George Will’s clarifying stance
I am very grateful to George Will for clarifying something for me. As you’ve no doubt heard, after a lifetime as a Republican, he’s leaving the GOP because it appears that the GOP will yield to the voter’s will and accept Donald Trump as the Republican party candidate for president in 2016. George Will now says something similar to what Ronald Reagan once said of the Democrat party:
Will said he changed his voter registration this month from Republican to “unaffiliated” in the state of Maryland.
“This is not my party,” Will said during his speech at the event.
I can respect that. Since I left behind my Democrat past, I’ve always considered myself more of a conservative than a Republican. To me, the Republican party has always been the “go along to get along” party. It’s the party that does whatever the Democrat party does, except cries more loudly about the cost.
What I can’t respect is Will’s willingness to hand the White House over to Hillary:
Will, who writes for the Washington Post, acknowledged it is a “little too late” for the Republican Party to find a replacement for Trump but had a message for Republican voters.
“Make sure he loses. Grit their teeth for four years and win the White House,” Will said during an interview after his speech at a Federalist Society luncheon.
In other words, “elect Hillary.” It seems to me that Will is putting party before country. That is, his focus is on the unfolding horror of the decline of the Republican party. My focus is on the country. I truly do not believe we can survive a Hillary presidency and still be America.
Keep in mind that Hillary’s will not be a brand new presidency, one in which she starts from scratch, changing the previous administration’s status quo. Instead, she will be Obama’s third term (and that’s separate from worrying about whether, thanks to the blackmail potential from the dirt in her hacked emails, she’ll also be Russia’s and China’s first term in the White House). Think of what Obama has already done, all of which Hillary will continue to do:
- Pretended that Islam isn’t a problem, a position that goes beyond merely refusing to admit the problem, but which has also extended to destroying national security databases containing information about radical Islam within this country.
- Weakened our military by shrinking it in terms of both troops and arms, changing its focus to social justice and climate change, and removing higher echelon officials who can’t get with the social justice, climate change, anti-God, pro-Islam paradigm.
- Erased our Southern borders and doing everything possible to turn illegal immigrants into voting citizens.
- Corrupted the Justice Department, which has become a completely politicized institution.
- Placed two young, hard-Left justices on the Supreme Court.
- Dramatically increased the reach of the administrative state (e.g., the EPA’s new legislating ability).
- Weaponized the IRS, both in terms of actual weapons and in terms of using it as the mafia arm of the Democrat party.
- Enriched the Iranians and effectively promoting their ability to have nuclear weapons.
- Isolated Israel, putting her at imminent existential risk.
- Destroyed our existing medical insurance infrastructure, thereby creating an opening for socialized medicine (which has long been Hillary’s dream)
- Relentlessly promoted the idea that America is a racist, sexist nation, filled with rapey, hate-filled white men.
- Obsessed with climate change, to the detriment of our economy, our military, and scientific integrity.
- Attacked the Second Amendment as an illegitimate doctrine that the government must destroy.
- Reinstated welfare to pre-1994 levels, to the detriment of generations of Americans.
That’s off the top of my head. You can add to the list.
To date, Obama has been way too effective in implementing the fundamental transformation he promised. Hillary will complete this transformation. The likelihood is that Trump will not. He may have goofy ideas, but he also has asserted good values tied in to core constitutional issues or national security:
- he supports the Second Amendment;
- he believes a sovereign nation should control its own borders (although, as we all knew he would, he’s backing off from his primary stance regarding Muslim immigrants);
- he has not backed off his list of genuinely conservative judges for the Supreme Court;
- he’s actively (indeed, aggressively) hostile to the mental Marxism that is political correctness;
- he challenges the relentlessly hard Left mainstream media, which too often sets the tone for America’s social and political discourse;
- he recognizes that Islamists are an enemy and a threat to Americans at home; and
- he supports Israel, the only liberal democracy in the Middle East; and he genuinely loves America.
If you like Trump, I’m sure you can name other values he espouses.
So, rude, crude, and bombastic though he may be, Trump is still the antithesis of the relentlessly hard-Left, anti-American politics that Obama elevated and Hillary will continue. Moreover, assuming a Congress filled with RINOs, Democrats, and a few genuine conservatives, Trump will head off the more extreme RINO plus Democrat initiatives, while everyone in Congress will head off whatever extreme issues Trump puts forward. Moreover, no one in Congress will be okay with Trump’s executive overreach, something the GOP allowed with Obama lest it be called “racist,” and that it will allow with Hillary lest it be called “sexist.”
Once you look at the facts on the ground, rather than wrapping yourself in red, white, and blue GOP bunting, it’s obvious that, while Hillary will almost certainly continue to destroy America, Trump will probably get almost nothing done. He’ll be a placeholder for a genuinely conservative candidate in four years. (And yes, to me, that candidate is Ted Cruz.)
As I see it, political parties come and go, but that I want my America — the constitutional version of this great nation — to be around forever. That’s my idea of true patriotism. Patriotism isn’t about shouting “USA! USA!” It’s not about purifying the country’s racial pool. It’s not about living in a perfect past that never actually existed and cannot be replicated. It’s not about invading other countries to have “lebensraum.” It’s about respecting our core constitutional institutions and doing what needs to be done to preserve them.
Going into this election, I know with certainty that Hillary will continue and complete the work Obama has done to destroy America’s constitutional institutions, while Trump, both because of decent core values and the certainty of an aggressively defensive Congress, might help America and almost certainly won’t destroy it.
So, George — be a real patriot and do what you need to do for the good of your country, rather than elevating your party over your country.