Voting for Biden isn’t a conservative thing to do

Former Jeb Bush adviser Tim Miller is voting for Biden and telling everyone on Twitter to do the same. Sarah Longwell, the publisher of the Bulwark and former head of the Log Cabin Republicans, is knocking on doors to help Biden win in the primary and the general.

These conservatives and some of their compatriots have decided that the right thing to do at this point in our republic is to actively, vocally, and publicly try to make Biden president and to defend him and praise him in the process.

It’s not a decision I would ever make, because Biden is unacceptable. He is an extremist in defense of abortion. He wants abortion to be legal until the moment of birth. He wants to force taxpayers to subsidize abortion. He doesn’t believe pro-lifers belong in his party.

Abortion is a threshold issue for me and for millions of other voters. I simply cannot vote for an extreme abortion defender.

He’s bad on religious liberty, too friendly toward China, too hawkish on foreign policy, seems to be mentally in decline, and has lesser versions of all the personality problems President Trump has. He says he’ll deputize an avowed gun-grabber to “take care of the gun problem,” and is hopelessly tied up in corrupt self-dealing networks of lobbyists.

Biden is not fine. He’s totally unacceptable, and for that reason, I would never vote for him or tell conservatives, particularly pro-life conservatives, to vote for him, regardless of the alternatives.

And this last part gets at some of the differences in the Trump-skeptical Right. I don’t think you can rebut all the above criticisms of Biden by pointing out Trump’s flaws.

I am very aware of Trump’s flaws. I registered as a Republican in 2016 just so I could vote against Trump in the primary. I left the party when Trump got the nomination and refused to vote for him in the general election. I repeatedly wrote before and after the election that he is unfit for the job, and I have not hesitated to criticize him, both for erroneous policy actions and for his shameful behavior.

But I don’t go where Kristol, Longwell, Miller, and their still Never-Trump allies go. Further, I think they misrepresent the question at hand.

“Country over party,” they are fond of saying. But here’s the thing: Many Trump-skeptical conservatives never had any specific Republican Party allegiance in the first place, and we still won’t vote for left-wing Democrats. Many of us understand the GOP is the more conservative party and want to make it more conservative and use it as a vehicle for advancing conservatism. But the GOP isn’t us.

We don’t identify with “party” the way the Never Trumpers seem to have, up to now, judging by their own over-simplistic mantra, “country over party.” Most conservatives not deeply enmeshed in Washington and its party politics would instead put the decision to vote for Biden as a question “one pathological liar against another,” which sounds a lot less noble but matches the reality a lot better.

Kristol is a journalist, Longwell is a publisher, and Miller is an experienced political campaigner who also writes a lot. All three are also political operatives and, I say it in the most affectionate way possible, creatures of Washington. Kristol has launched multiple political and policy organizations, and in 2016, he actually worked behind the scenes to try and line up an anti-Trump conservative to run as an independent. Longwell runs an advocacy firm. Her job is to find a horse to ride or a side to take because she gets paid to help the good guys win.

Most opinion journalists don’t see things that way. We don’t have clients; we have policies, principles, and worldviews we believe in. For this reason, it’s natural to take no side on Biden-vs-Bernie-vs-Trump.

But even when we consider the different perspectives and self-perceived roles of the still-Never Trumpers, “country over party” is still a grating justification for supporting Biden.

First, when you say “country,” you mean something specific you think is best for the country, and we may not all agree. Second, more than just some “party” is being sacrificed when you try to make Biden president.

So if these Biden-backers were to be more precise, we’d all be better informed on the trade-offs they’re making. For some, it’s a policy trade-off: aggressive mainstream bellicose nation-building foreign policy in exchange for other conservative policies. For others, backing Biden over Trump is a more basic question: basic virtue and fitness for office over conservative policy.

And there are also long-term concerns about the future of conservatism and the GOP over the long-term benefits of judicial appointees and the medium-term benefits of conservative policy.

I understand different people will weigh these concerns differently. But I see the support of Biden as support of abortion extremism. Some may see that as a fine trade-off to get rid of Trump. They should say as much out loud.