-By Warner Todd Huston
It seems to me there are some major logical disconnects in the world of #NeverTrump that simply boggle the mind. In fact, in many ways these disconnects make hypocrites out of the #NeverTrumpers.
Before I get to the topic at hand, let me say I fully understand the reasons they don’t like Trump. In fact, I share their sentiment in many ways and I did not support Trump in the primaries. I have also written against him in years past, so there’s that. He seems to me to be more or less a non-commital liberal. He’s no conservative and I prefer conservatives.
I say this to note that I understand their anti-Trump sentiment. Further I agree that if they can’t vote for him they shouldn’t. But I have a major problem with some of their claims for pushing a third candidate–most especially one that is to come out of the blue and at the last second.
One of the main points many #NeverTrumpers use to eschew Trump is that, despite his coming out on top in the primaries, millions of voters voted for other candidates instead of Trump. This, they say, means “most”–or at least a large portion–of the GOP voter base did not want Trump and therefore he isn’t the most popular candidate among the center-right wing of the U.S. electorate.
So, they say Trump is illegitimate because he didn’t *really* get the majority of the GOP primary votes. OK, well and good. Let’s go with that.
Yet, on the other hand, they say they want to run a third party candidate and they say this mythic candidate can win if they focus their campaign only on the states with the largest Electoral College votes. That way he doesn’t have to run a “national” campaign and can focus on a strategic campaign that uses the rules to win instead of one that aims to sweep the whole country and get the largest number of votes.
But isn’t that EXACTLY the same as saying THEIR candidate will not be representative of the voters because their purposeful strategy means only the key districts will go to count for his support?
Doesn’t such a plan go exactly against their claim that Trump is illegitimate because he doesn’t *really* have majority support?
To me it seems the NeverTrumpers want it both ways. They want to attack Trump for not getting enough votes while pushing the idea of a candidate who will work only for the Electoral College totals which also means he also won’t get the most voter support.
This all seems like a major disconnect in the base logic for supporting a candidate.
Then we have the other claim underlying some of the discontent on the #NeverTrump side of the issue.
Many #NeverTrumpers are conservatives who have claimed they are sick and tired of the GOP not listening to the people. And yet, they want to turn around and push a mystery candidate while ignoring the voice of the largest number of voters who are clearly Trump supporters. In essence, they are doing to Trump voters exactly what they complain the GOP is doing to them.
This all amounts to a lot of hypocrisy, doesn’t it?
Lastly, I have said from day one that a vote for Hillary is a vote for the destruction of the U.S.A. and a vote for anyone but Trump is a vote for Hillary.
The math is simple. We have a two party system. No third party will ever get more than 10% of the vote and usually its far less. Teddy Roosevelt was arguably the most successful third party candidate in U.S. history and he only got 29 percent of the vote. His generally Republican followers voted Bull Moose and drove the Democrats into the White House.
In today’s even closer election totals, a vote for a third party guy is a vote for Hillary. Writing in Ted Cruz is a vote for Hillary. Voting Libertarian is a vote for Hillary.
That is because any vote taken from the GOP is essentially a vote given to the Democrat Party.
Sorry, #NeverTrumpers, but that is simply math. It is 100% fact.
I will grant that those who have always voted third party are essentially meaningless in 2016. Their vote has always gone to candidates who can’t win. So, the persistent third party voter’s vote going to a Libertarian–or whatever–is not the problem. The problem is those voters who usually vote GOP throwing their vote away on a Libertarian candidate or whatever mystery candidate the #NeverTrumpers fool into running (and it would be a disaster for this guy’s reputation, too) or–God forbid–actually voting for Hilary on purpose (which some #NeverTrmpers have said they will do). But in effect, these usual GOP voters are voting for Hillary even if they aren’t actually pushing the button for Hillary.
Now, if you simply can’t vote Trump because of your conscience, I understand that. Not voting Trump for that reason is without question a legitimate choice. But don’t fool yourself into thinking your anybody-but-Trump vote is not a vote that helps Hillary. It is. It inarguably is. Accept the truth and live with it.
Recently talk show host Dennis Prager said you can’t be a good conservative and vote third party or especially if you vote for Hillary in 2016. I agree with him and I said similar things months before he did.
For my reasons why a conservative must vote Trump you can check out my article entitled, “Can You Be a Conservative and Also a Trump Voter?.” (Hint, my answer is “yes.”)
Listen, I don’t like Trump at all. But Hillary is an existential threat to the U.S. Could Trump be bad for the U.S. too? Sure he could. But his “bad” is in ways we can neither anticipate nor be sure of. Hillary’s “bad” is concrete and extremely dangerous. To our Constitution, to our rights, and to our existence.
In that case choosing the *maybe bad* is better than choosing the 100% SURE bad.
In the end, I am not saying vote for Trump because I am predicting that good things might happen. I am saying vote Trump because if you don’t really bad things WILL happen.
So, yes, I am saying a vote against Trump is a vote against the United States of America. As Mark Levin says, “There, I said it!”
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing news, opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that wrote articles on U.S. history for several American history magazines. Huston is a featured writer for Andrew Breitbart’s Breitbart News, and he appears on such sites as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, Federalist Papers, and many, many others. Huston has also appeared on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN, and many local TV shows as well as numerous talk radio shows throughout the country.
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