Recommended by Ricochet Members Created with Sketch. Checking in with the Never Trumpers

 

Not having read Never Trumpers in a long time, I thought I would check in with the Never Trumpers to see how they are approaching the election. I settled on Dan McLaughlin at National Review, who has a long piece on his struggles with his vote tomorrow.

And I do mean long. The thing just goes on, and on, and on. It reminds me of an unpleasant tendency of Never Trumpers toward moral narcissism, as though the most important thing in the world is their moral purity.

Obsession with moral purity is not the same thing as moral virtue. The latter is the foundation of right conduct and, through the virtue of prudence, deciding the best course of action in any particular circumstance. The former confuses moral virtue with avoiding association with the allegedly morally tainted, as though voting for Donald Trump somehow makes one dirty.

Most moral decisions are straightforward. In this case, McLaughlin goes on at length about his pro-life principles and his commitment to the pro-life cause. After mentioning Trump’s positive pro-life record and the fact that Biden/Harris would be perhaps the most pro-abortion administration in history, he ends with this:

It is possible to justify voting Biden-Harris, or being indifferent between Biden-Harris and Trump-Pence, but no conscience can avoid the fact that this means choosing the death of many thousand innocents.

Ummm… how can one possibly justify voting Biden-Harris if you think it means choosing the death of many thousands of innocents? What could possibly weigh on the other side? I get it if you aren’t strongly pro-life. But McLaughlin insists he’s about as pro-life as they come.

After many more paragraphs of hand-wringing, we finally get the answer:

If I’m honest with myself, if I take this simply at the gut level, here is the dilemma: When I watch Trump, I just want to be done with him. I’ve had it. I’m sick of what he does to our politics and national discourse, and even to our brains and our friendships and neighborhoods….

I’m also really not sure I can look at myself in a mirror after voting for Trump. It is one thing to walk with Trump, on a transactional basis, thanking him when he does right, criticizing him when he does wrong, and hoping and trying to make him the best servant of the public we can get while he serves the term to which the voters have elected him. We can all do that with a clean conscience; it is a civic duty. We can do it again, if he is reelected. But it is another thing entirely to voluntarily choose four more years of this. Somebody has to stand up for the things we always said we believed; it should fall to those of us who still, publicly, believe those things.

So in the end, it’s just that McLaughlin won’t feel good about himself if he votes for Trump. He wants to be done with him. He wants to look at himself in the mirror and be proud of himself. Proud of what? That his moral purity is intact because he stood aside while a man who, by McLaughlin’s own analysis, will enable the deaths of thousands of innocents is elected? This isn’t moral analysis. It’s just moral narcissism.

And I just want to be done with it.

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  1. EHerring Coolidge

    kedavis (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Man of Consta… (View Comment):

    The Cynthonian (View Comment):
    part of the reason the GOP Congress impeached Clinton was because we had all been taught that Character Matters in our elected leaders.

    Maybe. I always saw it as Clinton being compromised. When a leader is sexually promiscuous, he opens himself to blackmail or worse. For that reason I felt he shouldn’t hold the office.

    But sexual blackmail is only possible if the misconduct is considered to be “a big deal” by the voters etc. If the voters decide it’s NOT “a big deal,” as happened with Clinton, then it’s arguable no longer blackmail-able either.

    Of course the Dims never had any intention of enforcing any such standard on THEIR side – which is why the official portrait of Bawney Fwank could easily depict him in S&M leathers – but it was something of a suicide pact for “us.” Remember, not long before Reagan was elected, just having been DIVORCED would have been instant disqualification.

    It’s at least arguable that the Dims did us a favor, since we then had some freedom to nominate other than squeaky-clean candidates who would just lose gracefully.

    The Democrats have engaged in “sexual blackmail” of Republicans for years, whether true or not to the point we just expect and ignore it. It isn’t that we have lowered our morals or become hypocrites, but that we don’t let them use Alinsky’s 4th rule against us.

    • #181
    • November 4, 2020, at 6:49 AM PST
    • 4 likes
  2. Buckpasser Member
    BuckpasserJoined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):
    I denounce violence by Antifa. I denounce violence by BLM. I denounce violence by Bernie Bros

    And yet, you and everyone else on the left supports biden-harris. It is well established that a vote for the d ticket was a vote for AOC, BLM, rioting and looting.

    The best way to get around the C of C is to say that is “unfortunate”.

    • #182
    • November 4, 2020, at 8:06 AM PST
    • 5 likes
  3. MichaelKennedy Coolidge

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Man of Consta… (View Comment):

    The Cynthonian (View Comment):
    part of the reason the GOP Congress impeached Clinton was because we had all been taught that Character Matters in our elected leaders.

