“We may never win another election again” say the republican-in-name-only never-Trumpers as they prepare to fulfill their self destructive prophecy. So fearful that the people chose their own candidate rather than the one presented by the establishment, stripping away their precious power, that they’re willing to commit suicide and join forces with their claimed enemy.
In Trump we have a candidate who is speaking out against Islamic terrorism, yet those who claim to recognize the dangers of Islamic terrorism and Sharia law are somehow confused who to vote for. He is pro-life, but he has not always been pro-life in the right way, and so some can’t vote “their conscience”. He announces that he will appoint justices who will adhere to the Constitution like Antonin Scalia, and yet the constitutionalists are mad because their guy didn’t win the primary. He says the right things but in the wrong way; he’ll do what’s right, but his vulgarity, “oh my!”so the pious can’t mark the ballot. Half of the day I spend shaking my head in disbelief and the other half I spend banging it against the wall. And that proverbial wall is made up of a collage of various colored bricks; all hardened, unbending, kiln dried, belligerent square objects set in theological mortar that appear to be unmovable.
These never-Trumper bricks have the following in common:
• They lack a genuine interest in winning or an understanding of its importance. Winning is secondary if even considered at all. They are saboteurs, driven by anger to madness, they become self-destructive of their own purposes. In politics, if you want to actually accomplish anything, winning is an imperative.
• Due to a consistent pattern of losing elections, these groups share another thing in common: victimization. Even some of the Republican establishment are acting like victims of Trump and the people who elected him.
• They are in the business of advancing their agenda and in securing their own power within their own sphere of influence regardless of how small that sphere is. To them, reputation is more precious than truth.
• They are quick to give up and many are political pacifists. Refusing to fight and perhaps go down with the ship, they wish to be recognized as the sage; the first one to say “I told you so”. The media heckles and dispirits them as they shout daily “there is no hope!”, “you are going to lose!”, “give up now and we will treat you kindly!”, “we have overwhelming numbers!” and “you are a weak people and your leader has deceived you!”. Then they follow predictably in fear and scatter.
• They are reliably manipulated by the Democrat controlled media every election cycle, and yet they never recognize it. They become indignant whenever it is suggested. They beg for the media’s friendship and even their advice. They become enslaved to the media while pretending to stand against the media.
• They fail to understand who the real enemy is. Our enemy does not care who you vote for. All it cares about is scattering any resistance to their global collective agenda -divide and conquer. Trump is the bomb in this war. Bombs are not moral, delicate, clean or nice, and nobody should take joy in using them. But sometimes they are necessary in order to enact true justice. This bomb will do serious damage to the Democrat/media cabal and the backseat Republican establishment. It’s what is necessary here and now.
• They struggle with the here and now. They complain about the two party system, but the two party system is what we have here and now. “I don’t like either of the two candidates” -okay, but that is who we have right now. Change it next time. Here and now is all that matters here and now. They spend so much energy portending a horrible future that they fail to secure the here and now.
In these ways they are similar. In other ways they are in opposition and the media exploits that fracturing every time. These “never-Trumpers” are typically a disconnected cadre of groups that disagree with each other on a host of issues. But now, ironically, the Republican establishment joins them in some unholy alliance.
This election is boiling down to a choice between the status quo, the ruling class in both parties, the media elite, none of which wish to give up their power, and the country class. The problem with the country class is that they are all fighting amongst themselves, being divided, deceived and led around, with a hook in their jaw, by the media’s narrative as they inform conservatives and republicans what they are supposed to talk about on a daily basis. And all these fish come to the same conclusion -abandon the cause and skewer your comrades. They are compelled to fear and distrust their own candidates as unfit according to their own narrow standards. I wrote about this problem in detail two years ago in “The New Useful Idiots and the Psychology of Sabotoge”. And here it is again as it always has been. And the result is that collective democrat values (or as Obama calls them “our values”) become further ensconced as they secure their power.
Many people maintain a religious belief that their political vote is somehow “sacred” and God will hold them accountable for it when they die. Well I would argue then if that is true, might God just ask you at the inquisition, why did you not oppose the enemy? Why did you knowingly throw your sacred vote away by either not voting or voting for someone who had zero chance of winning?
