If Trump and Hillary Are Our Final Options, We Deserve Some Pain

Trump is at the top of the polls, and that may not change. Nevertheless, he will not receive my support.

I am rather tired of a screeching establishment requiring that we support whomever is the current frontunner, and telling us we need to “get in line“, like robots. That kind of talk is groupthink, much like Obamamania. It has no place in conservatism.

Trump is the kind of candidate who appeals to base emotions and the thirst for popular appeal. We should never treat candidates as celebrities. But increasingly, we do. I once thought that those on our side of the aisle were better than liberals in that we don’t vote based on mindless, superficial reasons that got the similarly resume-challenged disaster known as Barack Obama into office. But unsurprisingly, we’re just as capable of the same failure to treat the election process seriously.

Even if I believed that Trump’s accomplishments in the business world actually merited a run for the White House, what proof do I have that he’ll solidly stand for conservative principles? He has a well-documented history of being an unprincipled Leftie on issues which conservatives should hold most dear. His verbal flip-flopping on many of them is meant to curry popular favor, and nothing more. How does that make him a less dangerous choice than Hillary? Some claim that “Trump is bad, but Hillary is worse”. Is this rationalization supposed to encourage me to abandon my conservative principles for the “lesser of two evils”? Well I won’t.

What I demand from my candidate is more than the correct political letter after their name. If you strip away Trump’s arrogance, strutting about, bluster, bellicosity, cheap slogans, and meaningless endorsements by politicians-turned-reality-stars, what is he? Nothing but the “anger candidate”. He’s the false choice of an electorate seething with bitterness at an ineffectual Republican Congress. Feel-good emotion propelled Obama into office, and a similar phenomenon is lifting Trump onto a pedestal where he does not belong. Trump is nothing more than a huckster gleefully taking advantage of a vulnerable and frustrated voting bloc who are reacting without thinking. We as voters are not suspicious enough of those who seek power and make lofty promises.

Might Hillary get elected if many of us don’t support GOP nominee Trump? Perhaps, but that’s not on me. That responsibility is solely on the shoulders of a country foolish enough to “get in line” by accepting a false choice between two clowns. If the United States selects Donald Trump as the next president, his obvious liberal leanings will do much to damage the cause of conservatism, as it has already done. When I stand in the ballot box on any election day, I vote for someone. There is nothing about Donald Trump that I wish to support, and his overnight switch to (R) is certainly not enough to lure me to his side.

If the best our country has to offer is between a racist, Planned-Parenthood-supporting, nonsense-speaking, eminent-domain loving Donald Trump, and his friend Hillary, then I choose neither. After the country chooses between these two, if they’re the nominees, we’ll most definitely go through some pain. And you know what? Our insistence on celebrity flash instead of conservative substance means we deserve it.