During the primaries, there were 17 GOP candidates, and I chose the one I believed would be the best for America. Now my realistic choices have been narrowed to two candidates -- Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton -- one of whom will be the next president.
What does this mean for me? Well, some people on the right faced with this binary choice have concluded they can't in good conscience vote for Trump, no matter how bad Clinton is. Some acknowledge that Clinton is terrible but believe that Trump could do more damage to conservatism and thus the nation in the long run -- even more than a Clinton presidency at this precarious moment in our nation's history.
I confess that I momentarily weighed all the possible scenarios, but I could never remotely convince myself that a Trump presidency would be worse for the nation than a Clinton one. I have not changed my mind despite the recent charges against Trump.
We are used to seeing Republicans beating one another up during the primaries, and the most recent three cycles -- 2008, 2012 and 2016 -- involved extremely vicious infighting in some cases. As a frequenter of Twitter, I have witnessed this firsthand. This year's primary was hands down the worst, but that's not the only way this year is different. In the previous two cycles, there was some residual discontentment, but most eventually united around the GOP nominee, notwithstanding lingering rumors that millions of evangelicals sat out the 2012 election.
The fighting among the never-Trumpers, the Trumpers and the never-Hillarys is approaching a fever pitch, with mutual accusations of abject immorality.
As the election gets closer, I see the horrors of a Clinton presidency in increasingly clearer relief. I acknowledge that this may cause me to rationalize some of my earlier distaste for some things about Trump, but I have to remember that my vote for Trump isn't an endorsement of everything he's done. I'm not saying I no longer have reservations about him or his policies. I do.
My decision to vote for Trump isn't a contradiction of my position during the Clinton impeachment that character matters or that private conduct is relevant in the election of public officials. Nor am I betraying my Christian values to vote for a candidate who, in almost any scenario I can imagine, would be better for America than Clinton. People suggesting that Christians voting for Trump have sold their souls are ignoring the moral implications of not voting for Trump and thereby enabling Clinton's destruction of our nation. Now that, my conscience wouldn't tolerate, though I don't judge those who disagree with me on this.
If I were voting for Trump in a vacuum, this would be different. But Clinton isn't a vacuum. She's more like a vulture lying in wait to end the republic as we know it. Accuse me of hyperbole or alarmism if you must, but I genuinely fear Clinton could do irreversible damage to the country. And millions agree with me.
Some say, "Look at what you are condoning if you vote for Trump." And I say, "I'm condoning nothing, but if you want to use that metric, look at what you're condoning if you don't try to do everything you can to prevent another Obama-Clinton term." Evangelicals withdrawing their support for Trump need to consider what they're abetting by not doing everything in their power to prevent Clinton's election. In my view, we can't pretend we have other choices and wash our hands of responsibility by sitting this out. Nor does acknowledging that God is in control absolve us, as Christians, from doing our part.
If you want to know what we'd be in for with Clinton, consider what she's done and how she's wholly escaped accountability for all of it. In every respect, she is worse than the worst allegations against Trump, including the treatment of women.
Look at what happens when Democrats are in control. The Justice Department and IRS have been politicized. If recent reports about the outrage of FBI agents over Director James Comey's refusal to indict Clinton for her email felonies are even 25 percent true, this is incredible. Clinton won't even get a wrist slap. Consider also the Clinton Foundation corruption, as well as the WikiLeaks bombshells and the media collusion in ignoring them.
Fear a Trump presidency if you choose, but in electing Clinton, America would be ratifying her egregious misconduct, her self-serving corruption and President Obama's agenda on steroids. It would be giving her a mandate from hell.
It's not just about Supreme Court appointments, though more liberal activists would enable an unprecedented assault on our liberties and the Constitution. A Clinton presidency would result in more babies destroyed in the womb; more encroachments on the Second Amendment; further degradation of the military; open borders and all that entails; the continued disaster of Obamacare and possibly worse with single-payer, which has always been Clinton's dream; higher taxes and dramatically increased regulations; ongoing economic malaise; more government dependency; continuing escalation of racial tensions; a further breakdown in law and order, with more violence in the streets and an ongoing war on cops; the acceleration of the dangerous national debt and of the insolvency of our entitlement programs; an escalation of the war on business; more demonization of the so-called wealthy; further deterioration of our vital relationship with Israel; more domestic and foreign terrorism; further proliferation of the Islamic State group; the sucking of more revenue and human resources into environmental and globalist projects; a possible IRS vendetta against Clinton's Republican and conservative opponents; nightmares from Iran; and more hostility to the energy industry, making us less energy-independent.
We've already seen the one-sidedness that allows Clinton to escape scrutiny and accountability, and she's not in power. Imagine if she were. Could a Clinton presidency finally succeed in suppressing the dissent of political opponents -- including through the so-called Fairness Doctrine, designed to emasculate conservative talk radio?
In short, if Clinton were to win, in all likelihood, she would consummate Obama's crusade to fundamentally transform America into something the Framers and most of us never envisioned and couldn't tolerate. Suffice it to say that I am not going to be shamed on moral grounds for fighting to prevent this calamity.