It is painful to watch the never Trumpers’ contort themselves as they attempt to explain their emotional reasons for why they just can’t bring themselves to cast a ballot. Being too pure to vote for Trump means that in 2024 you are OK with emerging from eight years of democrat rule and thus a further disintegration of everything you claim to care about. Even in this election the numbers are hard to overcome. But by that time it may be impossible to elect any republican, compromised or not, because we will be under one party rule. All the high minded thinking, and moralistic rhetoric, become essentially meaningless if we can never win. The socialistic democrats will have stolen America and the liberty minded folks who refused to join together in fighting this 100+ year coup will be largely responsible for the theft. The never-Trumpers own this destruction, but if successful we all suffer.
A Confused and Disjointed People
Our founders had to deal with a disjointed people at the very beginning of our country, while attempting to establish a union of the colonies, the phrase and the flag was circulated about: “Join Or Die”.
As things change, in reality, very little changes. I have come to recognize that these types of groups existed at the founding, and many of them, often using the Bible as justification, would have rejected the American revolution against British tyranny. They didn’t understand then what they don’t understand it now, that the choice is clear and stark. You must pick one: “join or die”. All other options are dodges ultimately leading to the same choice. To quote myself, “To not make a choice is the choice you have made”. If joining together with those you dislike and refusing to compromise is unacceptable then you will disintegrate and die. The choice really is simple and it doesn’t require much analysis, (except why, psychologically, it is so difficult for people to make this choice). It is “join or die”. Pick one.
These same folks would have been appalled by Samuel Adams, in the pre-revolutionary days, and the Boston tea party. What good Christian, they would argue, would support such a rebellious act? These are the same folks who sat on the sidelines, huddled in their churches, and refused to participate in the grassroots uprising that was the tea party movement. The great thing about the tea party was that it galvanized many groups, formally separated, against a common enemy: big government tyranny and socialism. But over time, these factions began to splinter off each claiming the movement for its own.
Trump is the offspring of the grassroots tea party movement that began in 2009 with all it’s competing factions. He represents an amalgamation of tea party principles and beliefs. But it is impossible to please everyone all the time, and to many of these groups, 75% is not good enough. They demand 100% purity or else they cannot support. And the result is that they end up giving aid and comfort to their clear enemy with whom they agree with 0%. Trump’s success in the primary was as unexplainable and organic as the tea party’s was. The left mocked it, and the establishment feared it. It was ultimately dangerous to their power and it had to be defeated. This is the motivation of the never-Trumpers.
In this election, as in all general elections, there is only a choice between two viable candidates. As mentioned previously, it is “join or die”. Our entire political system is based on winner-take-all. Our government, at every level, is based on voting either yeah or neigh on every issue. Not voting or voting “present” only advances the position of whoever wins the vote of yeah or neigh. We must determine ourselves to deal with reality as it is presented to us on a daily basis: the here and now.
I would compare Trump to a Ulysses S. Grant. Even as good Christian abolitionists, at the time, would have been appalled by the heavy drinking and crass nature of Grant, he was the right person for the job to finally win the civil war and thus bring about the abolition of slavery. It was a dirty job and it required a general who was willing to fight all the way to the bitter end, unlike the pretty boy McClellan who avoided any confrontation for years, thus prolonging the war. Do you want as your general someone who looks good in a uniform, has his hair combed beautifully, and makes politically correct speeches? Or would you rather have someone who competently can fulfill their job as general, however distastefully, and actually win the war? Trump may just be that general. But we will not know if Hillary is elected. This is a mistake we cannot afford to make.
Establishment Republicans
Here are the RINOs, the political elite, those who talk conservative every election cycle in order to raise money and then proceed to abandon their principles and refuse to fight once they get elected. They are experts at dropping the ball, playing prevent defense, trying to lose less, all while fearing the real conservatives will take away their elitist status as the loyal, feckless, opposition party. They court the media as they “cross the isle” to work with (or for) their opponents. Trump must be defeated because he threatens their protected world. Hypocritically, they pretended to initially be concerned that he was going to run third party. Now they are becoming the third party running against Trump.
Trump is a result of their failing to substantively oppose Obama’s agenda for the last 8 years. They created this anger and this uprising. Now many other never-Trumpers join with the establishment in a deeply confused and feigned concern over the future of the Republican Party. So their answer is to vote for Clinton?! This is a new level of insanity -arm your enemy, lose battle after battle in order to win a war of ideas that no one can agree upon. What is of note is how the establishment is now deploying the same self-destructive tactic as the other disaffected groups detailed below. Whether big or tiny, it about maintaining authority within their sphere of influence rather than winning and actually fixing the problems.
