Confessions of a #NeverTrump'er

Yes, I'm one of those.

I've heard all the arguments: "you may as well vote for Hillary;" "do you want Hillary to determine the Supreme Court"?

And so on, ad nauseam.

I'm not #NeverTrump because I like Hillary or because I'm an idiot or because I'm bitter about Ted Cruz. Mainly, I have one major reason (maybe 2-3) for being #NeverTrump

First, I don't like Trump. I think he's a nasty, vile person who has temper tantrums and behaves like a spoiled five year-old brat when he doesn't get his way or when someone says something negative about him. Take his treatment of Megyn Kelly for example, or Elizabeth Warren (I don't like her but I don't think she's "goofy"), or just all the awful things he's said about women over the years.

Second, Trump has no ideological core in relation to his stances on policy. Let's take abortion for example, which apparently he's pro life except in the cases when he's pro choice. So he's said he's not against partial-birth abortion, but then he says he's pro life, then he wants to prosecute women who seek abortion and then he just pulls the Regan card. When it comes right down to it, it seems like his stance on abortion blows with the wind--if it's more strategic to be pro choice, then he's pro choice but if it's better to be pro life then he's pro life "with exceptions" (like partial-birth abortion apparently, which is tantamount to infanticide). Thus, if he can't manage to make a strong stance one way or the other on such an important issue, then how can we trust him on other issues?

Let's take nuclear proliferation, for example. One day it's a global problem and suddenly he thinks that Japan and South Korea should obtain nuclear weapons. One day he's against the Iraq war and the next he's OK with it. One day he's heard of David Duke and then he hasn't (when Duke endorsed him). One day he's a huge supporter of Israel and suddenly he wants to be neutral, and then he tries to pander to AIPAC after that. And despite the NRA's endorsement of him, he still favors gun control, even when he says he doesn't. 

Third, he's not conservative! He even said that it's the Republican Party, not the Conservative Party. Here's a general laundry list of his liberal stances (except when he flip flops on them when it's convenient):

• he favors an increased tax on the rich
• he favors government sponsored health care
• he favors government funding of Planned Parenthood
• he seemed to indicate that for the Israelis to "make a deal" with Palestine, they would have to be willing to "sacrifice certain things" 
• he favors tariffs
• he would support his sister, Maryanne Trump Barry as a Supreme Court Justice, despite her strong stance in favor of partial birth abortion (and then he lied about Justice Alito)
• he favors a deportation policy of illegal immigrants that would let them back in with legal status (without penalty or having to go to the end of the line)
• and so on and so on and so on.

I'm not going to get into the whole violence at his rallies issue because it's clear that much of the violence comes from anti-Trump people. That he won't calm people down is evidence of his manipulation, but I'll save that whole thing for another day.

In the meantime, keeping all this in mind and more, I can't see my way to holding my nose and voting for him. How can I vote for someone when his stance on everything changes on a daily basis? There's a lot I could probably forgive to vote for him, but as he's shown himself to be unstable, immature, cowardly, and manipulative, my vote will go elsewhere (not to Hillary). Everyone has to vote their conscience, so if that leads you to support Trump, then that's your decision. As for me, I'll remain in the #NeverTrump #NeverHillary camp and pray for a better tomorrow.

God save America!

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