An Open Letter to the NeverTrumpers from a Sympathizer

 

I am not here to condemn the NeverTrumpers. I share their instincts. Donald Trump is — I will not put a fine point on it — a swine. I followed him in the tabloids haphazardly in the mid-1990s when I was a visiting professor at Yale and took coffee each morning at a Lesbian-operated place in New Haven where the tabloids were always lying around. He was then and is now a man who revels in adultery. I was not surprised about his conversation with Billy Bush. I would even bet that he had similar conversations on the links with Hillary Clinton’s husband. He is seventy years old, and he is still engaged in the kind of banter typical of eighth-grade male hot dogs. Put simply, like Charming Billy, he never really grew up. But, unlike the Big Dawg, he has almost no impulse control. If you attack him for anything, you will set him off, and you will get schoolboy taunts in return. The man is desperately insecure.

He is also no conservative. He has no understanding of the road that we are on fiscally. As a businessman, he borrowed and borrowed and borrowed, and his lawyers arranged things so that, when his enterprises went bankrupt, someone else was left holding the bag. If he becomes President, that someone else is apt to be you and I.

He has no knowledge of foreign affairs, no sense of the fragility of the international order. He has instincts, not ideas. He is understandably annoyed that our allies contribute little to the common defense. But he does not appreciate the degree to which our well-being in the long run is tied up with our alliances. In office, if unrestrained, he could do great damage. He could take us back to the isolationism of the 1920s and the 1930s. Plenty of people on both the left and the right already long for that. The generation that now commands the stage has no memory of World War II and its origins, much less the Cold War.

But, I would suggest to the NeverTrumpers, you should hold your nose and vote for the slimeball anyway. I offer you two reasons: Hillary Clinton & the Democratic Party.

The second may be the more important. For, let’s face it. The lady is not well. Her doctors are lying to us. And she is not apt to last more than eighteen months — which means that, if she is elected, we are apt to have Tim Kaine, an admirer of liberation theology, for our president.

More to the point, however, whether she lives on and on or not, hers will be Barack Obama’s third term. Obamacare will be fully institutionalized and any reforms that are made will put us further on the slippery slope to a single-payer system. Think about it: you can have medical care as good as that which the federal government provides to veterans. To be sure, Trump has blathered nonsense about this at one time or another. But he is running for President today as an opponent of Obamacare.

That is not, however, the most important matter at stake. The real issue is whether in the future we will have open discussion of political issues and free elections. Think about what we have now — a federal bureaucracy that is fiercely partisan. An IRS that tries to regulate speech by denying on a partisan basis tax-exempt status to conservative organizations. A Department of State that hides the fact that its head is not observing the rules to which everyone else is held concerning security of communications and that colludes with a Presidential campaign to prevent the release of embarrassing information. A Department of Justice that ought to be renamed as the Department of Injustice, which does its level best to suppress investigations that might embarrass the likely nominee of the Democratic Party. An assistant attorney general that gives a “heads up” to that lady’s campaign. An Attorney General who meets on the sly with her husband shortly before the decision is made whether she is to be indicted. A federal department that promotes racial strife and hostility to the police in the interests of solidifying for the Democrats the African-American vote.

Think about what else we have now — a press corps that colludes with a campaign, allowing figures in the Clinton campaign to edit what they publish. Television reporters who send the questions apt to be asked at the presidential debates to one campaign. A media that is totally in the tank for one party, downplaying or suppressing news that might make trouble for that party, inventing false stories about the candidates nominated by the other party, managing the news, manipulating the public, promoting in the party not favored the nomination of a clown, protecting the utterly corrupt nominee of the other party from scrutiny.

Let’s add to this the fact that the Democratic Party is intent on opening our borders and on signing up illegal aliens to vote. If you do not believe me, read what Wikileaks has revealed about the intentions of Tony Podesta. Barack Obama promised to “fundamentally change America.” He called his administration “The New Foundation.” Well, all that you have to do to achieve this is to alter the population.

To this, I can add something else. Freedom of speech is under attack. Forty-four Senators, all of them Democrats, voted not long ago for an amendment to the Constitution that would hem in the First Amendment. Ostensibly aimed at corporate speech, this would open the doors to the regulation of all speech. The Democratic members of the Federal Election Commission have pressed for regulating the internet — for treating blogposts as political contributions and restricting them. Members of the Civil Rights Commission have argued that freedom of speech and religious freedom must give way to social justice. There is an almost universal move on our college campuses to shut down dissent — among students, who must be afforded “safe spaces,” and, of course, in the classroom as well. There, academic freedom is a dead letter; and, in practice, despite the courts, in our public universities, the First Amendment does not apply.

