Donald Trump (Photo credit: Gage Skidmore)

Many people have asked me why I can’t support Donald Trump as the Republican nominee in the 2016 presidential election. After all, he’s (supposedly) for many of the things that I, as a conservative, strongly support.

Well, if I could believe the conservative things he’s been saying recently (while ignoring the decades of his liberal behavior)…and if I could ignore the liberal things he’s been saying lately, I probably would support Donald Trump.

But I can’t do either. I can’t believe the conservative things he’s been saying recently, because most of his life has been spent supporting the opposite. And I can’t ignore the liberal things he’s been saying lately, because they’re in keeping with the liberal positions he has backed over most of his life.

It’s an odd presidential election this time around. You have both liberals and conservatives opposing the same “Republican” candidate; liberals opposing him because they believe the candidate will carry through on the conservative things he’s now saying, conservatives opposing him because they don’t believe he will.

If you really want to know why I–a Christian, conservative, Tea Party, anti-establishment, grassroots Republican–can’t support Donald Trump, allow me to explain. I will divide the many reasons I can’t support Donald Trump into four major areas: (1) his unreliability in areas where he is claimed to be conservative, (2) the areas where he is clearly and currently liberal, (3) his poor moral character, and (4) his incongruity with basic Christian tenets. The reasons I will list are not even remotely exhaustive or all-inclusive; they merely highlight some of the most important and most tangible reasons.

TRUMP IS UNRELIABLE ON POLICY

Abortion

CLAIM: Donald Trump claims to be “pro-life.”

REALITY: Donald Trump has told us he thinks appointing his pro-abortion sister to the Supreme Court would be great. Donald Trump has told us he believes we should undermine the pro-life plank of the GOP platform to allow children conceived in rape and incest to be killed; most pro-life people understand that the circumstances of a person’s conception does not decrease their right to life or their value as a human being. Donald Trump has also told us that Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, has “done very good work.”

THE HARD QUESTION: Can people change their minds and get right on an issue what they once got wrong? Absolutely. I used to be ardently pro-abortion, but some 23 years ago, for the first time took a look beyond the pop-culture pap propaganda at the science and morality of abortion, and have been ardently pro-life ever since. Donald Trump, meanwhile, recently has made comments that indicate he is, at best, very soft on protecting unborn children (see above). Given what we have seen from Donald Trump recently, does he really appear to have had a serious change of heart about abortion? I do not see his supposed claim to be “pro-life” as seriously credible at all. The pro-life community has been betrayed by a number of politicians who had more credible pro-life stances than Donald Trump.

Illegal Immigration

CLAIM: Donald Trump claims that, unlike Democrats and the Republican leadership, he will deal with the problem of illegal immigration, that he will finally fulfill all of the broken promises about a secure border and enforcing immigration law against illegal aliens currently residing in our county.

REALITY: Donald Trump has hired not only foreign workers in the past (something that is also a concern for many Americans who see their jobs going to foreigners), but has hired illegal aliens in the past. Trump has also donated thousands of dollars to the advocates of “sanctuary cities” where illegal aliens are protected by government officials from being deported as the law requires. There are also strong indications that Trump is already backing away from his recent high-profile claims of immigration and border security. Rep. Chris Collins, the first member of congress to endorse Trump, now says these Trump claims of a wall and deportations of illegal aliens are “virtual” and “rhetorical”. Trump has also said we can keep the “good” illegal aliens who have violated our borders and our laws. The “good” lawbreakers. Okay.

THE HARD QUESTION: Are we really supposed to believe that someone who has hired illegal aliens in the past, has given thousands of dollars to supporters of “sanctuary cities,” and is already backing away from recent claims of being tough on illegal immigration and border control, is going to be any more reliable on immigration and border control than the typical RINO?

Health Care

CLAIM: Donald Trump wants to get rid of ObamaCare, a government health care scheme opposed by most freedom-loving, Constitution-respecting Americans.

