I don't want to name any names here because a) I otherwise respect a lot of the people I'm going to disagree with here, so it's not my goal to start fights with them; and b) they all make the same argument anyway so if you see one you've seen them all. But I'm getting really tired of the most defensive and disingenuous argument we keep hearing from the #NeverTrump people - by which I basically mean people who generally vote Republican but have vowed they will no way, no how, no never vote for Donald Trump even if he is the Republican nominee.
The exchange always goes like this:
NonNeverTrumper: So you're willing to let Hillary become president?
#NeverTrumper: Don't try to put that on me! It's not on me! If Hillary becomes president because she wins a Hillary-Trump race, that's on the morons, fools, losers, idiots and dipwads who supported the nomination of a horrible candidate like Donald Trump! They left me no choice! Talk to them! Not to me! It's not on me!
Oh, yes. It's on you. It's most definitely on you. But we'll get to that in a minute. Let's start here: I'm for Ted Cruz. There are some things I like about Donald Trump but I do not think he should be the Republican nominee, and I'm concerned that nominating him does indeed make a Hillary win more likely.
But would I vote for Trump in the general election? Hell yes I would. If that is the only way to prevent Hillary from becoming president, I would not only vote for Trump, I might even give him money. (Although the notion of Donald Trump needing money from me seems kind of absurd.) This is partly because I know Trump is not the racist/Hitler/monster he's made out to be, but it's more importantly because Hillary Clinton is one of the most horrendous human beings ever to rise to prominence in American society. In fact, one of the things I don't like about Trump is that he's sucked so much of the attention up in this campaign, there is not enough attention being paid to what a corrupt, self-serving liar Hillary Clinton is - nor are people paying attention to the emptiness of her supposedly impressive resume.
So I am a Republican voter who prefers a different Republican, but I will vote for Trump if it's the only stop-Hillary option I have left, because stopping Hillary is that important to me - and if you care about this country, it should be to you.
So that brings us back to our lovely friend the #NeverTrumpButHeyIt'sNotOnMeIfHillaryWins person. Like me, this is a Republican voter who prefers someone else. But unlike me, this is a person who has apparently decided a Hillary presidency is an outcome he or she can live with. They will try to deflect this question and make it all about their objections to Trump, but elections don't work that way. Someone wins and someone loses. When the notoriously corrupt Edwin Edwards ran against white supremacist nutjob David Duke for governor of Louisiana, Edwards supporters printed bumper stickers saying, "Vote for the Crook. It's Important."
That may have been the greatest campaign bumper sticker in the history of politics. It was also a true statement. Edwin Edwards was no one's idea of a great choice. But David Duke simply couldn't be allowed to become governor, and voting for the crook was the only way to prevent that from happening. Under the circumstances, you had to bite the big one and do it.
If we find ourselves with a Trump vs. Hillary election, some people will believe that stopping Trump should be their top imperative, even though some of them may not like Hillary. Others will believe, as I do, that nothing is more important than stopping Hillary.
Those who vow to sit out the election entirely, or waste their vote on a third-party pretender, will have chosen not to choose. Everyone will know if these two are the nominees that one of them is going to be president, and everyone who deals in reality needs to make a choice at that point which of the two is more acceptable, or less unacceptable as the case may be.
If you are a Republican voter who refuses to accept that Hillary is more appalling choice than Trump, then you have made a choice that a Hillary presidency is not something you're willing to do everything you can to prevent. And you have to own that choice. Just because you're not responsible for Trump being the nominee doesn't obviate your responsibility to make a choice now.
Hillary could become president. That would be a terrible thing for America. She would be worse than Obama. Yes, she's really that bad. You could do at least one small thing to stop her, which would be to go and vote for Donald Trump, however much you may wish you were voting for someone else. If you don't do that, then you made a decision without a gun to your head that you were not willing to do everything in your power to stop her.
That's totally on you, and I don't see why you're not willing to own it.
Now, if you're a Republican voter who wants to make the case that Hillary would be a better president than Trump, I think you're not just wrong but spectacularly wrong. But make your case. Explain why Hillary would be a better president if you think you can, then go to the polls and vote for her, and be prepared to own that.
But don't be such a damn coward that you won't admit you made accommodation with the devil and decided you'd live with a Hillary presidency if you withhold your typically Republican vote from Trump because you don't like Trump. Because that's what you'll be doing, no matter how much you scream, "It's not on me!"
Oh yes it is. I'll do whatever I legally and morally can to make sure Hillary is not the next president. It's too bad you won't. But it's even worse you won't take responsibility for it.
I don't want to name any names here because a) I otherwise respect a lot of the people I'm going to disagree with here, so it's not my goal to start fights with them; and b) they all make the same argument anyway so if you see one you've seen them all. But I'm getting really tired of the most defensive and disingenuous argument we keep hearing from the #NeverTrump people - by which I basically mean people who generally vote Republican but have vowed they will no way, no how, no never vote for Donald Trump even if he is the Republican nominee.
The exchange always goes like this:
