Hillary, Trump, And The Future Of The Republican Party

Source: Daily Wire | October 5, 2016 | Ben Shapiro

This has been a gut-wrenching election for conservatives. It’s not gut-wrenching because of Hillary Clinton – we know how awful Hillary Clinton is. Most of us have been thinking and writing about the horror of her politics for two decades.

It’s gut-wrenching because of Donald Trump.

Trump’s candidacy raises two questions that have rarely come into conflict for conservatives: who will be worse for the country for the next four years? And who will be worse for the conservative movement and its political vessel, the Republican Party?

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But this year, those questions aren’t quite so simple. Conservatives have broken down into three groups:

The Just-Say-Yes Trump Voters.

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The Just-Say-No Hillary Voters. ….

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The Third Way. Then there are those of us who simply cannot vote for either of these two people. Most of us in this camp wake up in the morning considering whether or not to vote Trump. We generally believe that Hillary will be far more damaging to the country than Trump over the next four years but we fear the possibility that Trump could be catastrophic. We think that Trump will likely govern as a centrist Democrat. We suspect that he’ll cave on judges, that he’ll broker deals with Democrats, that he’ll push us into a trade war and that he’ll put forth an isolationist foreign policy. We think he will work to undermine the essential causes of life and Judeo/Christian ethics. Even then, he’d probably be better than Hillary, if only by degree. In answer to this question, I’d rather Trump won.

But then there’s the second question. Trump has spent a year convincing conservatives to give up truth in order to fight Hillary Clinton, to sign onto an amoral politics that disdains decency or even conservatism. He has poisoned the well with young people, women, minorities. He’s turned the GOP into the party of “Bush lied, people died.” Republican thoughtleaders are carrying water for him, and the chances that they’ll suddenly discover their spines when he becomes President Trump are nearly zero. Another eight years of this, we believe, will destroy the Republican Party utterly, salting the earth. By this logic, for the sake of the conservative movement – and its only tool, the Republican Party – a Hillary election would be preferable to a Trump one. In answer to this question, I’d rather Hillary won, if only so that we can rebound in opposition to a bad president instead of permanently sacrificing our principles in order to collapse into support of one. Note I said that I’d rather Hillary won, not that I would vote for her — that’s something I would never do. I’d never vote Hillary — never even consider it — because my vote is not only a tool of political calculation, it is my personal moral and political affirmation. I will never affirm this despicable woman and her plans to smother freedom and extend the culture of death.

Which leads us to The Third Way. The Third Way is to simply reject the idea of a binary choice outright. Yes, one of these people will be the next president, but that hardly recommends that we give one of them our moral imprimatur. As I’ve said for months, I plan on skipping the top of the ticket – neither one of these candidates fulfills my basic requirements to be president. I won’t vote Trump, and I’ll never vote Hillary. That decision on Trump, as always, is subject to changing evidence. Trump could change – unlikely. Or Republicans could change, and stop humoring him, providing evidence that they’d stand up to him, in which case the threat of his ascension is greatly diminished. Until something changes, however, I’ll remain torn. And Trump will continue tearing conservatives – and conservatism – apart.

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