Although a political conservative and consistent Republican voter, I have not voted for Trump and, after watching the first Presidential Debate of 2020, have decided to not vote for Trump. Add my name to the "Never Trump" column, not as an ideological commitment, but simply as a fact. I will have never voted for him. This is why.
First, abortion. The Culture War will be won with character not politics. Overturning Roe does not end the bloodshed. Its repeal allows South Dakota and Mississippi to outlaw abortion, but allows, even encourages, California and New York to continue. The actual number of abortions may not decrease and the cost of victory would be endorsing a man who exemplifies the Sexual Revolution's degradation of women and marriage. Who can calculate the unintended consequences? And it's not obvious that these originalist, textualist justices will actually overturn Roe, with its decades of stare decisis. The true precedent for overturning abortion is the Early Church ending infanticide and the exposure of infants in the Roman Empire through its own moral lives and theological convictions. Ending abortion and repealing the Sexual Revolution requires a change of heart, which is not compatible with an ends-justify-the-means rationale.
Second, the Constitution. Trump shows a lack of conviction about his oath to "protect and defend the Constitution". Like Obama, stretching back to Woodrow Wilson, Trump shares the imperial view of the Presidency. He feels entitled to "get things done" by executive order if Congress doesn't "act". It's true that he hasn't done that much, for which I'm grateful, but he would if he could. And that paves the way for a future President who actually has ability. We need a President who humbly serves the country by executing his or her office as laid out in the Constitution.
Third, Black Lives Matter. All Americans should care about the hopelessness and violence in our inner cities. The progressives are fanning Marxist flames and peddling the false hope of revolution. They are not helping. But Trump's partial, sometimes indirect, endorsements of white nationalist groups is too frequent to be accidental. You can't be the law and order candidate and play with verbal matches next to that gasoline. We need a President who believes in liberty and justice for all, who champions equality under the law, and who "takes Care that Laws be faithfully executed" in our land.
Fourth, conscience. If I vote third party, or write-in, or decline to vote, I am not implicitly voting for Biden. I reject the binary choice. I may never have the decisive vote on any matter, but a lifetime of voting my conscience makes a difference. There is a time for transactional thinking, picking the lesser of two evils, but this is not it. Our democracy will survive Trump or Biden. It survived Obama and would have survived Hillary. Our ideals are stronger than either major candidate in 2020, so it's best to follow my conscience and be Never Trump.
David, thank you for this thoughtful and challenging post.
ReplyDeleteI do not plan to vote for Trump in the hope that a more conservative Supreme Court will overturn Roe vs. Wade. I don’t know whether Roe will be overturned. If it is, I believe that will be good for our nation: Roe was poorly-reasoned and based on a flawed jurisprudence and a broken moral compass. But originalism and textualism are about more than abortion and Roe vs Wade. They’re about upholding and defending our Constitution and the ideals it represents. These ideals are under attack. Trump — or the people around him — understand this.
Does Trump share an imperial view of the Presidency? He might. But something or someone is restraining him. And the best way to kneecap a potentially imperial president, to preserve our system of checks and balances now and for posterity, is with justices who believe in that system of checks and balances and want to uphold it. Trump has repeatedly nominated such justices.
Yes, America will survive a Biden-Harris administration. But it will look different by the end. Just like America survived the Obama-Biden administration but looked different by the end. If justices continue to make our founding documents say whatever they want them to say, eventually our founding documents will cease to matter. And America will cease to be America. As with any slow change, we may not know exactly when the end comes. But if Democrats win the presidency and the senate, and if they end the filibuster and pack the court (moves that Biden will not disavow), the end will come sooner than later.
The words “Black Lives Matter” can mean several different things in America today (some I agree with and some I don’t). So I’d like to separate Black Lives Matter, on the one hand, from Trump’s seeming refusal to disavow white nationalist groups, on the other hand. First, let me admit that at times I have been troubled and extremely disappointed in Trump on this issue. But my disappointment notwithstanding, in the last several years Trump has repeatedly — and at times clearly — disavowed racism and white nationalism. He just won’t do it when pushed by the media and/or an opponent. He wouldn’t admit the sky is blue if pushed to do so by an aggressive journalist or a political opponent. He’s too pugnacious. And that’s a shame. But look at his actions. He’s done more for Israel than perhaps any other U.S. president. His support for the Jewish state has been bold and unequivocal, and conservative commentators say it has led to the beginnings of a transformation in the Middle East the likes of which would have been unimaginable just a few years ago. Such support for Jews and their homeland is incompatible with white supremacist ideology. Further, Trump’s tax and deregulation policies have been a boon to Blacks and other minorities, who — before Covid — we’re making strides they hadn’t made under the Obama administration.
Perhaps just as important to race relations in America, Trump has called out and denounced the Left’s obsession with race and its charge that America was, is, and always will be a racist nation. His explicit condemnation of the 1619 Project and critical race theory surprised and heartened me. And again, it struck me as incompatible with racist ideology.
Like you, I reject the binary choice between Biden and Trump. And like you, I believe our ideals are stronger than either candidate. But our ideals need people who believe in and support them. One candidate represents a party with an increasing number of people who don’t believe in our ideals and want to destroy them. The other has done a solid job defending them. Trump deserves another term.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete