To Trump or not to Trump?

Tomorrow we vote.  Or at least I'm going to vote, and I hope that you will too.

This election cycle has been different, I think, than any election cycle ever before in American history.  It's been different, at the very least, than any in my lifetime.  I'm baffled and depressed and excited and energized by it all at the same time.

Baffled

Like many Americans, I am baffled by the long successes of Donald Trump.  And let's just acknowledge that he has had an impressive run this primary season.  Whether you like him or not, he has held his lead despite every effort to overtake, overturn, or overrun him.

He is at the same time highly divisive and incredibly unifying of groups that aren't used to being divided or unified.  He's effectively divided the Republican party so strongly that many of the faithful base who have voted for years are threatening to not vote this year at all if Trump is the nominee.  Not only that, but some very influential people (George Will and others) have suggested that the RNC convention not nominate Trump even if he has earned the delegates (which, let's remember, at this point he has not, though as the only candidate in the race if nothing changes, he will).

At the same time a great divide has happened within the Republican party, Trump seems to be pulling people from all walks of life who have never been engaged in politics before to come out to vote.  He is pulling Democrats to vote for him despite that he's on the Republican ticket.  It's almost like he's building a new coalition of supporters who aren't defined, necessarily by "pro-life/pro-choice," "conservative/liberal," "traditional marriage/same-sex marriage," etc...  Instead they're unified by...?

The most consistent thing I hear when I talk to Trump supporters is that they're fed up with the representatives in the federal government doing nothing for them - and by that I don't mean implementing more entitlement programs.  The individuals I know who support Trump are middle class Americans who simply want the federal government to make it easier to live life by, largely, staying out of the way so that they can do their thing.  And they don't feel like their representatives in Washington are doing that.  But then that's just the small segment I know personally.  Perhaps that's not what unifies Trumpers?

Depressed

It's no secret that Ben Carson was my favorite candidate.  A political outsider, he oozed authenticity and level-headed deliberation, two things I find desperately lacking in Trump.  So after Carson suspended his campaign earlier this year, I was depressed.  I felt like the one guy whom I would trust to captain my children's ship was done for.  Now what was I to do?

And then, to add insult to injury, Carson endorsed Trump.  Excuse my abbreviation, but WTF?!?

I was in despair.  I felt no hope for the future, and all I had to look forward to was Trump.  Ugh.  (No offense if you're a Trump die-hard.  Just being real about how I felt.)

Excited

The one person whose perspective I most wanted to know at the point of my deepest despair was my favorite politics prof from college, who was also my boss for 4 years, the president of Hillsdale College, Dr. Larry Arnn.  (I worked as a student researcher for him and as his research assistant after I graduated.)

So I did what any former research assistant (or anyone who wants to know anything) does: I Googled it.

Turns out Dr. Arnn has been doing an hour long podcast once a week with Hugh Hewitt for the last 4 years.  How did I miss this?!?  (Here are the freely accessible: Hillsdale Dialogues.  They are fantastic!)

Dr. Arnn and Hewitt claim "Switzerland" neutrality.  They each voted but refuse to endorse a candidate or to reveal for whom they voted until after the election is over.  Though sometimes annoying, it's also terribly refreshing to hear about the election without feeling like I'm being cajoled to vote for one candidate or another.

So how did all this move me from depression to excitement?  Because Dr. Arnn pointed out for me many things that Trump has done to improve politics in America today.

Like what?

For one, energizing a completely new segment of the electorate who have never voted before.  Let's be real - most of the Republican candidates would never have reached some of the people Trump is helping to get involved in the political process.

And have you paid more or less attention to politics this primary season than you have in elections past?  I'm guessing more.  You've probably watched more debates, had more conversations, read more articles, watched more news, etc. than you ever have for a primary before.  If Jeb Bush had been the early front runner and favorite, would you be more or less engaged?

On top of which, because of Trump's fearless political incorrectness, we're talking about issues differently than we would otherwise be.  How much more informed are you (not necessarily because of what Trump has said, but because of what others have said in response to a Trump sound bite) about immigration? or any other issue about which Trump has gone on a rant?

I'm not saying that I think Trump's methods or opinions are great.  Clearly not.  Carson was my favorite - I don't think you could have two more different approaches.  But Trump has been effective.

Energized

Which leads to why I'm energized going into Republican primary election day tomorrow.  I'll vote.  I will always vote. As long as I have the liberty to express my opinions through the ballot box - a privilege millions around the world dream of - I will do so, even if the candidates are not my favorites.  Even if they are the two worst people on earth...

