For months now, I have been silently dreading the possibility that Donald Trump would be the nominee of the Republican Party — and the unknown accompanying that.
Tuesday night confirmed my fears as the GOP’s last hope of stopping the real estate mogul faded away.
Most Republicans are probably slowly coming to terms with having a nominee run against someone he once donated money to.
I’ve known the answer for a long time: #NeverTrump truly means never.
Trump represents everything I have fought during my life — no matter how short — to quell. I have always been a Republican, since those in power have (sort of) represented how I believe this nation should be run and governed.
With the recent events in our party, I have realized that I am a conservative first and a Republican second.
I am not beholden to any political party. I am beholden to the constitutional principles, the free market values and the idea of individual independence that make a conservative, well, a conservative. And the Republican Party, along with Trump, has left me and many others out in the rain without a presidential nominee who represents us.
We are alone.
Trump is not a conservative. Far from it, he is closer to Bernie Sanders in ideology. He is a protectionist who is completely against free trade. He wants to get government more involved in the lives of Americans. He wants to tax the wealthy more than everyone else.
He does not represent me.
Over the years, Donald Trump has been a liberal’s liberal, openly supporting things like abortion, gun control, a single-payer healthcare system — like Scotland and Canada — and a tax on the wealthy to keep Social Security afloat. For those of you uninitiated in conservative politics, these positions make us cry.
Trump supporters: He’s playing you.
For those of you thinking it: Yes, Reagan was a liberal for many years, but then he had a decades-long transformation into, as many believe, the father of conservatism. Donald Trump most likely voted for Obama in 2008 and criticized Mitt Romney in 2012 for being too harsh on immigration.
This is the man who is supposedly leading the conservative movement.
Trump has continuously promised the moon during this campaign season. He has said he would build a wall with Mexico and make them pay for it, which is an utterly nonsensical statement that holds no weight once its hyperbolic nature wears off. He has said he will make America great again while proposing average policies that have been tried and have resulted in what we see today.
He has said he has the best words and I can tell you, as an English major, he does not even crack an elementary-school level. He promises to destroy ISIS and claims to know how to defeat them, but upon inspection, he has absolutely no idea.
Trump is not a magician. He is the man selling the snake oils.
In 2008 and 2012 — and still to this day — Barack Obama had a certain aura about him, a cult of personality. He had an unmistakable infallibility that conservatives, such as myself, despised because it was about him and not his beliefs. If you look at Republicans now, they have fallen into the same haze of thinking. They worship Trump, and his ego thrives on it. This is not a man who represents conservative values.
#NeverTrump is not a catchy saying that meant something once. It means I will never vote for a man who thinks himself a demigod and can barely say he’s a conservative.
Come at me Trumpsters and call me a RINO — a word you clearly don’t understand. Tell me how I’m helping Hillary win, when in fact, it is the way The Donald has presented himself over this election cycle. I would rather lose as a man who stuck to the core conservative values that made this country great rather than win as a man who lost his soul.
#NeverTrump means never.
Opinion columnist Jorden Smith is a political science junior and president of the College Republicans. He can be reached at [email protected]
Found the cuckservative!
Be nice.
This is a wonderful explanation. I didn’t even know you wrote for The Cougar, then again I never read until now.
Jorden … just hold your nose and vote for Trump. I’m just as Conservative as you … heck, I’m more Conservative than you. I voted Cruz just as you. But I don’t think you understand the serious bind that The Country is in. Dare I say it … you have not seen the bad side of Socialism either that all of the Socialist Idealist also have never glimpsed the nightmare.
There are times when principles must be forsaken for the good of The Country, and you need to steel yourself to the possibility of voting Trump … or prepare for the 3rd term of Barack Obama, the 4th of Jimmy Carter.
And I say you have not thought of the implications of another Clinton Presidency. The Supreme Court needs a Republican President now … and I’d like to see Ted Cruz on that Court, now that he has dropped out. Besides, there is only one Trump, but many more of Cruz’s ideology out there, but you have to get through this period first. So taking your ball and going home will not help the situation.
You have to know that Hillary would appoint Socialist Ideologist to the Supreme Court (just as Obama has) if you don’t vote Cruz, and I can confidently predict you wouldn’t see a Conservative Court until your 50 perhaps 60 years of age Jorden.
So you better change your tune young man (and I can say that) or you can say good-bye to the freedoms you hold most dear, such as your right to free speech. There are already attempts to make speech against Hillary Clinton illegal, so your little column here at the DC wouldn’t see the light of day under a Clinton Presidency for you or those who Conservative columnists who follow in your steps.
The GOP Establishment … such as the RINO slime of Sen. Lindsey Graham, claim they will not vote Trump. Donald has trounced their methods to get to the nomination, so they wouldn’t mind a Clinton Presidency as long as they get to hold onto their GOP Establishment power.
So think about it Jorden. Are you willing to invest in a Trump Presidency for the possibility of a more prosperous life. Much more than what you would get in a Clinton Presidency … or are you secretly GOP Establishment? And not telling us.
***TROLL***
***DAVID*** … go back to Mom and Dad for the summer.
Make sure that Mom wipes you with extra-soft toilet paper.
Being a conservative means never having to explain, but always complain about the other guy. That’s quite an ideology you have yourself there. Sadly, it speaks volumes of nothingness. You’d think for a party that tries to enshrine the concept of “personal responsibility” they might once actually do something that didn’t involve blaming Obama or everything else for the alleged fall of western civilization. Or pointing fingers at some phantom lost of “freedom” which has yet to materialize in any quantifiable way. You might think they’d be at least dimly aware that terror-politics and fear-mongering has nothing to do with being credible or that, on some level, they’s take personal responsibility for it. Instead we get lip service to concepts, not actual solutions. Don’t like Trump? Too bad, Conservatives created him, and raised him on their toxic bilge water of winner-take-all greed and screw everybody else. Bilk the system for personal profit and gain. Popularity even at the expense of principles. You created him. He played by your rule book. You get to live with the results — not that conservatives will EVER take responsibility for it. But, true to standard form, will try to blame him on something or some other force. American Conservatives are some of the greatest scapegoat artists the world has ever know. And now the Frankenstein of their worst handiwork is about to come home to roost. Good job. And they try to paint him as a liberal to escape culpability.. That’s pathetic.