Hillyer: Why a Third Candidate Is Needed

Readers of this site already know of my belief that Donald Trump is morally, experientially, temperamentally, attitudinally and philosophically unfit for the Oval Office. I do not believe he is emotionally stable; I do not believe he is personally decent; I do not believe he is principled; I do not believe he is conservative; and I do not even believe he is a big business success aside from having a proven ability at branding and being a successful reality-TV showman. Still, even many people who agree that Trump is a bad choice for president say that we must now support him because we must keep Hillary Clinton out of the White House. They say that a third-party/independent candidate will just split the anti-Hillary vote and thus give the White House to the Left. Some even go so far as to suggest that I and fellow NeverTrumpers desire that outcome. Well, while it is true that I literally do not believe that Trump is any less bad than Clinton, the latter is absurd. I am both NeverTrump and NeverHillary. And my 40 years in the conservative vineyards should at least merit an acknowledgement that I think things through very carefully, for the purpose of conservative ends; and that even if I turn out to be mistaken, there must be some considered logic and good intentions behind my actions. (And certainly there is not some obeisance on my part to the “establishment,” which my entire career has shown has been far, far more often a target of my criticism rather than my praise.) The simple truth is that I believe a strong third-candidate effort provides the best, not the worst, chance to keep Mrs. Clinton from the presidency. I also believe that a third-candidate will make it almost infinitely more likely that Republicans will keep their majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, and significantly more like to keep the Senate (which will be tough to hold regardless).