REALITY: Trump has supported single-payer government health care in the past, and has stated so in his book. He has praised the government health care systems of Canada and Scotland. This is otherwise known as “socialized medicine,” something prohibited by the U.S. Constitution and frowned upon by anyone who knows anything about the efficiency of government or the efficacy of socialism. Trump has said he likes the ObamaCare mandate (i.e .which forced people to buy a product whether they want or need it). Trump has also recently stated that health care is one of the top three roles of the federal government–when the U.S. Constitution provides no authority whatsoever for the federal government to meddle in health care.

THE HARD QUESTION: Can we rely on a man who has praised the government health care schemes of other countries, and likes forcing people to purchase products whether they want them or not, to get rid of the push for government health care schemes in America, and move our nation back toward a free market system? I’m thinking…no.

Global warming

CLAIM: Donald Trump currently claims anthropogenic global warming doesn’t exist.

REALITY: Donald Trump signed onto a letter calling on the federal government to restrict “greenhouse gas emissions.” The letter claimed that anthropogenic global warming is “scientifically irrefutable that there will be catastrophic and irreversible consequences for humanity and our planet.” The evidence has been overwhelming for more than a decade that any climate change that is occurring is natural and cycling, and has been occurring in greater extremes than today, going back thousands of years.

THE HARD QUESTION: With our liberty and prosperity on the line from regulatory attacks from the Left, using the hoax of anthropogenic global warming as their Marxist vehicle, can we really trust someone who not that long ago claimed AGW is “scientifically irrefutable” and called on the federal government to take action about it?

Supreme Court

CLAIM: We need Donald Trump to protect the Supreme Court from being taken over by anti-Constitution Leftists.

REALITY: As previously mentioned, Donald Trump has said he thinks his pro-abortion (something not supported by the U.S. Constitution) judge sister would be a good Supreme Court justice. One of the judicial candidates on a list Trump released several weeks ago (a list he has already backed away from) has called abortion a “right,” and another prosecuted Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore for acknowledging the Ten Commandments’ role in American history (rather like the images of Moses and the Ten Commandments that can bee seen around Washington D.C., including the U.S. Supreme Court building). What’s more, to illustrate Donald Trump’s estimation of a good official versus a bad one, Trump has said Hillary Clinton has done a “good job” as secretary of state, and even post-Benghazi described her as “above and beyond everybody else and everything else.”

THE HARD QUESTION: Can a man with such a shaky position on Supreme Court justice picks be relied on to do that much better than Hillary Clinton? Keep in mind that some presidents with much better grounding than Trump have made some completely awful SCOTUS picks. If Donald Trump thinks Hillary Clinton has done an “above and beyond” good job as Secretary of State, what caliber of Supreme Court candidate is Trump likely to consider “above and beyond” good? Is the wild hope that Trump might do better than Clinton on court picks really worth it for conservatives to completely whore out our integrity?

Foreign Enemies

CLAIM: Donald Trump is big-time pro-American and will protect America from her foreign enemies.

REALITY: Donald Trump has repeated many of the same Leftist propaganda pieces that undermined our efforts at a peaceful and stable Iraq that the Democrats have been squealing about for over a decade. Yes, these include Leftist claims that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq (there were–we found them during the invasion, and afterward, even though we gave Iraq some 8 months to move them out of the country to places like Syria), claimed that Saddam Hussein wasn’t supporting terrorism (he definitely was), and generally says he was against the invasion of Iraq (even though we realistically had no choice but to deal with that belligerent nation, for a multitude of reasons). Trump has also made it clear he expects the U.S. military to do whatever he tells them to, even if such orders are illegal, and has impugned those same soldiers as a bunch of dishonest thieves.

THE HARD QUESTION: When Donald Trump wants Republicans to believe he would be tough on foreign threats, he clearly talks tough. However, his record reveals that when the Left undermines America’s efforts to deal decisively with threats to us and our allies, Trump joins the anti-American Left in maligning our justification. He has also shown disdain and a profound lack of appreciation for the integrity of our armed forces. Can we really rely on such a duplicitous, opportunistic man to defend America against foreign threats?