We entered on a slippery slope some time ago when the legislatures passed and courts accepted laws against so-called “hate crimes” — that punished not only the deed but added further penalties for the thought. Now we are told that “hate speech” cannot be tolerated — which sounds fine until one realizes that what they have in mind rules out any discussion of subjects such as the propriety of same-sex marriage, sluttishness, and abortion; of the damage done African-American communities by irresponsible behavior on the part of fathers; and of the manner in which Islam, insofar as it is a religion of holy law, may be incompatible with liberal democracy. If you do not think that a discussion of these matters is off limits, you are, as the Democratic nominee put it not long ago, “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic.” You are “deplorable and irredeemable.” You are, as she said this week, “negative, dark, and divisive with a dangerous vision.” It is a short distance from demonization to suppression. And, let’s face it, the suppression has begun — in our newspapers, on television, on our campuses, on Facebook, on Reddit, in Google searches.

One more point. The courts are now partisan. Thanks to Barack Obama’s appointees, in many parts of the country, the circuit courts have ruled out expecting people to present picture IDs when they vote. Elsewhere — for example, in Michigan — the circuit courts have ruled out eliminating straight-line party voting. All of this is aimed at partisan advantage — at making voter fraud easy and at encouraging straight-line voting on the part of those not literate in English. Who knows what the courts will do if the Democrats can get a commanding majority on the Supreme Court? We have already had all sorts of madness shoved down our throats by those who legislate from the bench. If you think that it has gone about as far as it goes, you do not know today’s Democratic Party. I doubt very much whether the Democrats will really try to shove through a constitutional amendment in effect revoking the protections extended to speech and religion in the First Amendment. That would be too controversial. They will do it, as they have done many other things, through the courts. Can we tolerate “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic” speech — speech that is “deplorable and irredeemable,” that is “negative, dark, and divisive with a dangerous vision?” Surely, surely not. And this would be easy. If we can punish the “hate” in “hate crimes,” why not punish it or outlaw it in speech? All that you have to do is to “reinterpret” the First Amendment.

We live, moreover, in a world of rampant prosecutorial indiscretion — where a Clinton, guilty of something that would have put anyone else in jail, gets off without an indictment and a Bob McDonnell, who has done nothing illegal, is prosecuted to the hilt. We live in a world in which colleges and universities are pressed to use kangaroo-court procedures in adjudicating the love-life of randy undergraduates and in which only the man can be held responsible for the tomfoolery that both are engaged in.

Need I go on? If Trump is elected President, this is apt to end. The man has been burned. This campaign has been an education for him. If Hillary is elected President, this will not only go on. It will deepen. That is a certainty.

As for Hillary herself, what should I say. She worked for the investigation that nailed Richard Nixon, and she was fired for lying. She put her cronies from Arkansas in charge of the White House Travel Office, driving out nonpartisan folks who had been serving everyone well for thirty years, and to cover her indecent behavior, she sicced the FBI on these hapless folks. At her behest, the head of the office was tried for malfeasance and, of course, ruined financially — though he was found not guilty. Think about what she did: she destroyed the lives of ordinary, innocent folk for her own convenience.

I will not go on about what she did to the women foolish enough to fall prey to the allure of her husband — though that, too, says much about her willingness to damage others for her own convenience.

She is also inept. In her husband’s administration, she pushed single-payer and nearly brought Charming Billy down. In the Obama administration, she pushed an intervention in Libya that soon turned quite sour. And when the ambassador who had begged for more security lost his life, she deflected responsibility from herself by blaming it all on a hapless Egyptian Copt who had made a short film that nobody had hitherto noticed, and she and her colleagues in the Obama administration saw to his imprisonment.

As Secretary of State — in conjunction with the Clinton Global Initiative and what Doug Band calls “Bill Clinton, Inc.” — she ran a shakedown operation aimed at enriching her family and illegally raising money from foreign donors to pay for her Presidential campaign in waiting. To get around the Freedom of Information Act, she did all of her business by email on a server kept in her home that the world’s intelligence agencies could and did hack. In short, she is both corrupt and irresponsible.

Is Donald Trump unfit to be President? I fear so. Is Hillary Clinton unfit to be President? As Nancy Pelosi would say, “Are you kidding? Are you kidding?”

So we must choose. I suggest that we swallow our pride and pick the lesser evil.