The Moral Majority, Christians, and single issue voters
These are forever looking for a candidate that represents properly their particular moralistic views and who will champion them in the public arena. They incorrectly view politics as a vehicle to advance Christian morals, the salvation message, or a Christian world view. In this way they are endlessly frustrated because no such candidate exists. And if one should come along, they are not supported and lose embarrassingly. It is terribly frustrating and sad that a large number, perhaps the majority of this enormous voting block, have dropped out of the political process and no longer participate, or end up throwing their vote away on some candidate that meets their narrow criteria but doesn’t have any chance of winning. In this way they do the bidding of their enemy. They fail to understand, or are never taught in their churches, that politics is first about winning and secondly about advancing liberty above all other values. This is what our founders understood. Where there is a liberty we are free to share the gospel and Christian moral values in the public square. But if we are lose our freedoms year after year and do not fight back by winning politically against the enemies of freedom none of the other issues matter.
“Vote your conscience” unfortunately means for most people to vote with their heart and their emotions rather than with their brain and their reasoning. By not being pragmatic and tactical with their vote it will lead to a quicker death for you and for your country. Here we have the chance to elect a president who will appoint conservative judges to the Supreme Court similar to Antonin Scalia. This should be of paramount importance to the religious pro-lifers, since the pro life movement was founded because of an outrageous Supreme Court ruling. For this reason alone, they should vote for Trump. But for these purists, he doesn’t say it in just the right way, and he doesn’t bow to their ownership of the cause. He’s not “down with the struggle” and for these groups the struggle can never end.
They could be compared with the abolitionists of the 1800’s. Ironically, they often end up respecting a Robert E. Lee type because he was proper, honorable, and loyal. The problem was that he was loyal to the pro-slavery democrat confederates. But that misplaced loyalty does not matter to many Christians. What does matter is that Lee looked the part of a “Christian” while Grant was clearly an unkempt heathen who just happen to be fighting for what they believed. Jesus spoke of these people when He said, “They are like children who sit in the market place and call to one another, and they say, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’ For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon!’ The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by all her children.” Luke 7:32-35 It is impossible to ever satisfy these rigid single issue people all at the same time. And so, they remain permanent losers and victims. This also, they too often revel in, and further disengage from the unclean world of politics.
Third Parties – The Third Way
Beware of these of third parties. It was a third party that gave us Woodrow Wilson in 1912. They gave us Bill Clinton in 1992. They do not win, they are spoilers. The third way results in anarchy, to some degree or another, and that leads to tyrants having excuse for expanding their power. As with these other groups, the third way ends up producing, in reality, the opposite of what they proclaim to desire. Listen to the current pitch of Gary Johnson and the Libertarian party. “The two party system is broken” and “it has never worked”. And they of course claim to be the answer. The same is true for the Green Party which is really the left “wing” of the libertarian bird which is a hideous beast that never flies very far. I agree with much of what the right wing of the libertarian party espouses (limited government, sound money, etc.) , but they become so exclusionary, wrapping themselves up in silly issues, they never overcome their third party status. They lose, take their ball and go home, retreat into their circles, and come back the next election cycle with the same victimized plea and rigid platform.
Kook Parties
Then we have any number of political “ kook” parties. All these third, fourth, fifth, sixth, forty third… parties exist in order to advance a particular ideology rather than for the purpose of winning an election. There are only two political parties who recognize as their primary purpose to win elections. This became laughably clear to me when, while at a “kook” festival attended by no more than 50 people at a time, I saw two tables, one for the Libertarian Party and one for the Constitution Party in close proximity to each other. They did not speak to one another but simply tried to gain converts to their way of thinking and encourage them to vote for their no name presidential candidate. So these parties end up not only stealing votes from the Republican Party, but also from each other. Why does it not ever occur to them to join forces in order to garner enough votes to win? It becomes clear that they do not exist to win -or even wish to win. Furthermore, they would not have the faintest idea how to govern should they actually win. And so they are comfortable losers safely promoting their agenda as permanent victims of the political process and of the two major parties. None of them are serious and yet in their foolishness they hamper their own cause. They are cuckoo clocks, political amusements that some joker rewinds every election cycle to keep them out of the real political process.
