Yes, Trump Support Does REAL, LASTING Damage To Conservatism. Here's Why

[EasyAce]

By Ben Shapiro
http://www.dailywire.com/news/6690/yes-trump-damages-conservatism-hes-doing-it-right-ben-shapiro

Friday, one of my respected colleagues at Salem Radio, KSKY’s Mark Davis, released an op-ed in
which he called for all conservatives to jump on the Donald Trump 2016 bandwagon. Davis didn’t back
Trump in the primaries; he backed Trump’s arch-rival and the son of JFK’s alleged assassin, Senator Ted
Cruz. Now, though, he says we must make the choice between Trump and Hillary…and that means the
choice is Trump.

Here’s his argument, which also happens to be the argument of many conservatives I respect including
Hugh Hewitt and Dennis Prager:

Failure to back the Republican nominee will lead to a Hillary Clinton presidency, which should be unacceptable
to any conservative. No more convoluted pseudo-analysis over how a Trump presidency somehow damages
conservatism or damages the party. This is about the country. The country must not be savaged by a third
Obama term. Whatever baggage clouds the mind of hemming and hawing conservatives, it is time to get
over it.

I get this argument. But let’s assume, for a moment, that Trump is destined to lose. Let’s assume that because
every poll says it, every betting market says it, and every electoral analysis says it.

If that’s the case, here’s the problem: if the Trump Train is headed for Eastwood Ravine, can conservatives
truly afford to be aboard that train? That’s particularly true in the House of Representatives, the last bulwark
against total leftist control given that the Senate will likely be lost to Democrats this year. Pretending that there
is no cost to backing Trump if he loses is simply wrong. That’s why Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, who has
endorsed Trump, now says that he won’t press other members of the House to support Trump.

Davis is wrong when he writes that Ryan only opposes Trump because he’s “petrified by the notion of a body
blow to the usual pecking orders of party power and privilege.” That’s Trumpian propaganda. Ryan doesn’t
oppose Trump out of personal animus – if he did, he wouldn’t have endorsed him. He’s giving Republicans
permission to disassociate out of desire for political survival for a Republican Congress.

Yesterday, I spoke with a congressional candidate in a highly-contested district. He has a solid shot of winning
the seat. When I asked him about Trump and his strategy for dealing with Trump questions, he essentially stated
that he would say that he’s not Trump’s surrogate, doesn’t speak for Trump, and has nothing to do with Trump.
Disassociation from Trump may be the best insurance against losing the House. Ramesh Ponnuru quotes a
strategist today who says the same thing: “if Trump looks like a sure loser, congressional Republican candidates
should do what they did in 1996, when their presidential nominee Bob Dole seemed doomed to defeat: Present
themselves as necessary checks on a Democratic president named Clinton.”

There’s another problem, too. And this one is even deeper than the political danger of losing Congress thanks to
Trump’s reverse-coattails. Davis doesn’t just call for Republicans to vote for Trump. He calls for them to stop
calling him on his mistakes:

Any Republicans with bugs up their butts about Trump need to exercise some self-control.  It’s a free country;
they have the right to harbor and express whatever likes and dislikes they wish.  But they should know that if
 they mouth off about their latest self-indulgent beef regarding Trump, they are not doing any favors for any
of their voters who might actually want him to beat Hillary. It is a time for choosing.  To make no choice is to
make a choice.  To agonize publicly over that choice is to make a choice.  That choice is to help Hillary Clinton
win the presidency, which no conservative should remotely consider.

In other words, shut up and sign off on Trump.

This is precisely what I feared when I opposed Trump in the first place: that conservatives would allow Trump
to become the standard-bearer for conservatism itself, not just the Republican nominee. That heretofore
conservatives would sacrifice their principles for victory, and in the process, destroy the possibility of principled
victory in the future. That conservatives would pervert themselves, justifying the unjustifiable, to defend a bad
man. That conservatism would become Trumpism, and that conservatives would be forced to answer for decades
to come just why they wished away degrading statements about women, POWs, American soldiers, the disabled,
and Mexicans, why they ignored catering to foreign dictators and domestic white supremacist alt-righters, and
why they embraced ad hoc policymaking and tyrannical disdain for Constitutional boundaries. It’s why I made a
distinction between those supporting Trump to beat Hillary but still noting Trump’s flaws, and people enthusiastically
backing Trump all the way to the finish line.

To dismiss the concern that Trump might damage conservatism misses the point: he’s already damaging
conservatism. He’s damaging conservatism by incentivizing good conservatives like Mark Davis to shut up about
conservatism – or worse, argue against conservatism and decency -- in order to defend him.

[roamer_1]

    To dismiss the concern that Trump might damage conservatism misses the point: he’s already damaging
    conservatism. He’s damaging conservatism by incentivizing good conservatives like Mark Davis to shut up about
    conservatism – or worse, argue against conservatism and decency -- in order to defend him.

BRAVO!

[TomSea]

Ben Shapiro is just an operative for Ted "Viva La Raza" Cruz; and his H1B1 visa crusade stabbing American workers in the back. This is the same ol' same ol'; I voted for Cruz over Trump, whom I've never voted for but I'm not whining that my candidate did not get as much as Trump.

Shapiro, Weekly Standard, National Review is just a super pac for the establishment. They need to face it, they didn't win.

[geronl]

Ben Shapiro is just an operative for Ted "Viva La Raza" Cruz;

The column is correct, although far too nice. Attacking the messenger is the expected response from the cult.

[goatprairie]

Ben Shapiro is just an operative for Ted "Viva La Raza" Cruz; and his H1B1 visa crusade stabbing American workers in the back. This is the same ol' same ol'; I voted for Cruz over Trump, whom I've never voted for but I'm not whining that my candidate did not get as much as Trump.

Shapiro, Weekly Standard, National Review is just a super pac for the establishment. They need to face it, they didn't win.

Yes, the 55-60% of the Republicans who didn't vote for Trump are all part of the dreaded (hiss, boo) "establishment."
In this Trumpkins sound just like liberals. "The only reason you don't like Obama is because he's black." But now it's "the only reason you don't like Trump is because you're part of the establishment." What a crock of s..t. Many conservatives, like me , despise Trump for many reasons on principle.
I, and millions of other Trump haters, are certainly not part of the establishment. We just see a tremendously flawed candidate who has basically destroyed the Republican Party and derailed the conservative movement. For that he deserves contempt and not support.

[Right_in_Virginia]

Could it be conservatives have so damaged --- and continue to damage --- conservatism that it is beyond repair?