Never Trump Before It Was A Thing

This is from another new contributor, Amy. You can find her on Twitter here: @sjta_amy

My name is Amy, I am a Christian and Constitutional conservative. My first presidential vote was for George W Bush, and the last Republican president I ever voted for was Mitt Romney. I have always been Never Trump. I have never taken him seriously. His celebrity status as New York socialite, hotel and casino owner, and Hugh Heffner wannbe was not ever something I found remarkable or attractive. 

His racist attempt to put Obama’s birth certificate in question was not only clownish, but I question why his opinion on the matter was worth anything to anyone. He is an immoral ignoramus. 

When he announced he was running for president, my first reaction was to laugh to scorn the very idea. I was in shock to realize he had so much traction. I don’t watch Fox News so I guess I didn’t realize the Republican Party was as far gone as it is. The last time I checked the Republican party seemed to be in favor of limited government, fiscal responsibility, individual liberty, honorable leadership, and the promotion of democratic and family values. 

How is a guy who was running on xenophobia, demagoguery, big government tariffs, Putin is an okay guy, and who also happens to also be a charlatan and despicable person even a nominee?

The day I realized Trump wasn’t just a joke, but was a real threat is when, while talking about John McCain, Trump said he liked soldiers that weren’t captured. I expected this sickening debasement from Trump, but what truly surprised me is the audience responded by laughing. 

I was rocked to the core to think of Republicans laughing at this. It seemed very clear that there was no way he should ever be president and the people laughing at such disgusting rhetoric were people I wanted no association with. 

When he won primary after primary, I felt bewildered and confused. I could not believe that Republicans nominated someone who I absolutely could not vote for. Who was voting for this guy? How could the same electorate that chose Mitt Romney four years earlier find anything to like about him? It wasn’t just that Trump is crass and cruel, which he is, but his policy agenda was a huge departure from the conservatism of the traditional Republican Party. There was literally nothing for me to like about him. 

I was searching for some sort of conservative opposition to him, and when Evan McMullin announced he was running for president, I was with him from day one. I got to know the best people from working on his campaign. I was happy to support his effort to make a conservative stand against him. I was in shock that Trump won. 

I hoped maybe his cabinet or Republican leaders would put some sort of guardrail around him to keep him from destroying the country. Trump has exceeded my worst expectations and that is really saying something because I thought he would be worse than horrible. 

What has made things worse is Republicans have not only not put guardrails around him, but they have fully embraced him. I should have been forewarned that this would have happened when they were too afraid to oppose him, with only a few exceptions, before the election, but their sorry capitulation towards him throughout his entire presidency is a complete shock to me. They would not have given any other person such complete deference. They have run up the white flag and surrendered the party to Trump. 

I feel more opposed to this Trumplican party than I do Democrats. I have always known that I disagree with Democrats on governing style and policy, but by supporting Trump, Republicans have destroyed the only platform I could use to oppose them on this, and turned it into a hollow shell of hypocrisy and nativism/populism that is grotesque to me. For this they have earned my deepest scorn.

Republicans have decided that they are proud of Trump’s so called accomplishments. They seem to like only symbolic wins over real progress. The have some extra miles of wall, but our immigration system is still broken. They love that Trump says he is putting America first while his foreign policy favors the Russian government more than anyone else. They love their pro-life judges who are never going to overturn Roe v Wade. 

They think Trump is saving them from socialism as he raises taxes in the form of tariffs and then he picks the winners and losers from the industries that support him. They think he is restoring law and order while he violates the constitution, his oath of office and abuses power. They think he has brought them wealth and prosperity while running up the deficit and compromising our financial ability to respond to an economic crisis like what covid has put us in. They want America to be respected and demand patriotism while supporting a president who makes a mockery of American core values and principles. 

They think Trump has helped religious institutions while he is the personification of what the Bible teaches to avoid, and their support for him makes religious people look like the hypocritical pharisees of Jesus’ time.

I still am wondering if the Republican electorate is just really gullible and believe that Trump has given them something that he really hasn’t given them, or do they think like him now? I am an eternal optimist, so I’d like to think they will one day wake up from their thoughtless stupor, but it seems there is a good portion of them that have either been changed by him or were hidden from my view for all those years we were voting together for much more honorable leaders, and a Republican platform that seemed to want preserve Constitutional values and principles. 

Only time will tell. I look forward to the day Trump is gone and we can sort through this. In the meantime, I will use my vote and voice to oppose Trump and the enablers who support him.

Again, this is from one of our newest contributors, Amy. Check her out on Twitter: @sjta_amy.