And that's what some suggest we have.  It's the baffling thing again - "In all of American, these are the two best options we can come up with?  We're screwed.  The system is rigged."  I've heard this, and I imagine you have too, or maybe you've thought it.

But even if you've though it, you have to admit that Trump is getting the votes.  I hear the argument all the time that "he's not getting a majority of the votes - he's just getting enough to get the delegates."  That, my friends, is the fault of the RNC because primaries are rigged to favor the front runner.  Which in most elections - almost all - is good for the party because it unifies the party behind a single candidate.  That is the system we have built.  Don't like it?  Get involved.  That's how you change it!

**Primary election caveat - Primaries are unique beasts because they require candidates within a single independent organization designed to build a coalition (i.e. the Republican Party) to differentiate themselves from one another.  And candidates do so with varying degrees of intensity depending on the competition.  This primary season has been particularly intense.  Once the party has a single candidate, then all of those people who stood on stage and publicly said, "I'll be a better President than you, you suck." now come behind the lead candidate and say, "We always liked each other and thought he'd/she'd be a great candidate, he/she won't suck."  That, my friends, is how primaries work.  So now that the party is starting to come behind Trump, don't be surprised.  It's how these things usually work.  We're all on teams that work this way in one form or another.  Have you ever been part of a church group whose leadership you didn't like?  Or on a sports team and you hated the coach?  Or on a team at work or in school and the leader of the group was horrible?  We've all at one time or another, come behind and supported an individual with whom we disagreed in order to accomplish a common goal.  What's different this year is that the Republican Party doesn't really have a coalition big enough to win an election anymore - the party die-hards don't have the numbers to beat a democrat, at least that's what seems to be the case considering Trump's garnering of delegates.  But without the base, Trump won't have enough votes to win against a democrat either.  So I suspect the party will do some realigning post election.  It's going to have to figure out what it's about because the coalition that used to exist isn't as strong as it once was.**

Ok, so why am I energized?  I'm energized because I'm an American citizen and as such I have the right to vote in local, state, and federal elections.  I'm energized because I get to do that tomorrow in the Republican primary.  I'm energized because even if I don't like Trump, I can vote for someone else!

Who Will I Vote For?

Chase and I go in circles about voting - do you vote for the candidate with whom you most agree?  or do you vote for the candidate with whom you most agree who also has a reasonable chance to win?  Which then leads to the question, "If I'm presented with two bad options is it permissible to pick neither and not vote?"

I recently read a really great article that made the argument that Christians ought not to look at this election as a "sin" issue.  Many (myself included) have wondered if they could, in good conscience, vote for Trump in a Trump vs. Hillary general.  I believe that someday I'll stand before the God of the Universe and be responsible for my actions/decisions/choices.  How can I justify a Trump vote to God?  And I know I can't justify a Hillary vote.  (If you're a Hillary supporter and a Christian, I'm not saying that you can't, only that I can't.  It's in no way a salvation issue.)  So the article asked the question If you and your family were in the middle of the ocean in a sinking boat and two other boats came along to rescue you - one captained by an adulterer and one captained by a thief, would you tell them to go on because you were waiting for the boat captained by the conservative Christian captain?  No.  That's stupid.  You'd get in one boat or the other and save your family.

The problem with that particular analogy is that we're not in the place of only having 2 options - theoretically we have millions of options with a write-in candidate.  Heck.  I could write-in myself!

Still, I think the analogy makes a valuable distinction between sinning against God and choosing the best option in a given situation.  While I may not choose to fall under the leadership of, for example, a thief, I may choose to be under a thief's leadership for a short period of time to get my family to land. That seems like the best option as it is a life-saving choice.  So maybe it makes sense to vote strategically, for "the lesser of two evils."  Maybe it doesn't.

To Trump or not to Trump?

I can't tell you who you ought to vote for.  You must make the decision for yourself, based on the information available to you and your convictions.  And if you vote for Trump or not - even if you vote for Bernie or Hillary - we're still friends!  It's not an issue of salvation or friendship.  We can disagree strongly about such things, and we're free to, and that's what's great about America!

For those who are considering not voting I will say this:  it is your right as an American citizen to vote or not to vote.  You have the freedom to stay home.  But.  Should you choose to abstain from voting, you will abstain from complaining about the nominee or the candidate in my presence at least.  If you want to complain, then participate.  I will be asking in the coming months if you voted and for whom should we get into a political discussion.  But that's just my way of dealing with it.

At the end of the day, we should all remember that America is incredibly unique because of the peaceful and voluntary transfer of power from one President to another, from one party to another, between and among individuals with very different ideas about the best thing for America throughout our history.

We are incredibly blessed to claim this heritage.

May we continue it for future generations.

Get out and vote.