Is it not obvious when you think through everything which of the two is the lesser evil? Both will do damage. Both will do serious damage. Neither is admirable. But Donald Trump is apt to do less damage.

I realize that what I have said is not reassuring. But we should not succumb to wishful thinking.

Nonetheless, for all of his failings, Trump will do some very good things. And, in his way, he has already done some good — by forcing Americans to think about issues that we are forbidden to discuss.

We are in for a bad four years. But there is nonetheless bad and there is worse. Unpleasant though it may be, it is better to pick bad. I will not tell you that a vote for Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, or Egg McMuffin is a vote for Hillary. That it is not. But it might allow her to squeak into office — and, if she wins, there will be hell to pay.

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  1. Midget Faded Rattlesnake Member
    Midget Faded Rattlesnake
    @Midge

    Paul A. Rahe: But, I would suggest to the NeverTrumpers, you should hold your nose and vote for the slimeball anyway. I offer you two reasons: Hillary Clinton & the Democratic Party.

    Never been a NeverTrumper. But like Amy Schley, I would only consider voting Trump if my state were purple enough to make it plausible that my vote for Trump would contribute to changing the electoral outcome in a way that disfavored Hillary. Because of where I live, it won’t. Ergo, not gonna increase either of their popular-vote totals, thank you very much :-)

    I am willing to offer a compromise, though: I am willing to get my hands dirty and vote Stein to encourage the Greens to be a nuisance and eventual meaningful spoiler to the Left.

    • #1
  2. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    This is the best summation of this painful election I have read anywhere.

    Thank you.

    • #2
  3. Brian Wyneken Member
    Brian Wyneken
    @BrianWyneken

    Her vulnerability to blackmail from our adversaries is another distinguishing factor.

    • #3
  4. billy Inactive
    billy
    @billy

    Paul A. Rahe: I realize that what I have said is not reassuring. But we should not succumb to wishful thinking.

    So much wishful thinking in conservative circles these days. The idea that we can just sit this one out, and maintain our conservative “purity,” and then regroup in 2020, is crazy. The #NeverTrumpers need to recognize that it isn’t a battle of ideas anymore.

    The Democrat Party is committed to the will to power above all else.

    If we can’t stop them, then we can at least try to slow them down

    • #4
  5. Midget Faded Rattlesnake Member
    Midget Faded Rattlesnake
    @Midge

    billy:If we can’t stop them, then we can at least try to slow them down

    Which can be meaningfully done by encouraging those non-leftists who for whatever reason can’t bring themselves to vote Trump to still show up at the polls and vote downticket in an anti-left fashion.

    • #5
  6. Salvatore Padula Inactive
    Salvatore Padula
    @SalvatorePadula

    Paul A. Rahe: For, let’s face it. The lady is not well. Her doctors are lying to us. And she is not apt to last more than eighteen months — which means that, if she is elected, we are apt to have Tim Kaine, an admirer of liberation theology, for our president.

    I have to give credit to you here. This is certainly a novel point. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered the “vote for Trump because of Tim Kaine” argument before.

    • #6
  7. Midget Faded Rattlesnake Member
    Midget Faded Rattlesnake
    @Midge

    Salvatore Padula:

    Paul A. Rahe: For, let’s face it. The lady is not well. Her doctors are lying to us. And she is not apt to last more than eighteen months — which means that, if she is elected, we are apt to have Tim Kaine, an admirer of liberation theology, for our president.

    I have to give credit to you here. This is certainly a novel point. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered the “vote for Trump because of Tim Kaine” argument before.

    Sigh. Why couldn’t it have been “libation theology”? Not specifically in Kaine’s case, but generally.

    • #7
  8. kylez Member
    kylez
    @kylez

    How come a contributor’s post isn’t already on the Main Feed?

    • #8
  9. lowtech redneck Coolidge
    lowtech redneck
    @lowtech redneck

    I support this message in its entirety.  Well done.

    I also like MFR’s compromise for conservatives living in deep blue states.

    • #9
  10. JLocked Inactive
    JLocked
    @CrazyHorse

    Wow. That’s how you do it. Professor Rahe is the legitimate deal.

    • #10
  11. Richard Hanchett Inactive
    Richard Hanchett
    @iDad

    To Dr. Rahe – Brilliant.  Thank you.

    To the Powers That Be – Dr. Rahe’s contributions are the best things at Ricochet.  You should do everything in your power to keep him as a contributor.

