Four major objections to Trump that don't pass the smell test

Conservatives who care about conserving civil society for future generations should heed Douglass’s diagnosis of the failure of the radical abolitionists. In being conscientious objectors from the 2016 election, members of the #NeverTrump movement seem more interested in preserving their fidelity to their principles than trying to influence Trump and his supporters. With the reality that either Hillary Clinton or Trump will be president, anything being done now will either help one candidate or the other.

Besides, how useful are such principles if they make one refrain from participating in politics the moment things become difficult? This observation points to a problem with the principles themselves. The principles that #NeverTrump members cling to are in most cases not really principles at all. They have elevated applications of principle or parts of a more general principle to being canons of natural law. But what was good policy in 1980 is not necessarily good policy today.

Further, by writing out of their movement anyone who is not a true believer in their principles, they are making their cause more and more irrelevant with each passing day. Berating those who think differently and calling into question the intellectual and moral capacity of most Americans is not exactly a winning strategy.

If they want to be a relevant part of American politics again, Never Trumpers should take some time to think through these problems. Instead of running a caricatured version of Reagan’s 1980 campaign over and over again, they should instead focus on crafting policies that will actually help people today. Only by connecting principles to the common good of the nation will we be able to secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity.