Posted on 03/23/2016 12:32:41 PM PDT by Yashcheritsiy
If you're like me, you've been following this year's primary season with a mixture of amusement and consternation. While most of the choices this year were unpalatable (so what's new?), the really troublesome aspect came from the amount of sheer acrimony that seems to have permeated the race this time around. Some of it has to do with the large number of Republicans running – we started with 17 before slowly whittling them away – which contributed to a seemingly necessary amount of fragmented loyalties among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents.
However, much of this acrimony arose due to the rise and sustained lead held by Donald Trump, who represents a rather different brand of Republican from both the "movement conservative" and the "Rockefeller establishment" types who usually compete for dominance in the GOP primaries. As an unabashed populist and nationalist, Trump represents a divergence from the GOP norm, though one that is likely to become more, rather than less, commonplace in the near future as the major realignment in American politics that we are beginning to see works itself out in coming years. Both of the "old guard" factions within the Republican Party are troubled by this realignment, and by its standard-bearer Trump, and have been pulling out all the stops to try to hold off the challenge to their domination of the Republican Party.
One way in which this acrimony and anger has manifested itself is through the ridiculously childish "Never Trump" movement – a loose aggregation of Republicans and "conservative" elements within the media and political establishment who have loudly and proudly declared that they will never, ever, under any circumstances, vote for Donald Trump, even should he be the GOP nominee, even should he be the last line of defense against a Hillary Clinton presidency. Indeed, some of these folks have declared their intention to vote for her should it be a race between her and Trump. If you listen to them, many of them will assert the ludicrous belief that "Trump's just the same as Hillary," or even that "Hillary is better than Trump." For normal, intelligent people using common sense, these assertions are absolutely stunning in their idiocy. While Trump is certainly no rose, there are clear and obvious differences between him and Hillary, and he is clearly superior to her in terms of his political positions and his willingness to lead the nation against her enemies. Sure, Trump isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination. However, reasonable people understand that sometimes you need to dance with the one what brung you. Yes, we could all wish for a more "perfect" candidate, but we know the old saying, "If wishes were horses, we'd all be eating steaks."
So what kind of folks would do this sort of thing? Who would make up a movement, composed of ostensible "conservatives," that actively seeks to put Hillary Clinton into the office of the presidency instead of a flawed-but-still-preferable Republican? I believe we can outline four general sorts of people who make up this #NeverTrump movement.
The Genuinely Naïve
The genuinely naïve, who could perhaps also be called the "True Believers," are the folks who really, truly, absolutely believe that Ted Cruz is the ONLY hope for America and that he – and only he – can bring America back from the brink and restore her to her primal goodness and prosperity. Any other, but especially Donald Trump, will be the downfall of America, destroying her for all time. For these folks, if you don't vote for Ted Cruz, then you hate Jesus and America. They're the ones constantly reminding folks that "real" Christians will vote for Ted Cruz, and the failure to do so indicates that a person isn't "really" a Christian. They even applaud a non-Christian cult member like Glenn Beck when he rolls out this line of attack at the rallies. The fact that Ted Cruz is questionably eligible to even hold the office of the presidency, that he has been "anointed" by an unbiblical cult group known as "seven mountain dominionism," that he is a globalist, supported TPP, supported the Corker bill, supported doubling the number of Muslim immigrants America would take in, and all the rest is ignored by these folks. Mentioning them makes you a "not a real conservative."
The True Believers are so set on a Ted Cruz presidency that anyone else winning it is almost inconceivable to them. Hence, their tendency to go all abusive, obsessive boyfriend on the rest of us – if Ted Cruz can't have the presidency, then nobody can!
The Sour Grapes Sore Losers
When you start out with 17 candidates, it's obvious that 16 of them are eventually going to end up losers in the primary contest. Some folks can handle this...and some folks can't. The ones that can't have been joining the never Trump movement. These folks gave out their loyalty too soon, and the candidate of their affections eventually ran out of money and votes and dropped out of the race. Rather than adjusting to the new reality of the electoral landscape, these folks instead develop an irrational hatred for the one they see as having "cheated" their candidate of his or her victory.
Because Donald Trump has been consistently leading the race since last autumn, their ire falls upon him. "Trump cheated, Trump lied about my candidate, Trump is a mean, nasty person!" (Well, okay, maybe they have a point on that last one). But to make a long story short, they'd rather endure another four or eight years of everything they say they oppose rather than see the win go to the guy they have come to personally, viscerally hate to the very core of their being. They have no qualms at all about harming the rest of the country just to vent their personal pique as part of their irrational emotional response to Trump.
The Virtue Signalers
Virtue signalers are an interesting breed. Though we tend to associate political correctness with those on the far Left, there are plenty on the "mushy Right" who also engage in it. Virtue signaling is a neologism that is defined by the Urban Dictionary as,
"To take a conspicuous but essentially useless action ostensibly to support a good cause but actually to show off how much more moral you are than everybody else."