    • #11
  12. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Paul A. Rahe: He has no knowledge of foreign affairs, no sense of the fragility of the international order. He has instincts, not ideas. He is understandably annoyed that our allies contribute little to the common defense. But he does not appreciate the degree to which our well-being in the long run is tied up with our alliances. In office, if unrestrained, he could do great damage. He could take us back to the isolationism of the 1920s and the 1930s. Plenty of people on both the left and the right already long for that. The generation that now commands the stage has no memory of World War II and its origins, much less the Cold War.

    Trump has some vague awareness of the concept of “strategic ambiguity.” Unfortunately he lacks an appreciation of the real danger of strategic ambivalence. One does not bring into question one’s commitment to alliances. One does not (as our current president has) draw “bright red lines” and then do nothing when they are crossed. A President Trump would be Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces, and there is no evidence he could successfully command a corporal’s guard.

    The argument that “he’s not Hillary” is a pretty poor argument. Lately though, Hillary’s main argument seems to have devolved to “she’s not Trump,” which is worse.

    I’m going to have to vote for a cad, a lout, a liar, and a nitwit. I don’t like it, but I have to. And if he wins, I’ll light him up like a Marshall Field’s Christmas display when his “instincts” make a miserable foreign policy situation worse, or his economic ineptitude leads to a trade war or two.

    If he loses, I’ll do the same without provocation or surcease.

    • #12
  13. DocJay Inactive
    DocJay
    @DocJay

    Worthy essay sir!  I wish you the best of health and happiness in this brave new world.

    • #13
  14. Midget Faded Rattlesnake Member
    Midget Faded Rattlesnake
    @Midge

    lowtech redneck:I support this message in its entirety. Well done.

    I also like MFR’s compromise for conservatives living in deep blue states.

    Thanks. Any compromises we can acknowledge living with each other with are a good deal at this point, at least from my perspective.

    • #14
  15. The King Prawn Inactive
    The King Prawn
    @TheKingPrawn

    Paul A. Rahe:But we should not succumb to wishful thinking.

    Nonetheless, for all of his failings, Trump will do some very good things.

    I wonder how you’ve contradicted yourself so blatantly from one sentence to the next.

    Paul A. Rahe: I suggest that we swallow our pride and pick the lesser evil.

    Two things. First, why do you assign the motive of pride here? Do you see into man’s heart? Second, there are solid arguments against voting for the lesser of two evils.

    In the cases when I’ve voted for an independent or written in a candidate, I didn’t necessarily expect that candidate to win—my main objective was to participate in the process without endorsing moral evil. As Christians, we are not responsible for the reality of our two-party system or for the way others exercise their citizenship, but we will give an account for how we delegate our authority.

    When Christians face two clearly immoral options, we cannot rationalize a vote for immorality or injustice just because we deem the alternative to be worse. The Bible tells us we will be held accountable not only for the evil deeds we do but also when we “give approval to those who practice them” (Rom. 1:32).

    This side of the New Jerusalem, we will never have a perfect candidate. But we cannot vote for evil, even if it’s our only option. (emphasis mine.)

    • #15
  16. TKC1101 Member
    TKC1101
    @

    Despite a bias towards insiders, you have made the right call. I could say LBJ had terrible understanding of the ‘international order’ and we paid in blood. I have been less than impressed, like many citizens with our much vaunted insiders.

    I believe Trump is better than you think and the people you measure him against as nowhere near as capable as you believe. It is no matter, we end up at the same place.

    He is, however a blunt instrument. Sometimes , when the machine is broken, you reach for the hammer.

    • #16
  17. The King Prawn Inactive
    The King Prawn
    @TheKingPrawn

    Otherwise, this is the most brilliant defense of the indefensible to date. Measured against Hillary, no contest. Measured against a real standard he fails miserably. As Jonah Goldberg put it, no matter how low I set the bar he consistently runs his head into it.

    • #17
  18. Midget Faded Rattlesnake Member
    Midget Faded Rattlesnake
    @Midge

    The King Prawn:

    Paul A. Rahe:But we should not succumb to wishful thinking.

    Nonetheless, for all of his failings, Trump will do some very good things.

    I wonder how you’ve contradicted yourself so blatantly from one sentence to the next.

    Well… there are non-contradictory ways to interpret this, even without depending on Trump to personally lift a finger to do good. For example, the repudiation of Clinton if Trump wins, might be something Rahe considers an inherent good, even if purchased at quite a price. Or the fact that a candidate many voters considered a standard-bearer against the elite won might be a state of affairs Rahe considers doing some inherent good, even if the standard-bearer himself proved awful. And so on.