Final Analysis

While there are many other areas of inconsistency we’ve seen from Donald Trump (e.g. the Second Amendment), these are some of the most important, broad-reaching and clear examples of duplicity on the part of Trump. Based on the preponderance of evidence, when it comes to policy, Donald Trump is a liar, or is unintentionally inconsistent, or both.

MANY OF TRUMP’S CURRENT POSITIONS ARE LIBERAL

     Iraq

As I mentioned above, Donald Trump sounds more like a Leftist Democrat than a Republican with his parroting of Leftist propaganda against the war.  The reasons we had no real choice but to deal with Iraq are many, and they go back to 1990/1991. Weapons of mass destruction were only one of the many reasons we had for invading, and they were found, though not in the quantities we feared. Still, the overriding reason we invaded in the first place was because Saddam was not abiding by the cease fire agreement he made in 1991 after we kicked his tail for invading a neighboring country and destabilizing the region, making it impossible for us to verify that he was abiding by his promise to end and not restart his WMD program. He refused to allow weapons inspectors access to confirm this, meaning he was violating the cease fire terms he agreed to at the end of the Persian Gulf War in 1991.  Further, he was funding terrorism in the Middle East, and had fired on U.S. and British planes patrolling the no-fly zone more than 200 times in the year leading up to the invasion.  I was in the Air Force during the Persian Gulf War, and remember all this (I picked up the classified message informing my unit that Iraq had invaded Kuwait). Trump wasn’t in the military, but he was an adult and should remember those events, as well as all the events that led up to our second invasion in 2003.  We don’t need a “Republican” who sounds like a Leftist Democrat when it comes to foreign policy, and undermines our efforts on the ground.

     Liberty and Tyranny

Donald Trump has made some disturbing statements about government force used against those who cherish liberty.  For example, referring to the time the Chinese government brutally crushed the freedom movement in that country (around the same time the Berlin Wall was coming down and freedom was breaking out in Eastern Europe), Trump admired the fact that, regarding the freedom movement, “they put it down with strength.”

He also seems to admire North Korean tyrant Kim Jong-un and the way he wiped out his competition.

Then there’s the former Soviet Union, where Trump indicated he thinks Gorbachev was a wimp.  Perhaps Lenin or Stalin would be more to Trump’s liking. They definitely had “a firm enough hand.”

Trump’s statements rather remind one of the adoring statements made by the Leftist Obama regime. For example, White House Communications Director Anita Dunn praising the Chinese communist thug Mao Tse Tung, or the Mao Christmas ornament the Obama regime hung in the White House. Or the statement from Obama Manufacturing Czar Ron Bloom where he agreed with Mao about power coming from the barrel of a gun.

When asked during a March debate about the military refusing to follow illegal orders from the commander in chief, Trump said, “Frankly, when I say they’ll do as I tell them, they’ll do as I tell them.” No, military personnel have a duty to refuse to obey illegal orders under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. I know. I was in the military for 10 years, and worked in military law enforcement. I am more than passingly familiar with the use of force and military law. While the Left tends to think the military is the thoughtless plaything of tyrants and that power comes from the end of a barrel, that is not the case in our constitutional republic.

Giving Donald Trump as much benefit of the doubt as is rationally possible, maybe he suffers from the delusion that a person who runs a country can do so like someone who owns and runs their own company–without being bound by certain rules, and without concern for what those under him think.  Maybe that’s why he admires Marxist tyrants; they can just do what they want.  You can’t do that with a constitutional republic like the United States. Even the president is bound by rules (the U.S. Constitution) and unlike the owner of a company, is accountable to those under him.

Now, you might try to make the case that Trump is just an incredibly crappy communicator who (repeatedly and egregiously) flubs what he really means to say. But if he’s really that bad of a communicator, we don’t need a guy like that representing the Republican Party, much less the United States of America.

