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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
I have zero regrets for having voted for Evan McMullin. I felt our chances of having a good candidate were lost after the Florida primary results came in.In my opinion we had no good choices after Florida. Like most, I was surprised Trump won.
I do not overlook the positive aspects such as most of his cabinet appointments, an hopefully judicial appointments., but in the long run I retain deep reservations about Trump. His flawed character his highly likely to disappoint conservatives and diminish many of our fellows attachment of traditional values, in the manor Bill Clinton did. Hopefully he can be restrained by those who surround him.
I hope I’ll be proven wrong, and things will work out.
You are correct and I think Simon was pointing that out in his Simon way. Bad verbiage on my part.
Not to mention the Putin problem. Maybe that’s just me. Apparently everyone on the Right thinks he’s totally cool now.
Enough about me. What do you think about me?
Dear Mr. McMuffin,
When you mess with the bull who you watch sleep with your wife, you get the horns.
Sincerely,
A Deplorable
For the people bemoaning the rise of guys like Richard Spencer, I hope you realize that neither he nor the Alt Right would even exist but for the fecklessness of the regular right. Every time the GOP surrendered to the left wing narrative on some social issue… and that list is long….and then joined with the left in declaring such subjects verboten, guys like Spencer became inevitable. Paraphrasing Derb, “If you forbid the respectable from talking about people’s concerns, then people will listen to the non-respectable”.
Nature abhors voids in politics as much as it does anywhere else.
@docjay is probably still on some righteous pain meds following his recent surgery so might want to cut him some slack until he can properly defend himself again. Not that I’d recommend trying him right now unless you have a death wish or something similar.
I got it. Let’s give free rein to the libs while we tear each other apart. I know I’m game.
What is at HotAir? Who is Jan? Getting harder and harder to keep up with this post.
That or your rolls off the tongue handle.
You will be. They will.
Whiskey Tengo Foxtrot – over.
News to me.
I think you’re simply fabulous.
If I get this, then it is not exactly dinner table conversation. If I don’t get it then carry on.
Thought you were asleep. Go back to sleep.
I’m trying to find some resemblance between this and the comment you were responding to. I’m drawing a blank.
Wow, what a surprise. Another guy won. Weird.
I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what I was saying.
This indicates a serious mistaken notion of what voting is.
Great, then I was simply reinforcing your point in my “Simon way.”
I’ll take that bet. What are your terms?
Doc, I was pulling a leg and it came off in my hand.
He’s a creation of the left and the alt-left. They breathe life into that movement whenever they talk about Trump as a fascist.
I have read many similar comments on Ricochet about that provocatively-headlined Examiner article by Byron York. They strike me as somewhat narcissistic, even though I agree that McMullin’s comments were intemperate and ill-advised.
(The comments’ impact was perhaps magnified by York’s paraphrasing, which may or may not have accurately captured those statements made to York by McMullin that were not directly quoted in the article. One can’t be sure without hearing the recording of the interview, if such a record exists.)
I can understand the irritation felt by Republicans who lamented that McMullin was adding yet another 16-penny spike to the racism nail-bat regularly used to bloody conservatives (usually with no justification whatsoever). I felt this irritation myself. What I cannot understand is the additional reaction that many had: “McMullin is calling me a racist.” That reaction is only justified if McMullin had said that all Republicans are racists.
He did nothing of the kind. He said that he encountered racism on Capitol Hill. I suppose one can dispute that he did, and declare him a liar, but it’s difficult to prove that he didn’t. He’s talking about his personal experience. He also said that Trump’s candidacy brought to light evidence of racism in certain Republican quarters. That point is indisputable.
It was more tiresome than anything. Here was someone purporting to be a standard bearer with the same guilt nonsense of the left. You can call people racists or tell them they have a racist organization or they consort with racists only so many times until you become persona non grata. Some people never learn that the left gives you no love and it pisses off your own side. It showed more political stupidity than anything else.