    • #18
  19. The King Prawn Inactive
    The King Prawn
    @TheKingPrawn

    Midget Faded Rattlesnake:

    The King Prawn:

    Paul A. Rahe:But we should not succumb to wishful thinking.

    Nonetheless, for all of his failings, Trump will do some very good things.

    I wonder how you’ve contradicted yourself so blatantly from one sentence to the next.

    Well… there are non-contradictory ways to interpret this, even without depending on Trump to personally lift a finger to do good. For example, the repudiation of Clinton if Trump wins, might be something Rahe considers an inherent good, even if purchased at quite a price. Or the fact that a candidate many voters considered a standard-bearer against the elite won might be a state of affairs Rahe considers doing some inherent good, even if the standard-bearer himself proved awful. And so on.

    Good way of putting it.

    • #19
  20. Tom Meyer Member
    Tom Meyer
    @tommeyer

    kylez:How come a contributor’s post isn’t already on the Main Feed?

    Because only NeverTrump posts are allowed on Ricochet!

    No, seriously. It’s because Dr Rahe posted it to the member feed in the evening and we only just saw it. I went to go promote it and it turned out that Jon was already on it when you folks up-voted it.

    Sometimes, that’s what happens.

    • #20
  21. Jamie Lockett Member
    Jamie Lockett
    @JamieLockett

    Paul A. Rahe: Is Donald Trump unfit to be President? I fear so. Is Hillary Clinton unfit to be President? As Nancy Pelosi would say, “Are you kidding? Are you kidding?”

    This is the only relevant portion of the essay to me. They are both unfit. Therefore vote for neither.

    • #21
  22. Doug Watt Member
    Doug Watt
    @DougWatt

    With a nod to Dante it will be a hot day in the inner circle of Hell before this Catholic will ever vote for a small “c” Catholic on any ticket.

    • #22
  23. TKC1101 Member
    TKC1101
    @

    Tom Meyer, Ed.:

    kylez:How come a contributor’s post isn’t already on the Main Feed?

    Because only NeverTrump posts are allowed on Ricochet!

    No, seriously. It’s because Dr Rahe posted it to the member feed in the evening and we only just saw it. I went to go promote it and it turned out that Jon was already on it when you folks up-voted it.

    Sometimes, that’s what happens.

    Now dang it Tom, you went and ruined a whole evening of  conspiracy talk. You removing the popcorn machine next?

    • #23
  24. Quinn the Eskimo Member
    Quinn the Eskimo
    @

    The only reason to vote for Trump is to watch him betray the conservatives who are justifying him.  Trump treats conservatives with contempt and they have spent most of the campaign season showing why they are worthy of that contempt.

    • #24
  25. Egg Man Inactive
    Egg Man
    @EggMan

    Thanks, Paul, from a NeverTrumper.

    If I may, I believe the point is more concisely made this way: Trump, despite being a disgusting human being, *may* appoint a court that not like him: decent in character, and respectful of the law. As we saw with Scalia, that may be something that lasts a generation beyond Trump.

    However, I’m still of the belief that Trump will lose my state easily. If that changes, I will consider a change as well.

    • #25
  26. Richard Fulmer Inactive
    Richard Fulmer
    @RichardFulmer

    [Withdrawn]

    • #26
  27. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    TKC1101: Sometimes , when the machine is broken, you reach for the hammer.

    Not if you’re trying to fix the machine, you don’t.

    • #27
  28. Mike-K Member
    Mike-K
    @

    Percival: A President Trump would be Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces, and there is no evidence he could successfully command a corporal’s guard.

    And I assume you have evidence that he could not. The man is a successful businessman in a highly competitive world. I don’t like his public persona and can barely watch him on TV but I winced when I saw Bush talking on TV. This sounds like the self justification and virtue signaling of the NeverTrumpers who risk placing a 1960s, Bernardine Dohrn style female terrorist in the presidency,

    • #28
  29. billy Inactive
    billy
    @billy

    Quinn the Eskimo:The only reason to vote for Trump is to watch him betray the conservatives who are justifying him. Trump treats conservatives with contempt and they have spent most of the campaign season showing why they are worthy of that contempt.

    You do realize that the primaries are over?

    There are three options:

    Vote for Trump

    Vote for Hillary

    Sit the election out

    • #29
  30. Spin Inactive
    Spin
    @Spin

    TLDR.  <tongue out>

    • #30
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