     First Amendment

Frankly, we get enough assaults on the first Amendment from Barack Obama and the rest of the Left. We just don’t need any help in that department from a guy who calls himself a “Republican.” Yet Donald Trump seems to want to use the force of government to hammer the press and restrict what people say. Now, does everybody with at least half a brain recognize that the “mainstream” media is nothing but a liberal propaganda arm of the Democrat Party? Of course. But that’s their right as free people, a free market business, and as members of the press.  If conservatives don’t like it, we’re free to disregard their propaganda, and we’re free to start our own efforts to get information out–and we have, on TV, on radio, in print, and on the internet. But conservatives don’t use government to hammer their enemies; that’s what Leftist Democrats do.

     Homosexual Agenda

While Donald Trump claims he opposes counterfeit marriage these days, the other side of his mouth tells a conflicting story.

Trump has said that homosexual behavior should be considered a “civil right” alongside innate, morally neutral physical characteristics. This would, of course, prohibit Christians from expressing any meaningful objection to homosexual behavior, or making any meaningful objection to being forced to commit acts affirming counterfeit marriage and homosexual behavior.

Trump has attended counterfeit weddings, and has also said of the unconstitutional Supreme Court opinion forcing counterfeit marriage on all 50 states that it is “the law of the land,” indicating he has no inclination whatsoever to combat or overturn this lawlessness.

Trump has also said he supports allowing men to use women’s restrooms and locker rooms, affirming the radical transsexual agenda. Trump has criticized North Carolina’s efforts to protect people’s privacy and security in restrooms, and invited Bruce Jenner to use the women’s facilities in his building.

It’s no wonder Gregory Angelo, president of the Log Cabin Republicans, said, “He will be the most gay-friendly Republican nominee for president ever.”

     Taxation

Conservatives understand that every able-bodied adult American has an obligation to do their part in supporting the necessary and constitutional functions of government in our country. Every able-bodied American should have a stake, some skin in the game, to support the necessary and constitutional functions of the federal government, and to ensure that only necessary and constitutional functions are carried out.  If you aren’t paying income taxes (as approximately 50% of Americans aren’t), you don’t have any skin in the game for either doing your part OR in making sure that ONLY necessary and constitutional functions are being carried out by our government. If you’re getting a break on your responsibilities in this area, with other Americans carring a greater proportion of the load than you are, then you likewise don’t have the proper amount of skin in the game. Conservatives understand this, which is why we understand that (Marxist) progressive taxation is fundamentally unfair and un-American.

But Donald Trump isn’t a conservative, which probably has something to do with why he is against a flat tax where every American pays the same percentage of their income. Instead, Trump, like Leftists, believes success should be punished with a greater tax burden. The wealthy are already paying a radically disproportionate amount of the tax burden in our country. Not that long ago, the statistics show that the top 50% of earners in America are paying over 96% of our tax burden. Indeed, the vilified “top 1%” that Leftist so loathe, they pay nearly 40% of the overall tax burden. In what rational world does making 1% of the population carry 40% of a burden equate to fairness?

We’re used to this kind of unfairness from the Left. We don’t need a guy who calls himself a “Republican” advocating it, too.  It fundamentally distorts the Republican brand and what it is supposed to stand for.

Indeed, all the liberal positions of Donald Trump, both past and current, tarnish the Republican brand.  People look at the top guy in a party as being representative of what that party stands for. Do you really want Americans thinking the Republican Party is about Leftist foreign policy, liberal attitudes toward communist tyranny, contempt for freedom, and progressive taxation?  Really?

(And I’m not done outlining his liberal positions; I’ve just decided to list several of them in the “moral” section below.)

TRUMP IS POSSESSED OF POOR MORAL CHARACTER

      Personal Morality

Do I really need to point out the inappropriateness of Republicans championing as a candidate a man who is a serial adulterer and has made it clear that he thinks of women (good looking ones, at least) as little more than a talking piece of a**?  Was it really that long ago that Republicans were castigating Bill Clinton for being this kind of man?  Are we Republicans really just opportunistic hypocrites, after all?  Whether we support Donald Trump with unfettered enthusiasm will prove whether we are or not.

