Posted on 05/24/2016 7:37:22 AM PDT by servo1969
When you differ from people you admire, you have to question yourself. After all, what is the purpose of admiring people if they aren't capable of influencing you?
So, I have had to challenge my position -- stated since the outset of the Republican presidential debates -- that if Donald Trump wins the Republican nomination, I will vote for him over Hillary Clinton, or any Democrat for that matter.
I devoted many hours of radio and many columns to criticizing Trump. His virtually assured nomination has therefore caused me grief as an American, a Republican and a conservative. That his character defects, gaps in knowledge on some important issues, and lack of identifiably conservative principles came to mean little to so many Republican voters is quite troubling. (Though, I might add, it is even more troubling that virtually all Democrats ignore the even worse character of Hillary Clinton, as well as the idiotic socialist ideas of Sen. Bernie Sanders.)
#NeverTrump conservatives, such as (in alphabetical order) Jonah Goldberg, Bill Kristol, Ben Shapiro, Bret Stephens and George Will are not merely people I admire -- they are friends and colleagues. Goldberg, Stephens and Will have made multiple videos for Prager University, which receive millions of views. Shapiro and I have spent Shabbat together. I have had the privilege of writing for Kristol's The Weekly Standard and having him on my show many times. And I have enthusiastically promoted their books. These individuals are special to me not only as thinkers, but as people.
However, in the final analysis, I do not find their arguments compelling. Take the "conscience" argument that one can sleep with a clear conscience by not voting for Trump. I don't find it compelling because it means that your conscience is clear after making it possible for Clinton or any other Democrat to win.
In fact, the "conscience" argument is so weak that Goldberg -- to his credit -- published a column two days ago titled "Sorry, I Still Won't Ever Vote for Trump." He wrote, "If the election were a perfect tie, and the vote fell to me and me alone, I'd probably vote for none other than Donald Trump."
Shouldn't all Americans vote as if their vote were the deciding vote? Including those whose votes "don't count" because they live in states that are so left-wing they would still vote Democrat if Vladimir Lenin headed the Democratic ticket?
The choice this November is tragic. As it often happens in life, this choice is between bad and worse, not bad and good.
But America has made that choice before. When forced to choose between bad and worse, we supported Joseph Stalin against Adolf Hitler, and we supported right-wing authoritarians against Communist totalitarians.
It seems to me that the #NeverTrump conservatives want to remain morally pure. I understand that temptation. I am tempted, too. But if you wish to vanquish the bad, it is not possible -- at least not on this side of the afterlife -- to remain pure.
The most moving interview of my 33 years in radio was with Irene Opdyke, a Polish Catholic woman. Opdyke became the mistress of a married Nazi officer in order to save the lives of 12 Jews. She hid them in the cellar of the officer's house in Warsaw. There were some Christians who called my show to say that Opdyke's actions were wrong, that she had in fact sinned because she knowingly committed a mortal sin. In their view, she compromised Catholic/Christian doctrine.
In my view -- and, I believe, the view of most Catholics and other Christians -- she brought glory to her God and her faith. Why? Because circumstances almost always determine what is moral, even for religious people like myself who believe in moral absolutes. That's why the act of dropping atom bombs on Japan was moral. The circumstances (ending a war that would otherwise continue taking millions of lives) made moral what under other circumstances would be immoral.
In the 2016 presidential race, I am not interested in moral purity. I am interested in defeating the left and its party, the Democratic Party. The notion (expressed by virtually every #NeverTrump advocate) that we can live with another four years of a Democratic president is, forgive me, mind-boggling. To that end, with at least one, and probably multiple, additional leftists on the Supreme Court, a Republican presidential victory in 2020 would mean little. All the left needs is the judicial branch, especially the Supreme Court. Left-wing judges pass so many left-wing laws that they render those who control Congress, and even the White House, almost irrelevant.
Here, then, are nine reasons (there are more) why a conservative should prefer a Trump presidency to a Democrat presidency:
--Prevent a left-wing Supreme Court.
--Increase the defense budget.
--Repeal, or at least modify, the Dodd-Frank act.
--Prevent Washington, D.C. from becoming a state and giving the Democrats another two permanent senators.
--Repeal Obamacare.
--Curtail illegal immigration, a goal that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with xenophobia or nativism (just look at Western Europe).
--Reduce job-killing regulations on large and small businesses.
--Lower the corporate income tax and bring back hundreds of billions of offshore dollars to the United States.
--Continue fracking, which the left, in its science-rejecting hysteria, opposes.
For these reasons, I, unlike my friends, could not live with my conscience if I voted to help the America-destroying left win the presidency in any way.
I just don't understand how anyone who understands the threat the left and the Democrats pose on America will refuse to vote for the only person who can stop them.
