If You Don’t Vote Because Your Candidate Isn’t Nominated, You’re Worse Than Democrats

Obi Wan Kenobi: That boy is our last hope. 

Yoda: No. There is another. 

In a previous column I said if you sit out this general election, you are worse than a Democrat. Admittedly, it was not a minor insult.

To you who would stay home if you don’t get your preferred candidate, I understand. Watching the DC political class make promises on November Tuesdays, and break every one of them the next morning, makes our blood go vapor. But if any of you find yourselves staying out of the general election because your candidate did not get the nomination, you are worse than Democrats. I repeat: You are worse than Democrats. 

If you’ve read this column or know me at all, on the topic of politics, I’m not much a middle-of-the-road voter. Taxation, abortion, limited government, etc. I hold few positions that don’t bury the needle.  

But in what has come to be one of the more difficult decisions of my life, right now I am split down the middle on what to do, given a Trump nomination. 

(Grammar and usage note: Another way of saying the above is ambivalent, which is often mistaken for having tepid or no feelings either way.) 

Ben Shapiro and Glenn Beck made solid cases for not voting for Trump. Among Shapiro’s points, he said Trump appointing a conservative Supreme Court Justice is unlikely. I agree. But his greatest argument is that if we never say “no” to conservatives we don’t support, but time and again we hold our noses and vote for unprincipled mush-heads like Dole/McCain/Romney, we will never be able to say “yes” to conservative candidates we do support.  

I can’t find the transcript, but the other day Glenn Beck said something to the effect of – considering the destruction the United States will get hit with under a Trump presidency — not wanting to go before God and say he voted for Trump. Fatalistic, but I can’t find much to disagree with. 

We have two, opposite outcomes by going #NeverTrump: 1)Shapiro’s, whose position implies America will get over a Hillary Clinton administration and 2)Beck’s, whose America will not endure. Neither is good. 

If you’re in the “I don’t like Trump but will vote for him” camp, you can support your position this way: Would you rather play Russian Roulette with a fully loaded gun (Hillary), or a gun that had one empty chamber (Trump)?Playing those odds, the case is clear. Trump is the eternally frustrating lesser of two evils. However, we’re still left up the river with no other option. 

Or are we? 

Nothing is over until it’s over. Mathematically, as the smart guys say, Ted Cruz can still win with delegates. Even if we have to go to the Convention, so be it. It happened with Abraham Lincoln, Gerald Ford, and others, and America is still here. As a delegate from Colorado, if I make it to Cleveland I will do everything in my power to ensure Ted Cruz gets the nod. No doubt the thousands of other delegates will do the same. 

But if he doesn’t win at the Convention, let’s  write Ted Cruz in on our national ballots. Doing so clears our conscience, and gives us another pathway to victory. If enough of us do this, we’ll win.  

Hope is a choice. Keep it alive. 

Image: photo credit: Donald Trump via photopin (license)

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