Beyond the Kooks
Then there are groups advancing various complex conspiracy theories that Trump is supposedly in the race to drop out, or not drop out, but there to merely elect Clinton. They claim nobility that by voting for Hillary they’ll rescue the conservative movement from Trump. The left wing “never-Trumpers” say that Putin and Trump are working together to poison Hillary and expose her e-mail crimes. And the tin-foil-body-suit-armor folks on the right follow along, as they cast their “know-the-truth” vote for the candidate of the “Unidentified Flying Object Party”. Of course the simple solution to foil these wacky conspiracies is to vote for Trump. Conspiracy foiled! -next issue.
Perhaps the conspiracy folks can relate to this analogy. It’s as if we are at that crucial point in the movie “The Terminator” where he reaches out his hand to a terrorized Sarah Connor and says ” come with me if you want to live”. Up to this point, he was trying to kill her but the here and now changed and the enemy was no longer the terminator. Yet she was not aware of this and he remained a fearful figure. It took absolute desperation to overcome that fear and trust him. The lesson here is that sometimes the terrifying monster is, at a new here and now, in a time of change and desperation, no longer to be feared but rather embraced as the only way out. We must have the courage and the wisdom to tell the difference. The question for these groups is, do they want to live? Living is oftentimes harder than being a victim and a martyr.
The Cynics
In the end, when any one of these groups realizes the fallacy of their position, they inevitably turn to the final solution: cynicism. They claim that we’re all doomed anyway -particularly if everyone does not listen to them or share their fatalistic views. I am not pollyannaish in thinking that we’re all not going to die at some point. America will not last forever; nothing ever does. If you vote for Donald Trump you will extend the life of your country (by how much nobody knows), but if you vote for Hillary Clinton your country will end sooner. Pick one. Which scenario do you want? Sadly, too many of these groups who are wrapped up in one form of grief or another, will choose to end their life in suicide rather than to live on in compromise. This could be a new definition of insanity, a new self-inflicted martyrdom.
Saboteurs
These groups that refuse to join the real war, really amount to political terrorists. They not only wish to commit suicide themselves but they wish to take down as many people as they can take with them. They long for company in their jihad, because that secures power for the leaders of these small groups amongst their devotes, and they think, shows the compromised-group-their-most-upset-about, the “what-for”. Most Moslem jihad is waged against other Moslems for compromising the “purity” of Islam in one way or another. Great! let them kill each other (I’m am no fan of Islam) but let us not accidentally follow their self-destructive example and shoot ourselves.
Murphy’s War
I’m reminded of this old movie when I consider how these ” never trumpers” are all engaged in their own private “Murphy’s War” against an inflated creation of their own minds, and of the media. This movie tells the story of a navel crew member who had his ship destroyed and all his fellow sailors killed by a German gun boat in a remote area at the very end of WWII. He, as a victim, consumed by vengeance, spends all his energy rebuilding an old warplane armed with homemade bombs in a desperate attempt to seek out and enact justice upon his personalized enemy. The movie’s destructive conclusion, and the unbending character of Murphy, with his legitimate grievances that often drive people to self destructive behavior, typify these groups. And sadly, if you don’t join Murphy in his war, Murphy considers you to be a trader and an enemy. I have lost friends and associations because I speak out, refuse to abandon my country, drink the Kool Aid, and join them in their glorious suicidal mission.
And while we’re speaking about war, let me just say that we are currently in a war of ideas and always have been though the position of the front changes. The current battle is against the collectivist Democrat Party and the leftist media. To sabotage or desert your country in a time of war is punishable by death. Because this is a political war, rather than a shooting war, these saboteurs will only suffer a political death. Unlike real death, the problem with political death is that they get more than one. And so they keep coming back every election cycle to sabotage and martyr themselves again.
It is not time to lay down our lives for what we believe, yet. Live while you still can. Work while it is still day. The night is coming when no man can work. Keep the lights burning with whatever fuel you can find. Do what is right for your country and in turn, you will do what is right for yourself and for your family. Stop fighting “Murphy” wars that do nothing but distract and hamper the real war effort, however messy and devastating that war may be. Join together, fight for liberty or die.