Brian Schoeneman today characterized the #NeverTrump movement as “stupid.” He’s wrong, as I’ll discuss in detail below. Others have accused me of making my opposition to Donald Trump personal, and to that I plead guilty as charged. Here’s why:
I’m Jewish. Trump’s bigotry against all of Islam and all Muslims is self-apparently despicable, but he goes even further. Trump actually says that if elected he would seek to require all Muslims, including American citizens, to register with the government and carry a special identity card. My people have been down this road before, and we all know where that road led. Never. Again. (And don’t even get me started on Trump’s professed “neutrality” between Israel and the Palestinian terrorists who target Israeli civilians on a daily basis.)
I have a son with disabilities. My son Joshua has Down syndrome and brain damage from oxygen desaturation episodes in the first few weeks of his life. He was in the hospital for over a year and had a heart surgery when he was 2 months old. He is severely mentally and developmentally disabled. He also has severe vision and hearing deficits. Trump mocks people with disabilities. Such a man can never be entrusted with the reigns of government power.
I’m a father. I have an 8-year-old son and twin boys who are almost 5 (although Josh developmentally is more like about 10-12 months). Donald Trump spews hatred and bigotry at every turn and even uses obscenities from the stage (when he’s not feigning shock at others doing it). Our kids are watching. By way of example, yesterday I was on the Steve Batton radio show with my friend, Pieri Burton, who brought his beautiful 9-year-old daughter, Alahna, with him. On the way to the station, Pieri was surprised when Alahna made a derogatory comment about Donald Trump. He hadn’t known that she was even paying attention to the presidential race. At one point during the show, Steve invited Alahna to say on the air why she doesn’t like Trump. Her answer was, “He’s a racist, and I don’t think that’s fair.” She went on to note that Trump had called women “dogs.” Pieri noted that he had never said anything about Trump to his daughter. These were observations that she had made entirely on her own. (Pieri later acknowledged that Alahna might have misunderstood the word “racist” to have a broader meaning that encompasses forms of bigotry beyond just race.) Trump’s followers wasted no time in attacking her and asserting that she had to have been told what to think because she’s incapable of drawing her own conclusions from her own observations of the candidate. (This kind of bluster is par for the course for Trump’s mindless robot followers. It shouldn’t have to be pointed out to them that millions of adults have drawn similar conclusions to Alahna’s about Trump from their observations of him.) The point, however, is that our kids are watching and are being affected by Trump’s toxicity. That’s why I shield my kids from him – which I won’t be able to do for the next 4 years if he becomes president.
I’m a husband, a son, and a father of stepdaughters. Donald Trump throughout his entire life has attacked and insulted women in the crudest of terms. Out of respect for the women he has attacked, I won’t repeat those disgusting insults here. We all know of the depraved comments Trump has made and continues to make about Fox News reporter/commentator Megyn Kelly because she had the audacity to ask him some tough questions at a debate. But as my mother’s son, as my wife’s devoted husband, and as my two adult stepdaughters’ stepfather, I cannot ever support or sanction a man who treats women with the public indecency and abuse that Trump routinely does.
I’m a conservative. I believe, as conservatives do, that as a general rule, the only proper form of government is one that provides services that must be provided collectively and that otherwise respects our liberties and freedom. Trump is a statist who has spent decades supporting socialized medicine, public funding of abortions – especially through Planned Parenthood, abuses of eminent domain to take private property to give to other private citizens with more political clout, and on and on. Trump now wants to create a “Deportation Force” to round up 12 million illegal immigrants and throw them out of the country without any consideration of their individual circumstances. He wants to use our armed forces to murder innocent women and children who have the misfortune to be related to terrorists. Of course, this would be grossly illegal, but he has said that he would expect the U.S. military to follow his unlawful orders because he’s the one issuing them. As I said above, he wants to round up all Muslims, including American citizens, and force them to register with the government and carry a special identity card. Trump is the antithesis of conservatism and is an affront to all that we believe.
I’m a lifelong Republican. I believe in my party as the party of conservative principles and values as articulated by great leaders like Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, Jack Kemp, George Allen, Newt Gingrich, Bob McDonnell, Paul Ryan, and Marco Rubio. It is an affront to everything the Republican Party has ever stood for to allow a man who has spent a lifetime as a self-professed Democrat, who has advocated for keeping partial-birth abortion legal, who has donated repeatedly to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaigns and to numerous other prominent leftist Democrats, and who has directed the vast majority of his political donations to Democrats, to have the Republican Party’s nomination for president.
I oppose the establishment and status quo. I am as angry as any Trump follower at the Washington and Republican establishments for putting their petty personal and political interests ahead of the good of the country, and I have written extensively about that. Donald Trump has spent his entire life as a part of that establishment sucking at its teat and benefiting in every possible way from its corruption. It is ridiculous beyond belief for anyone to believe that he is the solution to the corruption from which he has spent a lifetime being enriched.
I value truth. One of my greatest grievances against the establishment is that they so routinely lie to us. So does Trump. In fact, a new study by The Politico found that he lies on average once every 5 minutes in his standard speeches.
I’m an American. I believe in the honor and decency that have always been this country’s hallmark. I am grateful that my forebears put their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor on the line to create this country, the first in history created based on a set of principles rather than accidents of geography and results of conquest. I am grateful that my forebears put their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor on the line to end the smear on our country’s honor that was slavery. I am grateful that my forebears put their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor on the line to stop the effort at world conquest and genocide perpetrated by the most evil regime the world has ever known. I am grateful that my forebears and contemporaries put their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor on the line to stop the effort at world domination by the Soviet communists over the subsequent decades. I am grateful that my forebears and contemporaries have put their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor on the line to protect the world from the evil of Islamofascism. Donald Trump demands that his followers raise their hands and swear allegiance not to our country, not to our principles and values, but to him personally. And he has signaled to his followers that if he is not awarded the nomination, even at an open convention that is conducted according to the rules, they should “riot in the streets.” And I am appalled that a man who is running a campaign so horrifyingly reminiscent of the tactics used by so many of our country’s historic enemies is now a strong contender to become this country’s president.
Donald Trump offends every aspect of my values, principles, and personal honor. So, yes, #NeverTrump is very personal to me. And it should be to you too.
