corollary to O’Sullivan’s First Law: Any institution that is not explicitly intelligent will become stupid over time.
Indeed, nor is McMullin a fraudulent con-man who hijacked the Republican nomination process with no intent to be a serious candidate but really only to further his own, empty, Kardashian-like celebrity.
Sure. As long as we don’t mention the many-Democrats-are-racists-who-vote-exclusively-for-the-candidate-of-their-race meme. That meme would be racist and detract from our efforts at party suicide.
Please don’t go yet! We haven’t got to some-but-not- Republicans are misogynists, some-but-not-all Republicans are anti-Catholic, etc. We must confess all Republican sins even if the vocal Not-Alls are, of course, virtuous.
Dude. Again. I wrote an entire thesis on that particular idea. Democrats *constructed* the “racist Republican” to some extent for their own race-baiting purposes. They are very good at deploying this construct as well, using it to maintain their own power.
However, it is also true that there are moments in time in which you have to stop looking at the sins going on in your neighbor’s house and fix what’s actually happening in yours.
If that doesn’t happen, you’ll see more people leave the Republican house completely… look at what’s going on in the living room and then walk out the back door to never return.
That’s not a good strategy.
It appears to be working for the Democrats. Perhaps we should try it.
You think Trump can still stop her? Based on what? You Trumpers are starting to remind me of that Hitler in the bunker movie scene. This whole thing was over when it (unsurprisingly) turned out that there was video of Trump describing his smooth operating skills as a womanizer, which was then backed up by (I believe we are now up to) 10 different women declaring that indeed do such things to them. If the man had any shame or decency he would have quit.
Just an immature aside. I’ve googled Dork and Mindy and got no hits for the McMullin-Finn ticket. What’s wrong with the American people?
I don’t understand why this thread somehow has made it appear if the primary thrust of the McMullin campaign is to combat what he identifies as republican racism. Nothing could be further from the truth in what I have read and seen from the candidate. He does reference some of that when discussing Trump’s devisiveness and inability to garner widespread support but to say that he should be eliminated from consideration based on those positions is ridiculous to me. He is the only candidate that seems like a decent, normal human being while simultaneously presenting a limited government conservative message.
Trump will lose fair and square. McMullin’s presence will have nothing to do with his defeat. The 6 electoral votes that McMullin will win in Utah are not going to be the difference in the election. But McMullin’s winning those 6 EVs (the first by an independent candidate in nearly 50 years) will be a fitting context for the travesty that this election is.
Trump will lose by more than 150 electoral votes to the weakest Democrat nominee in modern history. He will lose a state that has gone Republican in every election since 1964 to an Independent candidate who didn’t even officially enter the race until mid-August. He will lose Florida, Ohio, and North Carolina, has turned Arizona into a toss-up state, and is turning Georgia and TEXAS into battleground states. All of this will be a fitting, embarrassing defeat for the fraud that Trump is committing and will hopefully provide the cleansing that is needed.
McMullin is running as an honorable alternative choice when the two major parties have nominated unacceptable candidates. He will have my vote.
@basilfawlty, what was the point of your initial post? Was it truly just bait to “prove”… what?
I actually engaged with what you wrote in good faith. You want to have evidence that a McMullin voter sees the Republican Party in a certain way now? With a lot more cynicism? (There’s an “ism” for you.)
Okay. Guilty. Yep. Sure. You’re right. I absolutely do. ;)
Also, you are correct. Race politics have worked for a long, long, long time for Democrats. That’s one reason I’ve never been a Democrat. If Republicans want to look like those guys, I say a pox on both your houses, check out the GOP’s back door and leave the neighborhood completely, which is fine, too.
The only problem for Republicans is that you can’t win elections without a majority of college educated women. I believe Trump is in the process of proving this. (Bravo!!!)
Isn’t that wild? It seems so weird to me that people are continuing to argue that Trump’s strategies are worthwhile.
You are absolutely right.
The racism thing is only a distraction and an easy excuse for people who rationalize their vote for Trump to dismiss McMullin.
It was to demonstrate that to accuse swaths of the Republican party of antisemitism and racism weeks before the general election is not an effective path to victory. At least not an effective path to a Republican victory.
I do find it amusing to see people characterize McMullin’s comments as “disqualifying” in a race that includes Trump and Rodham. Look, we know that it would take a miracle in the electoral college and in the House of Representatives for McMullin to attain the presidency. Therefore, the question is really, “Is he disqualified to receive my protest vote?” For me, the answer is, “No, he shall have it.”
William F. Buckley, Jr.’s famous rule was to vote for the rightwardmost viable candidate. I would argue that his rule does not apply in this race. The Republican candidate is a Democrat/Independent/Reform Party/populist/nationalist who has shown that he is dishonorable and unconservative in myriad ways.
Behold, the Dubya Rule: “In 2016, vote for the rightwardmost candidate.” Viability be damned. McMullin is the rightwardmost, and I’m not going to withhold my vote because he said something that hurt my feelings and gave some comfort to our progressive opponents.
Have you looked at this lately?
I have already seen that you are a poor judge of context.
It is not your job to judge people’s thoughts. Not all thoughts are well articulated and you are not capable of knowing the heart.
You don’t know if “black culture” dad has a mission outreach for “inner city” kids who are affected by gang violence.
You don’t know WHAT inner-city means to the person trying to figure out how to best help those schools.
YOU did NOT know that an upside down flag over a confederate flag is a sign of secession or WHY someone would fly it outside YOUR own limited views. But it didn’t stop you from thinking he was probably a racist.
All you know is that they are relying on phrases in our vernacular to communicate. Not everyone is as precise with language outside of forums like this. They do not all articulate well. They do not color their speech with politi-think.
But everyone here would defend a Democrat calling them racist.
Its the continued collective condesenscion for people who he seeks to be a leader of. Its not the president’s job to tell his people they aren’t acceptable. It isn’t his job to preach. He is an ambassador and he just threw the people he seeks to represent under the bus by telling a hostile press “some” are racist. Everyone
hearhere knows that “some” will be “all” by our friendly, honest press.Not only that, but he was referring to congressional members! He is going to lead them? After that?