My colleague Philip Klein had an excellent column Thursday on why he is a “Trump skeptic” but “not a Never Trump absolutist.” I associate myself with almost the entirety of his thoughtful essay. But I must also emphasize the important distinction that someone still can be “Never Trump” but not an absolutist.
As Phil’s is just the latest (albeit one of the best) in a constant stream of pieces that take issue with (some of them belittling with fierce invective) some or all Never Trumpers, allow me to explain why I still welcome the label, and also what I mean by it. In doing so, I take strong issue with the sweeping generalizations and often outright calumny hurled at Never Trumpers in general even by usually thoughtful writers such as Victor Davis Hanson and my friend Mollie Hemingway.
What I can’t brook is how these critics shout from the rooftops that Never Trumpers are irrelevant and yet in the next breath blame us for using our supposedly great influence in dastardly ways to harm their hero. No one can square that circle.
First, let it be clear that I agree with Phil that the proper approach always has been to “criticize actions of [Trump’s] I disagreed with while giving him credit when it was due.” That alone makes me not one of the “absolutists” against whom Phil writes. Still, I remain a Never Trumper in the sense that, absent the appearance of a neo-Nazi or a Stalinist as Trump’s only main opponent, I will never vote for the orange billionaire for president.
That doesn’t mean I will (or did) vote for a Democratic nominee over Trump. It doesn’t mean I even tacitly accept the idea that we face only a “binary choice,” in which failure to support Trump equates to support for the Left.
It also doesn’t mean I oppose everything Trump does. It doesn’t mean I even oppose most of the policies of the Trump administration. It certainly doesn’t mean — and in fact, I have gone to great lengths to avoid this — that I belittle most of Trump’s supporters, or that I think most of their concerns invalid, or that I defend the Republican or media “establishment” or “elites,” or that I am a “moderate” or “neocon” on the Republican spectrum, or that I somehow am less interested in “winning” than in moral preening, or that I am trying to suck up to anybody or gain access or contracts or, Lord forbid, invitations to cocktail parties 1,000 miles away from my home in Alabama.
What Never Trump means to me is simply that I won’t vote for Trump. I don’t accept that he’s a good president or a successful one, and I certainly don’t agree that he’s the “only one” who can fix the system or defeat the Left. I can always work to try to encourage other conservative candidates to run, or to write in a vote, and that’s what I will do.
Now, the question is, why?
While I cannot claim to speak for others, I do believe many of them will agree with much of the following litany.
I will not vote for Trump, because I can never vote for a virulent bigot. After much reflection, I personally believe Trump to be just that. This is a personal belief that I will not defend here and now, but it’s not something I could make myself ignore, even if I wanted to.
I will not vote for Trump because I believe that while nobody is anywhere near perfect, good character is important, especially in the Oval Office, as an example for America’s youth. I can never vote for somebody with character beneath a certain baseline level. I believe Trump to be well below that level. I also firmly believe he is corrupt, with a business past just as dicey as the grifting that made most of us conservatives investigate and castigate the Clintons in the 1990s.
I can’t vote for Trump because I believe, in the long term, he is doing more harm to conservatism and his country than the good accomplished by some of his administration’s temporary policy achievements. (I also credit him for far fewer achievements than his supporters do.) I believe he is doing significant harm to our international standing and to important international alliances, that his trade policies are a threat to both the American and world economies, that his obvious admiration for authoritarian “strong men” is extremely worrisome, that his particular admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin is dangerous, that his utter diminution of international human rights runs counter to American values and interests, and that his obsession with the only-somewhat-important issue of immigration distracts attention from far more serious issues facing this country, such as debt and cultural rot.
Yes, I do support sovereignty and even “the wall.” And I think Trump’s hyperbole on those subjects actually retards, rather than enhances, progress on them.
Speaking of cultural rot, I believe Trump contributes mightily to it. As for the debt and deficits, Trump’s spending policies have exacerbated both immensely.
Trump lies constantly, extravagantly, incontinently. He undermines faith in American institutions. He tweets out quotes from Mussolini, recklessly slings around the word “treason” and uses Stalinist language such as “enemies of the people,” claims executive powers wildly beyond the tenor and intent of the Constitution, promotes destabilizing conspiracy theories, and encourages a societally hazardous cult of personality.
I also see evidence that convinces me he is emotionally unstable to such a degree that it could lead to impetuous decisions — by himself or by other leaders scared by his unpredictability — that could cause a major armed conflagration.
Again, for now, my point is not to convince others that my conclusions are accurate. I respect those who disagree with me, and each of the conclusions I list here would take a separate column to support. Instead, I just say that this is where I stand, having done my own homework, and having followed American politics for more than four decades. These are the conclusions I have carefully and soberly reached — my sincerely held beliefs about Trump.
The phenomenon of Donald Trump is obviously unique in American history. Some of us think it is uniquely perilous. It would be nice if others would give us credit for sincerity, good motives, and conservative philosophical consistency, even if they disagree — even if they do think America is so broken, and the Donald so preternaturally magical, that only he can fix it.
