I'll probably stop Facebook posts on politics after tonight; it's a bit too depressing, and I think that it's best to avoid tilting at windmills. But my position, 18 hours after the deluge, is as follows:
- I've been a Republican since I first registered to vote back in 2005. But I cannot abide being a member of a Republican Party founded on "Trumpism." To the extent that there is a coherent ideology of Trumpism, it is a belief in the power of centralization, "strength," intentions, and wise dealmaking. My views are much the opposite: government must be about interests, limits, subsidiarity, and dealing with human weaknesses. The GOP was closer to me on those issues for much of my life as a voter. That might no longer be the case.
- It is not clear what the GOP will look like at this time next year, or in two years, or in three years. It makes sense to wait and see, and to resist, resist, resist, as firmly as I can, wherever and whenever the GOP abandons the principles I respect. If the GOP appears too far gone--if Trumpism infects it thoroughly--I will leave. But after some thoughts on this following Trump's nomination, I decided that I'd rather not throw away my (small) voice to steer it toward better outcomes, at least not until it is clearly a lost cause.
- There are lots of Republican elected officials across the country who have built their careers on a more inclusive, deliberative politics while retaining skepticism of progressive social programs. For starters, I admire Ben Sasse, Rob Portman, Nikki Haley, Susana Martinez, Tim Scott, and Mike Lee. (Much to Ohio's credit, Portman ran well ahead of Trump.) I will monitor those elected officials closely over the next few months to see how they respond to Trump.
- There is much wisdom, I think, in focusing on the local and the community, rather than on the federal leviathan. I will try to do this in my daily life more: to be a participant in good standing of various levels of civil society. If the federal government is going to hell in a handbasket, we should at least make our communities and churches strong and welcoming.
- Lastly, a personal failing that I will attempt to address: in any future encounters with the GOP, I will call out examples of bigotry I see. By accident of birth and upbringing, I've been lucky enough to see very little of them in person. But they're obviously more central in American society than I'd hoped or believed, and I expect to see an uptick of examples in the aftermath of Trump's victory. The reports I've seen already are heartbreaking and troubling.
I hope that in my year or so of sharing #NeverTrump stuff and telling everyone I could about the dangers of Trump, I made a small difference: I wanted to communicate to my conservative friends that Trump is dangerous, and to my liberal friends that some conservatives they knew recognized the danger. If I didn't--if I just polluted your feed with things that wasted your time--I apologize for that.
In the meantime, there's work to do, and interesting times ahead.
