Now, according to many people in the Trump camp, Rittenhouse is a traitor whom they regret ever supporting and who should be drawn, quartered, hung, crucified, and left out for the crows. 

And I find this very un-American.

As I was writing this article, Rittenhouse changed his mind, but that hasn't stopped some people from saying that the damage is done and his stepping out of line has forever made him a pariah. 

Over the past 12 hours, I've had a series of productive conversations with members of the Trump's team and I am confident he will be the strong ally gun owners need to defend our Second Amendment rights.

My comments made last night were ill-informed and unproductive. I'm 100%…

— Kyle Rittenhouse (@ThisIsKyleR) August 2, 2024

To be absolutely clear, I think Rittenhouse is making a mistake. Firstly, Trump is going to need all hands on deck for this election, and every vote helps. Whatever failures Trump has as a Second Amendment protector, they'll be nothing compared to what the Democrats will do if they get the chance to enact their laws on the Second Amendment. 

Moreover, I think being a single-issue voter is a massive mistake. Hyper-focusing on one issue is making sure one side you're preparing for a big dinner tastes excellent while letting everything else burn. Even if the side is still good, the meal is ruined. 

That said, I bear no ill-will toward Rittenhouse. Yeah, I think he's not making a smart move here, but he's young, impressionable, and as young people will, they tend to be absolutists and have a narrow field of view thanks, in part, to their inexperience. I'm not willing to tar and feather the kid because he's standing on principle, and there are worse things to be an absolutist about. Guns are, after all, something that Rittenhouse has had to spend a lot of his young life defending.

But this isn't even the main point. In fact, at this point, we can take Rittenhouse out of the equation and focus on the concept put forth by many Trump diehards.  

No one has to vote for Donald Trump. In fact, you don't have to vote for any candidate you don't want to. In this election season particularly, it's highly inadvisable not to vote for Trump, but as a free-American no one is enslaved to a political party or duty-bound to vote for a specific candidate. Rittenhouse is free to write in Ron Paul just like you're free to write in Mickey Mouse, Ronald Reagan, or Sydney Sweeney's assets. 

Moreover, the idea that a vote for anyone but Trump is a vote for whoever ends up being the Democrat nominee is also nonsense. I see this said a lot during election season when someone says they're voting third party or writing someone in, and that's just not the case. 

A vote for another candidate is a vote for that specific candidate. People have a myriad of reasons for voting third party. Hell, I wish there was a third party worth voting for sometimes. There are candidates that people just don't like, and it's their right as an American to vote for someone else. Even if you think they're mistaken, it's not your vote, it's theirs. They're not throwing their vote away by voting for someone they feel is a better person for the job. Throwing your vote away is not using your power to vote at all. 

It's my honest opinion that "you have to vote for X or you'll get Y" is an enslavement mentality that keeps people locked into a dual-party system. It reeks of anti-liberty, and while it comes from the people and not the government, it doesn't make it any less anti-freedom. We as conservatives, libertarians, or Republicans shouldn't go canceling people for practicing the values we claim to defend. 

I urge you to vote for Donald Trump this election season, but if you don't want to, then don't. I won't fault you for voting your conscience.