My fellow conservatives, we have to split the ticket to save the US Constitution | Opinion
I am a bit conservative.
- I am pro-life. I love that Donald Trump and his Federalist Society judicial nominees overthrew Roe v. Wade, a lawless example of judicial overreach.
- I am skeptical of climate change and the extreme environmental agenda. I am glad Trump allowed us to drill our way to energy independence and shut down the Green New Deal.
- I believe the Second Amendment protects the God-given individual right to self defense and for me to own my AR-15 along with the high capacity magazines that make it a blast to shoot. Trump’s indifference to calls for gun control is exactly the right stance.
- I believe China is a menace that competes unfairly. Trump was exactly right to impose big tariffs and begin the process of decoupling our economy from the dangerous totalitarian state.
- I am the great-grandson of immigrants on both sides of my family who came after World War I — some of them to St. Joseph, Missouri — but I agree with Trump that immigration is out of control. I am all for shutting down illegal immigration, deporting as many undocumented immigrants as we can and rethinking the way we do legal immigration to put American interests first.
But I will be forcing myself to trudge to the polls and pulling the lever for Kamala Harris, the most awful, socialism-friendly, fake Democratic presidential candidate of my lifetime. I feel so strongly that I have handmade a sign I put outside my house in Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District where our one (blue dot) electoral vote may hold the key to putting her in the White House.
The reasons I will vote against Trump are searingly clear and undebatable.
I am an Army veteran sworn to uphold the Constitution and a conservative who reveres the institutions of our democratic republic. Trump tried to overthrow our 250-year-old system of government on Jan. 6, 2021. He tried to force then Vice President Mike Pence to ignore the Constitution and our votes. He emitted a blizzard of lies for months that drove his true believers to storm the Capitol, bringing violence into our political system in the most dangerous way since the Civil War. A vote for Trump could be my last vote if he has his way.
I am also a Christian, an Eagle Scout and a husband. Trump is everything I stand against. He treats women like trash — for which he has been found liable for sexual assault. His disregard for his marital oath presaged his disregard for his constitutional oath. He ignores the law whenever it suits him — for which he has been branded a felon. He is utterly without personal responsibility — for which he has gone to bankruptcy court a half dozen times. The best that can be said of him is that he has not violated all of the Ten Commandments, at least that I know of.
I am also a father of a son. If my 10-year-old turns out one-tenth as despicable as Trump, I will hide my head in shame.
I know exactly how bad Harris is. She is a threat to our conservative Supreme Court, which she wants to pack. She is a threat to the minority rights protected by the Senate filibuster rule which she wants to overturn. She would appoint whackadoo leftists to high positions in our government where they would write regulations I loathe, and she would appoint crime-friendly judges to look the other way while crime goes unpunished.
Conservatives who know the existential threat that Trump represents and who are horrified at what Harris would do as president have more votes than just for president. We can reelect a Republican House of Representatives and give control of the Senate to Republicans. We can elect GOP governors and state legislators and attorneys general, all of whom can put shackles on Harris’ ability to do damage to the country we love. We can hope that the Supreme Court will stand as a bulwark against her worst and most destructive impulses.
I hate voting for Kamala Harris, but it is the only conservative thing to do.
This story was originally published October 28, 2024 at 7:06 AM with the headline "My fellow conservatives, we have to split the ticket to save the US Constitution | Opinion."