     Public Morality

Donald Trump’s business ventures include casinos and strip clubs.  Most conservatives understand that casinos are not exactly the most moral undertaking to be involved with. Their damage to the work ethic of many aside, and the harm they do to the financial well being of many families aside, and the gambling addiction problems they foster aside, public and private corruption frequently goes hand in hand with the casino industry.  As for strip clubs, women on display in partial and complete states of undress has to be a real virtue, huh?  Most conservatives understand that strip joints are not good for creating strong families or for public morality.

     Foul Mouthed

There are probably few among us who don’t use at least some profanity on occasion. I regret to say that I am one. I can at least say that, thanks to God’s ongoing influence on my life, I am no longer the profane potty-mouth I once was. Thankfully, I learned the importance of expressing myself with higher quality in my late 20s. Donald Trump is now 70, and based on a lot of comments he has made publicly on the campaign trail in the last year, he still has not even begun to learn this lesson. The judicious and well-timed use of a harsh word now and then can have practical benefit to call attention to something that is being ignored or under-appreciated.  However, gratuitous use of profanity tends to devalue both the message and the messenger. Trump doesn’t seem to understand this. Do we really want someone so crass representing the Republican Party to America? Does America really want someone so foul-mouthed representing us to the world community (that ostensibly we seek to influence for the better)?

     Promoting Violence

While I completely understand that much if not most of the violence that has occurred in recent months at Trump rallies has been caused by the typical Leftist suspects, Donald Trump has demonstrated a disturbing comfort with violence (even before the Leftist violence started happening). He has encouraged supporters at his rallies to commit violence against others, and has offered (whether jokingly or for real) to pay the legal fees of anyone who does hit a Trump-opponent at one of his rallies.  Now, I’m far from the kind of wuss who expects conservatives to take crap off liberals, but it is irresponsible to encourage people, especially in a crowd environment, to initiate violence against someone who has not first initiated violence.

      Racism

There have been a lot of allegations of racism against Donald Trump. This is a, if not the, favored demonization tactic of the Left, because in this shallow-thinking (and I’m using the term “thinking” very graciously) culture, calling someone “racist” is radioactive; it doesn’t have to be supported by facts, can even be contradicted by the facts, and tends to stick because the weak-minded won’t come near defending someone who has been branded by the herd as “racist.” I say this to illustrate that charges of “racism” have a high threshold of credibility with me; I’ve seen way, way, way too many conservatives and/or Republicans branded as “racists” who were clearly and demonstrably not. I have personally weighed most if not all of the major pop culture charges of racism against Trump, and found that most do not rise to the level of a credible charge.

However, there are some such charges against Trump which, while not rising to the level of conclusive proof, make the reasonable person stop and think. For example, when Trump complained about not being able to get a fair trial under Judge Gonzalo Curiel because Curiel was “a Mexican,” Trump was not all wet that Curiel’s objectivity IS highly questionable. Curiel belongs to a Hispanic group that has racist associations, and that makes his judgment extremely doubtful in light of Trump’s recent comments about dealing with illegal immigration. But rather than stating Curiel belonged to Hispanic group with racist ties, Trump said the judge’s objectivity was in question because the judge was “a Mexican”–even though the judge was born in the United States.

That was such an asinine way of approaching the issue that one has to wonder: (a) is Trump just so intellectually sloppy that he considers it acceptable to throw out the charge “He’s a Mexican” rather than make an articulate and accurate explanation of why the judge’s judgment is compromised, or (b) does Trump really have racist tendencies?

     Common Decency

The way Donald Trump goes out of his way to make ad hominem insults and degrade people is childish at best, and just plain despicable when you get right down to it. Is it appropriate to call someone what they are?  You’d better believe it. If someone supports socialism, they should be called a socialist. If someone is a liberal, they ought to be called a liberal. If someone is a RINO, they ought to be called a RINO.  These are all accurate descriptors based on verifiable behavior, and as such, they tell an important truth about their object. Donald Trump seems to call people names and make fun of them out of pure sport and spite. You can easily spot the difference between the kind of “name calling” the Left hates (it usually involves calling a spade a spade, and exposing their evil agenda), and the kind of name-calling immature and petty people engage in.