A virtue signaler is a person who wants everybody to know that they're Not Like Those Other People and that They Are The Right Kind Of Person. Through their words, they want everybody to be aware of how much better, nobler, and more moral they are than all those Other People who don't hold to politically correct beliefs. Let's face it – the "soft Right" is inhabited by politically correct "social justice warriors" (SJWs) just as much as the Left is, and these folks want us all to know that they're not like those "populists" and "patriotic types" who believe in politically incorrect, racist, sexist, homophobic beliefs like "opposing illegal immigration" or "blaming Islam for Muslim terrorism."
It's par for the course for a left-wing fruitcake like Hillary Clinton to argue that "Islam has nothing to do with terrorism." The supposedly "conservative" virtue signalers are right there with her, however, since that's the dominant belief held by the urban and collegiate types who make up their circle of acquaintances, with whom they wish to ingratiate themselves. Hence, they "signal their virtue" by loudly proclaiming at every opportunity how they don't like Trump because he's the Wrong Kind Of Person who has said The Wrong Kind Of Things and thus they would be embarrassed to be associated with Bad Thinkers Like Him.
And like their SJW brethren on the "other" side of the aisle, the virtue signalers have taken to "showing" how virtuous they are by declaring their intention to "blacklist" anyone on the Right who supports, or is even simply not hostile to, Donald Trump.
The Party Hacks
This last group is one that we're all familiar with. The party hacks are the folks who make up the group that we usually have in mind when we talk about "the establishment." These folks are the incestuous nest of career politicians, lobbyists, influence-mongers, Party hirelings, and mid-level hacks who have a vested interest in the status quo. They don't want anybody rocking the boat and interrupting the flow of kickbacks, influence peddling, and the distribution of political spoils.
These folks don't like Donald Trump because he represents a threat to their gravy train. If he does even half the things he says he will, the party hacks stand to lose a lot in terms of position within the hierarchy, influence, and potential future advancement upward through the ranks. This type really does genuinely prefer Hillary Clinton in the White House because she won't interfere with the Republicrat spoils-sharing that has been going on since George Bush Sr. was in office.
I would almost go so far as to guarantee you that anyone that you know who is a "Never Trumper" falls into one or more of these four categories. Regardless of whether they're deluded, irrationally angry, shoring up their social credentials, or simply looking out for number one, these folks are bound and determined to hand the White House to Hillary if they can't find a way to rip off Trump at the GOP convention. It's an infantile and irresponsible game they play, and hopefully one that will be rejected by the vast majority of thinking people. It's time for folks to do the right thing and rally around the nominee, whoever that ends up being.
So your believe only bad or stupid people won’t vote for Trump?
None of these describe me.
LOL!
Just one: Dumb.
This article is as shallow as everything else from the trumpette chorus. I am not voting for the man because there is not a shred of credible evidence that he is a conservative and because he has the temperament of a 3rd grader in a schoolyard smackdown contest.
Ah. You’re showing some mighty, grown-up thinking yourself lumping all Trump supporters into one category you describe as a chorus. Personally, I find that rather offensive.
As for temperaments, you ARE aware Hilde-beast has one that would possibly make the devil shiver.....right?
Sounds like you’re a mix of #1 and #2.
I am a NeverTrump supporter and I don’t fit any one of these categories. I genuinely believe Trump to be a dangerous demagogue with a narcissistic personality disorder and I am scared to death of what he would do as President. Thus I cannot vote for him because I don’t want to have to explain to my children why I supported a monster.
You sound close to a #2. Irrational hatred. You probably think he’s Hitler or something.
How will you explain to them you refused to vote for a candidate (IF he gets the nomination), and it helped a worse monster (i.e.Hillary) get the White House? I personally think Cruz is horrid and 100% establishment behind closed doors. Yet I’d hold my nose and vote for him over letting Hillary get one more ahead by a no-vote.
There is an outside chance some of that would happen with President Trump. There is an absolute certainty just about all of that will happen, and more, with a President Hillary. Given Trump has carved out important positions that both parties have neglected for decades, and has shown both the will and ability to throw left-wing attacks right back in their faces, I'm will to take the obvious chance over the obvious cancer.
And Trump would be the worst thing to happen to social conservatives since Margaret Sanger.
You forgot group 5: People who can’t bring themselves to vote for a narcissistic, foul-mouthed, demagogue who is willing to lie to people on a daily basis, then deny what he said the previous day. Parse that as you will...
So by omission you condone the election of Hillary, another dangerous demagogue with a narcissistic personality disorder...explain that to your kids..."What did you do to stop the destruction of America by liberals and communist, Daddy?"..."Oh, I sat at home and shoveled s#$%"...spineless.
Memo to Tim Dunkin: Don’t give up the day job.
I don’t think I could be fairly categorized as a sore loser because I am not upset at Trump due to my candidate losing. I have supported Cruz from the beginning and he is still in the race with at least a 25% chance of winning the nomination. If Cruz had lost, I would have been willing to support other candiates like Gov. Jindal, Gov. Walker, or even Sen. Rubio.
Instead, I oppose Trump because he truly terrifies and horrifies me.
The butthurt is strong in this one,
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