I am a conservative.
I revere the principles fought for and set forth by our Founding Fathers. I wish life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to be chief among inalienable rights for all. I view the Constitution as a principled, comprehensive blueprint filled with wisdom, justice, equality, and freedom.
It’s why I cannont—now or ever—support Donald Trump as the Republican nominee for President of the United States.
The Republican Party has long been the home for conservative values. Limiting the powers of the federal government, championing the system of free enterprise, and steadfastly maintaining strong moral values are cornerstones of the ideology.
But should the rise of Donald Trump in his winning the party’s nomination, the GOP will no longer be fit to carry the banner for conservatism.
Donald Trump represents none of the things I stand for.
He is a populist, changing his opinions over the years seemingly based on his moods or the company he keeps.
He is a racist, who failed to disavow the enthusiastic support of the Ku Klux Klan, one of the most vile and repugnant organizations in human history.
He is a self-absorbed con-man whose priority is not America—but his own self. He values his own wealth, his own image, his own delusions of power above all else.
He is arrogant. He is offensive. He is irreverant. He is unwise.
He is dangerous.
He would be made even more dangerous if given the most powerful office in America.
If Donald Trump becomes the Republican nominee, I will no longer identify with the Republican Party. Principles, as they say, come before party—and Donald Trump’s candidacy draws a sharp line in the sand as to who holds to that notion and who does not.
I support Marco Rubio (and sincerely hope anyone reading this will do the same) for his steadfast defense of the kind of conservatism Lincoln and Reagan stood for, the kind that should, and still could prevail.
George Washington’s warning puts the divide before us into sharp focus:
The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty.
– George Washington Farewell Address
September 19, 1796
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