Dennis, you do not now and never have had any CONSERVATIVE “#Nevertrump” friends.
All of the #Nevertrump crowd are nascent islamists, and even the people who flirted with the movement temporarily were openly backing Islam against the American people for a time.
“When faced with the lesser of two evils... and you choose neither, be assured you will get the worst of the two! A non decision IS a decision. #NeverHillary “trumps” #NeverTrump.”
Agreed; I also agree with Franklin Graham’s recent remarks at FBC, Jacksonville, Fla. that American will not come back.
Got this in an email (excerpt of Franklin’s words). Truth or Fictions says its true:
The American dream ended on November 6th, 2012 in Ohio. The second term of Barack Obama has been the final nail in the coffin for the legacy of the white Christian males who discovered, explored, pioneered, settled and developed the greatest republic in the history of mankind. A coalition of blacks, Latinos, feminists, gays, government workers, union members, environmental extremists, the media, Hollywood, uninformed young people, the “forever needy,” the chronically unemployed, illegal aliens and other “fellow travelers” have ended Norman Rockwell’s America.
Too bad his intended audience prefers the corruption more than they want some positive changes.....
Some well-intentioned folks have "principles" that make them prefer to be complicit in throwing another election to the worst possible, most evil choice out there. Then there are the insiders whose "principles" say that the worst for the People fits right in their own aspirations to aid and abet the despots in subduing the People.
The former aren't playing with a full deck - the latter are the worst sort of traitors.
“His virtually assured nomination has therefore caused me grief as an American, a Republican and a conservative. “
Don’t worry Dennis, you are still the 60’s RFK liberal that you used to admit to being before claiming the “conservative” mantle became more convenient.
“Jonah Goldberg, Bill Kristol, Ben Shapiro, Bret Stephens and George Will
*********************
“These are not conservatives, they are propagandists for the Cheap Labor Express”
Absolutely.
With any luck the bulk of Salem Radio/Salem Media will collapse after this election.
This post explains why, better than I could.
I agree, in general. I will vote for Trump, with a shrug ... which is pretty much how I feel about all the candidates this year. I don’t even care that much about my State Rep anymore, although he’s a nice enough guy. (The previous one, and his wife, were true Southern political Characters.)And the County Commissioner candidates are all nebbishes.
I disagree with a few points, though. First, that everyone should vote as if the nation stands or falls on his one vote, regardless of the objective circumstances. If a person wants to play that mind game with himself, fine ... just like I tell myself that every dollar of my local, state, and federal taxes goes to activities I support. (The city parks, the county sheriff, the state parks, and my daughter’s CG salary.) However, it’s not a moral mandate.
Secondly, Mr. Prager has a list of prospective accomplishments that he expects from a putative President Trump, but he is taking them purely on faith. A more realistic list would be some of the likely disasters of a putative President Clinton (or Sanders) which one could reasonably expect Trump to avoid.
Thank you, Dennis. The purists who won’t stoop to vote for Trump forget they live in a country that currently has no stomach for moral purity. If God has influence over a country’s choices for leadership (and I believe that he does), then these appear to be our choices. If you don’t vote, then don’t bitch about what happens later because you clearly aren’t invested enough to at least TRY and steer this listing ship back to the right, no matter how small the steps are.
They also own a lot of formerly independent conservative publications, Human Events and Eagle Publishing being two.
Salem has tried to corner the market in ‘conservative’ media, giving them an echo chamber effect for their neocon #neverTrump agenda.
#5
I agree.
If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice.
He can add Hugh Hewitt to that inane list. I used to LOVE Hughie, but he has become unhinged about Trump.
Prager is a good thinking man.
Good freaking grief....he said no such thing, nor did he intimate it.
Did you read the article?
“Good grief.”
“But America has made that choice before. When forced to choose between bad and worse, we supported Joseph Stalin against Adolf Hitler, and we supported right-wing authoritarians against Communist totalitarians.”
_______________________
From the article. Which I read. While I was reading the article. Also, I read the article. It was a good read. Those were my thoughts, as I read it. The article, that is.
“Good grief.”
With at least 9 powerful reasons for voting Trump, the arrogant and clueless Prager compares such a vote to the US choosing Stalin over Hitler in WWII. Disgusting. Not a word praising or even acknowledging Trump’s proven character, leadership abilities and patriotic intention which shine out aplenty to all willing to open their eyes.
You have to wonder what kind of poisonous Kool-Aid the Cruz campaign has been dispensing to achieve such a stranglehold on so many on the right. Cruz, an unlikable individual with no proven record of anything, has cleverly appealed to the intellectual vanity of the arrogant Conservative class and disabled any further objective scrutiny.
Yes...I’m a reader and a thinker....he would NEVER compare ANYONE with Hitler.
He's on what? His third wife? Like Rush Cruzbaugh...
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