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An Open Apology to Evan McMullin
Dear Mr. McMullin,
I’m writing to tell you how much I regret my part in making you someone who sucks up to Shaun King.
When I voted for you, I was desperate. I didn’t trust Trump to be any good, and I didn’t think Hillary could be any worse.
I was on the rebound from losing the primary. My original choice had a heart-breaking finish, but I would have chosen even Jeb Bush over you. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you that.
I turned to you as a protest vote. I heard you in an interview, and you seemed clear-eyed and down-to-earth about your chances. My vote was meant to tell the rest of the country, “Go ahead. You pick,” and they did.
I didn’t know you thought Republicans were racist. My fault. I read a lot of news, but much of it happens outside my radar. But here you are in October, telling Byron York that there’s nothing wrong with the GOP except racism. If I had known you thought I and other Republicans were racist, I would have gone back to my earlier write-in pick, Ted Cruz, although I briefly thought about voting for The Dread Pirate Roberts, but I wasn’t quite ready to deal with the first Fictional-American president (is that racism?).
I apologize, Mr. McMullin, that I helped give you the idea that you are Somebody.
You apparently got fewer than 500,000 votes in the election. More than I got, but it does not make you a player on the national stage.
I know. It hurts to put yourself out there like that: the headlines, the interviews, the hoopla, the begging for donations, and the money! I’m sorry you thought we really, really liked you. In that interview I heard, you seemed to understand that your “path to victory” was probably, at best, a 250-to-1 shot (which by my not-so-stellar-math is what it turned out to be). You spent a lot of money. You made yourself a name.
And now — Surprise! Surprise! Surprise! — Donald Trump won. And made some surprisingly good nomination picks. And continued being Trump. And sent the Left into paroxysms of the Derangement Syndrome du Jour. He will make good moves and bad moves, like all presidents. History’s train is trundling down the tracks, and we’ll see where we go. But in case you haven’t noticed, you’re not driving.
In the future, when I ask where conservatism is going, I won’t look to you. I’m just not that into you. I’m sorry I led you on. I thought you understood that you were an emergency vote. A protest vote. Not a lasting political relationship.
Don’t go away mad. Let me give you a trophy.
And of bit of advice: It’s not too late to go into politics, if that’s your passion. But start over, with a school board or something. And don’t hang out with fakes like Shaun King. It makes you look like a loser.
Your former voter,
Jan Bear
Published in General
October 28, 2016 Ricochet guest David Frum’s twitter feed was end-of-world interesting too, but he didn’t vote for McMullin. He voted Hillary Clinton.
Evan McMullin and Jill Stein could form a truly awesome loser ticket next time. I mean, losing, even in Utah, to Mr. Trump is an accomplishment. Forcing a recount (or two) that actually gains votes for the winner is also a memorable accomplishment. Together, just wow!
I hope he enjoys obscurity as much as McNothin
SMOD didn’t win because SMOD didn’t run. Nobody beats SMOD.
“Nobody puts SMOD baby in a corner”
Now, if I had thought of that in time … nah. I voted for the orangutan. Hopefully, the cabinet he’s been putting together will keep him coloring in the lines. I figure if nothing else he’s a faster study than Barry, who knew nothing coming in and learned nothing in eight years.
First-rate mocking. Truly artistic, and fun!
I am beginning to seriously reconsider my membership in Ricochet.
I was told that the comments and posts would be monitored, and civil discourse would be prized. I assert that this post and most of the postings under it are not civil, nor respectful. Is this a right of center website, or a Trump website? If it is the latter, I want nothing of it, and I hope that someone while create a Ricochet for conservatives who love their country more than Trump.
Evan McMullin deserves no respect.
Is sucking up to Shaun King a right of center action?
Gary, I’m going to give you a heads up. This site has suffered greatly due to people who want to start fights among people who call themselves conservatives and believe that entitles them to discount people who supported Trump, or criticize people who didn’t. In just the last few days I have seen people really begin to move forward. If you can’t handle the multitude of comments that come from all sides, you may not be in the right place. I’m not a moderator, so I’m telling you this as a member. If you aren’t flexible enough to take in many points of view, that’s fine. Just don’t attack or condescend to others who don’t agree with you.
That figures. And so did Colin Powell, right? And David Brooks?
The Al Jolson of wannabe pundits.
Yeah, I remember watch McMuffin saying a couple weeks that entire point of his run was to bleed enough votes off for Hillary Clinton to win. To which I just discounted him from that point on as a loser.
I mean at least Gary Johnson was trying to win.
Also, let’s not forget: preventing attacks against Trump and McMullin (for example) who are not members here is not what the CoC was created for. Also, it’s not for creating a safe space for members either but for creating a space for informed and articulate discussion (we have one exception that I know of and that’s @10cents but leave that aside) without foul language and personal attacks against a person’s character. Informed and articulate people aren’t always milquetoasts (usually they are but not always) and so we have to be able to take the abuse to our ideas but we shouldn’t take the abuse to individual members (the ad hominem term was designed for that very notion).
Haha! Love it.
It took me a minute to get it. I see what Doug did there.
Thank you, Larry. It’s interesting that Mr. Robbins has been a member since 2011 and isn’t familiar with these guidelines. Glad you could clarify for him.
@garyrobbins, I tried to respect Barack Obama for the sake of the office. Then he went full retard.
You never go full retard.
With Trump, I’ll praise him when he does something praiseworthy. I’ll beat him like an orange-haired stepchild when he doesn’t.
I don’t know there was never a full transcript it was a journalist opinion of what he said. However he never publicly rejected the stance (that I know of) after it got a lot of play so I have to assume the journalist take was right. That despite the quote really does not stand on its own in the piece as calling Republicans racist as a general stereotype of elected leaders.
Thank you, Jan, for doing what you could to inaugurate Hillary. You should be apologizing to all of America for having voted as you did, not to Mr McMullin.
Those of us who supported Trump, in some cases enthusiastically, in some cases reluctantly and in others, only after experiencing a conversion (that would be me) are tired of the official Ricochet mentality that made voting for McMullin, or Johnson, or No Body at All, a viable alternative to supporting the man who actually beat Herself, and the oh-so-tiresome Bush dynasty to boot.
Let it go, Doc. We won. It’s water under the bridge. Give them all a year to realize that Trump won’t start WWIII, and hopefully a serious lesson will be learned by all of them. We don’t even need to say, “We told you so!”
“I didn’t know you thought Republicans were racist.”
Did you pay attention to the primary at all? You don’t think there’s a disturbing level of this that we ignored and refused to acknowledge for too long? Richard Spencer is now a person who has a following. Refusing to deal with all this will get us nowhere and end up with us worse. Besides that, actual minority outreach might be a thing we should actually try. The white vote will not forever dominate and we shouldn’t be afraid of when it might not.
This.
Another one, I see. You actually believe the media. Weird.
So, the anti-Trump contingent can say whatever they want and whenever they want but we are supposed to wait a year. Sounds an awful lot like what we all complained about with regard to the Republican leadership. It’s always wait and don’t make waves. Those people lost. The “we” of who won don’t include the people who want to delay and absorb and rope-a-dope with the truth anymore.
It’s also a lot like what the media and the Dems told us about crowing when we won the Cold War. How did that work out?
Because nothing says “winning” like holding on to no longer relevant grudges and alienating former and potentially future allies in the process.
This was not a pro-Trump article, this was an anti-McMullin article with a brief take on Trump that is essentially the same as Jonah Goldberg’s (and not too far removed from my own, for that matter).
If that’s too much for you, I honestly doubt there are any Trump-critical sites you would be happy with.