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POLITICAL COMMENTARY

NeverTrumpers Turn Their Backs On A Lifetime of Conservatism

A Commentary by Brian C. Joondeph

The so-called NeverTrumpers opposed Donald Trump’s Republican Party nomination in 2016 because they believed he was unfit for the presidency. He had not paid his dues as a senator or governor. He wasn’t part of the Republican in-crowd. He was Caddyshack character Al Czervik, played by Rodney Dangerfield, a skunk at the GOP’s country club garden party.

The most prominent NeverTrump names are familiar – Bill Kristol, Jennifer Rubin, George Will, Max Boot – at one time all advocating for conservative policies, now rabid in their hatred for all things Trump. He wasn’t a true conservative, they insisted.

But President Trump’s 200 judicial appointments have been solid conservatives, from the U.S. Supreme Court on down. He has rolled back business-crushing regulations and built up the military. He has largely defeated Islamic terrorism and confronted illegal immigration. He has stood for life and the police and is one of the few Republicans mounting a vigorous defense against the cancel culture, rewriting the history of America’s founding.

He has walked the conservative walk better than any elected Republican since Ronald Reagan. Yet NeverTrumpers oppose him in favor of a far-left Democrat party.

Ahead of the 2020 presidential election, the NeverTrumpers have morphed into a new organization, the Lincoln Project - “Holding accountable those who would violate their oaths to the Constitution and would put others before Americans.”[I wonder if that includes high-level government conspirators attempting to overthrow a constitutionally elected president.]

Founders include notable Trump haters: Mr. Kellyanne Conway, also known as George; Rick Wilson, who famously dismissed Trump supporters as “the credulous Boomer rube demo” in a laughfest with Don Lemon on CNN, and Steve Schmidt who directed John McCain’s anemic bid for the White House in 2008.

What better way to advance conservatism, the NeverTrumpers of the Lincoln Project argue, than to elect Joe Biden and promote a Democrat takeover of America. This is the same Biden echoing Barack Obama who promises that his administration “won’t just rebuild this nation. We’ll transform it.” The same Biden who says police have “become the enemy.”

If Biden wins, his coattails will likely give Democrats control of the House and Senate.  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer would immediately eliminate the filibuster, giving Democrats full control of the Executive and Legislative branches of government, and soon the Judicial branch.

Taxes could be raised with impunity. Regulations added without resistance. The Green New Deal and Medicare-For-All would pass easily on a party-line vote. Democrats want to expand the Supreme Court and with full control of Congress could easily confirm a Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder, Lawrence Tribe or Michelle Obama to the high court, creating a far-left majority to rewrite the U.S. Constitution. How is that for the Lincoln Project’s fidelity to the Constitution?

Amnesty will be granted to millions of illegal immigrants and the borders opened, all providing more Democrat voters. These new voters will be sent to red and purple states, such as Texas, Ohio and Florida, turning them blue, creating a permanent Democrat electoral majority.

How about adding Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico as new states, four more Democrat senators, firming up their majority? This means more senators in the mold of Tammy Duckworth who described Trump’s July 3 Mount Rushmore speech as “talking about dead traitors.” Do these traitors include Harriet Tubman, Jesse Owens, Louie Armstrong and Elle Fitzgerald, all honored by Trump in his speech? Or Abraham Lincoln, namesake of The Lincoln Project, one of the four presidents honored on Mount Rushmore?

NeverTrumpers have joined forces with the anti-American totalitarian left and the Marxist Black Lives Matter group all because they don’t like Trump’s style or his tweets. Because Trump did not purchase their services and won the election on his own, the Republican establishment is pouting and willing to throw their lifetime work and principles to the wind to teach the country a lesson.

America has a binary choice in November. NeverTrumpers can’t create their ideal candidate. It’s either Trump or Biden - or whoever will be in charge behind the scenes as Biden’s cognition keeps slipping.

As Benjamin Franklin observed 250 years ago when asked which is preferable a monarchy or a republic, “A republic . . . if you can keep it.”

Brian C. Joondeph, MD, is a Denver-based physician and freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in American Thinker, Daily Caller, Rasmussen Reports and other publications. Follow him on Facebook,  LinkedIn, Twitter, Parler, and QuodVerum.

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