Over the course of the Trump administration there emerged on our political landscape a group of folks who identified as conservatives who were also what came to be called "Never-Trumpers." These were people who metaphorically, and sometimes literally, swore that under no circumstances would they ever cast their vote for Mr. Trump, either in 2016 or 2020.
I suppose these Never-Trumpers are quite satisfied now that President Trump seems to be at the end of his tether, that there seems to be no judicial recourse left to rescue his presidency, but frankly, I don't understand their thinking.
These are people, after all, who claim to be conservative which means that they affirm most or all of the following positions: They are pro-life and opposed to abortion on demand, they believe that the best way to get people out of poverty is to get them jobs and help them build strong families, they believe in free enterprise and free markets, they see the value of lower taxes and shudder at the high tax proposals of their liberal opponents, they ardently desire peace in the Middle East, they cherish religious liberty and freedom of speech, they're (generally) appalled at measures which would create functionally open borders, they loathe radical proposals to expand the number of Supreme Court justices and the number of states in the union and to do away with the filibuster in the Senate.
These are folks, too, who are fully aware that except for the desire for peace in the Middle East, the contemporary Democrat party opposes almost every one of the philosophical principles they embrace.
Nonetheless, the Never-Trumpers refused to vote for the one man who has done more on behalf of implementing those conservative policies and ideas than any president in the last century and a half, and some of them even voted for the Biden/Harris ticket, the most radical major party ticket in our history, because they find Trump's personality so contemptible.
Yet these Never-Trumpers must know that by refusing to help Trump hold on to the White House, by actively voting for his Democrat opponent, they've tacitly abjured all of the policies they claim to hold simply because they consider the man who has been finally accomplishing what conservatives have yearned for ever since the 1930s to be a coarse buffoon.
I don't understand their thinking. We weren't voting on November 3rd for high school Homecoming King. Never-Trump conservatives need to ask themselves, it seems to me, what's more important to them, principle or personality? If it's the latter then it's going to be very hard to ever take these people seriously again.