    Maybe. I always saw it as Clinton being compromised. When a leader is sexually promiscuous, he opens himself to blackmail or worse. For that reason I felt he shouldn’t hold the office.

    Which would also apply to Trump and Stormy McDaniels. Just sayin’.

    The Avenatti ploy with Daniels was that she had a photo of herself with Trump at a golf tournament. Lots of those are taken at every golf tournament. Monica had Clinton’s semen on her dress.

    • #183
    • November 4, 2020, at 8:51 AM PST
    • 4 likes
  4. The Elephant in the Room Member

    MichaelKennedy (View Comment):

    Monica had Clinton’s semen on her dress.

    That’s Russian disinformation.

    • #184
    • November 4, 2020, at 9:01 AM PST
    • 4 likes
  5. The Elephant in the Room Member

    DrewInWisconsin, Man of Consta… (View Comment):

    David French is the same way. Claims to be pro-life while yelling at his fellow Christians to vote for the most radically pro-abortion platform in existence.

    David French is all about is showing off that fancy gold-plated set of morals he has, all sparkly and barely used in their velvet-lined display case. His basic approach to politics is that the Right should behave like Christians in first century A.D. Rome, choosing to martyrdom in the Colosseum by the braying Leftist mobs with no sort of meaningful resistance if the alternative is to do anything that would be appear less than completely saintly. It’s a good way to become lion feces, but no way to win elections or influence policy.

    • #185
    • November 4, 2020, at 9:11 AM PST
    • 12 likes
  6. Manny Member

    The Elephant in the Room (View Comment):
    Were you to write, “I didn’t vote for Trump because, honestly, I just personally cannot abide him. I don’t know what it is, but just seeing him infuriates me. It’s irrational, sure, but that’s how it is,” I’d understand that. I feel like that about people, both in real life and public figures. “Ugh – I don’t know why, but I just can’t stand [fill in the blank]!” Okay. We all have those people. It’s a normal human reaction. And, from what I have read, that really seems to be the only logical reasoning for your antipathy towards Trump – that it’s not really logical at all. Because everything else you’ve put forth – most especially the equine manure about Joe Biden’s being a man of good character – has been roundly and soundly refuted. If you’re old enough to have voted for Reagan and yet don’t realize after nearly fifty years of his hair-sniffing, racist statements, family-based graft, plaigiarism, and general nastiness that Joe Biden is a slithering dendritic gastropod of the lowest order, you might be suffering from the same cognitive difficulties as ol’ Uncle Joe.

    And I can understand someone feeling they just dislike Trump and not voting or voting third party. But to vote for the opposition and campaign against the Party standard bearer using Dem’s talking points and trying to persuade others against him, many times using the fake news and fake Russian/Ukraine hoax crap, well that is too much to stomach. At that point they are just being traitors as far as I’m concerned.

    • #186
    • November 4, 2020, at 9:40 AM PST
    • 6 likes
  7. MISTER BITCOIN Member

    How is voting for a senile candidate with a history of graft and grift and a communist running mate virtuous?

     

    • #187
    • November 4, 2020, at 5:37 PM PST
    • 7 likes
  8. Gary Robbins Reagan

    MichaelKennedy (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Man of Consta… (View Comment):

    The Cynthonian (View Comment):
    part of the reason the GOP Congress impeached Clinton was because we had all been taught that Character Matters in our elected leaders.

    Maybe. I always saw it as Clinton being compromised. When a leader is sexually promiscuous, he opens himself to blackmail or worse. For that reason I felt he shouldn’t hold the office.

    Which would also apply to Trump and Stormy McDaniels. Just sayin’.

    The Avenatti ploy with Daniels was that she had a photo of herself with Trump at a golf tournament. Lots of those are taken at every golf tournament. Monica had Clinton’s semen on her dress.

    Then why would Trump pay her $130,000 for her silence?

    • #188
    • November 4, 2020, at 5:49 PM PST
    • Like
  9. EHerring Coolidge

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    MichaelKennedy (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Man of Consta… (View Comment):

    The Cynthonian (View Comment):
    part of the reason the GOP Congress impeached Clinton was because we had all been taught that Character Matters in our elected leaders.

    Maybe. I always saw it as Clinton being compromised. When a leader is sexually promiscuous, he opens himself to blackmail or worse. For that reason I felt he shouldn’t hold the office.

    Which would also apply to Trump and Stormy McDaniels. Just sayin’.

    The Avenatti ploy with Daniels was that she had a photo of herself with Trump at a golf tournament. Lots of those are taken at every golf tournament. Monica had Clinton’s semen on her dress.

    Then why would Trump pay her $130,000 for her silence?

    Why does Congress use taxpayer dollars to do the same.

    • #189
    • November 4, 2020, at 6:53 PM PST
    • 5 likes
  10. Gazpacho Grande' Coolidge

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    MichaelKennedy (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Man of Consta… (View Comment):

    The Cynthonian (View Comment):
    part of the reason the GOP Congress impeached Clinton was because we had all been taught that Character Matters in our elected leaders.

    Maybe. I always saw it as Clinton being compromised. When a leader is sexually promiscuous, he opens himself to blackmail or worse. For that reason I felt he shouldn’t hold the office.

    Which would also apply to Trump and Stormy McDaniels. Just sayin’.

    The Avenatti ploy with Daniels was that she had a photo of herself with Trump at a golf tournament. Lots of those are taken at every golf tournament. Monica had Clinton’s semen on her dress.

    Then why would Trump pay her $130,000 for her silence?

    You just answered your question – it’s cheaper and easier to buy silence, which has little to do with anything she claims being true or not.

    In other words, throw money at the problem.

    • #190
    • November 5, 2020, at 4:01 AM PST
    • 5 likes
  11. DrewInEastHillAutonomousZone Coolidge

    I can’t believe we’re going back to the silly Stormy Daniels saga. NeverTrumpers are sick and desperate.

    • #191
    • November 5, 2020, at 6:19 AM PST
    • 7 likes
  12. Biden Pure Demagogue Coolidge
    Biden Pure DemagogueJoined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member

    DrewInWisconsin, Man of Consta… (View Comment):

    I can’t believe we’re going back to the silly Stormy Daniels saga. NeverTrumpers are sick and desperate.

    Speaking of Never Trump as an S&M bondage fantasy movie…..

    • #192
    • November 5, 2020, at 6:52 AM PST
    • 3 likes
  13. Samuel Block Support

    Somebody has to stand up for the things we always said we believed; it should fall to those of us who still, publicly, believe those things.

    I think this is the essence of our debased discourse. It reminds one of all those brave souls who oppose racism. 

    • #193
    • November 5, 2020, at 1:11 PM PST
    • 1 like
  14. Headedwest Coolidge

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    Just go away. Please.

    • #194
    • November 5, 2020, at 3:47 PM PST
    • 3 likes
  15. Django Member

    Headedwest (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    Just go away. Please.

    You’ve heard the old saying: Don’t wrestle with a pig. You just get dirty and the pig enjoys it. 

    • #195
    • November 5, 2020, at 4:18 PM PST
    • 2 likes
  16. Mim526 Member

    Matt Upton (View Comment):
    Will Trump do generational harm for conservative government and push the electorate towards the Democratic party, or expand the Republican base?

    This is the binary outcome of the Trump first term I see most commonly described. I’ve come to view Donald Trump’s effect differently and larger than the GOP. I think his Presidency clearly delineated the line between globalism and nationalism (in its best sense), both in the USA and abroad. What the Trump presidency has shown me is that in the United States that line politically is less Republican/Democrat than it is uniparty/traditional American.

    Everyone has a hierarchy of what is most important. For example, mine in order of importance would be God, family, friends, country if it’s a democratic republic that allows individual freedom. Political party affiliation I place significantly lower: I’m going to vote for individual candidates that adhere closest to the Bill of Rights.

    Whatever rationale is given for doing so, people who may not agree with the entire Democrat agenda but found a socialist ticket that is not friendly to faith or family preferable to someone who (surprisingly) governs more traditionally American, placed faith/family/country lower in importance. Knowing all this and still finding Donald J. Trump too flawed to stomach in the White House is a matter of form, not substance, I think.

    Underlying many comments here and elsewhere is the sense that the choice to vote for Donald Trump is about his uniquely pro-American governance, the antithesis of the uniparty and its global allegiance. After four decades of increasingly outward-focused presidents, these voters do not care so much whether a candidate is Republican as whether he/she’s going to safeguard American freedoms and promote American prosperity. They — we — are not going to want to go back to uniparty GOP business as usual.

    • #196
    • November 6, 2020, at 8:37 AM PST
    • 6 likes
    • This comment has been edited.
  17. kedavis Member

    Mim526 (View Comment):
    Knowing all this and still finding Donald J. Trump too flawed to stomach in the White House is a matter of form, not substance, I think.

    And ignores how awful Biden and Harris are.

    • #197
    • November 6, 2020, at 10:45 AM PST
    • 3 likes