And what kind of “lamo” openly mocks and makes fun of a handicapped reporter? If Trump wanted to express disgust because the reporter was a typical anti-Republican, he could easily do that without mocking the guy’s disability. Come on. We teach our five-year-olds to behave better than this.  I don’t want some crass brat who needs decency lessons from a five-year-old representing my country.

I didn’t want to believe that Trump’s comment about Megyn Kelly bleeding from “where ever” was a reference to her period, but when you start to add up all of Donald Trump’s boorish behaviors, I really, really have to wonder.

     Lying

Then there are the opportunistic BS lies Trump told about Cruz and Carson in Iowa, the lie about Cruz being “owned” by Goldman Sachs and the financial industry (when Trump is, if anything, many times more “owned” than Cruz ever could be, and Cruz’s record demonstrates beyond any reasonable doubt a very different picture), and even the craziness of claiming Cruz’s father was somehow involved in the Kennedy assassination. It isn’t just big lies on policy that Trump is willing to spin; he has repeatedly proven there is no lie too crazy for him to hurl if he thinks it will help him.

     Funding Those Who Would Destroy America

Finally, there are the hundreds of thousands of dollars Donald Trump has donated over several decades to various Democrats. The Democrat Party has been the chief agent of evil in the United States since, at least, the late 1960s.  The Democrat Party has pushed every piece of cultural and anti-American rot to come down the pike since then and before: unconstitutional socialist programs, undermining and weakening us before our enemies (the Soviet Union, Vietnam, etc.), abortion on demand, no-fault divorce, the breakdown of the family, pornography, the homosexual agenda, the sanitization of our nation’s Christian heritage, attacks on religious liberty, attacks on property rights, expansion of government power, soft on crime, illegal immigration and general lawlessness, and more.  And Donald Trump has been funding the termites, the acid, the toxic sewage that has been eroding the foundations of American liberty and strength for decades.

TRUMP IS AN EXTREMELY BAD EXAMPLE OF CHRISTIAN VALUES

The aforementioned moral failings of Donald Trump are things that should concern all decent people, whether they are Christians or not. The same is true of his record of embracing liberal positions, both past and present.  Those are things that should be of great concern to decent people, both Christians and non-Christians.

But there are some things that are understandably of mostly or exclusively the concern of Christians, primarily because they speak to the personal spiritual condition of the man.  The tenets of Christianity should, to the genuine Christian, be the most important principles in life.  The true Christ-follower recognizes that God has spoken to EVERY area of life (including and especially that of government), and as the creator of the universe and everything in it, God expects and deserves to be lord of everything in every area of life.

So where is Donald Trump on Christian values?

Yes, none of us are perfect.  I am a wretched sinner; always have been and always will be, until I die. By God’s grace, I sin less now than I used to, but I still give in to the temptation to sin. Every human being does, even the best preacher.  But the difference between a born-again Christian and an unregenerate non-Christian is that the Christian wants to do what is right, recognizes that the sinful things he does are wrong, and acknowledges before God: “That sin I committed was an offense against You. I’m sorry. Please forgive me.”

Does Donald Trump exhibit Christian traits?

Beyond the liberal positions of Trump, according to him, he doesn’t need God’s forgiveness. Donald Trump doesn’t believe God when God says “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” You see, Donald Trump believes, “Why do I have to repent or ask for forgiveness, if I am not making mistakes?” While God tells us we have to repent, Donald Trump believes he doesn’t have anything to repent for. In taking this stance, Donald Trump has made God out to be a liar. That’s an AWFULLY dangerous place to be.

What’s more, from a practical standpoint, someone who believes they are so good that they don’t need God’s forgiveness is an incredibly dangerous person to put in charge of anything. The founders of our nation built all those checks and balances, as well as separation of powers, into our system of government precisely BECAUSE they understood that all human beings are fallen, corrupted in heart, and cannot be trusted with power. Meanwhile, Donald Trump believes he is so good, he doesn’t even need the forgiveness of his Creator. (Rather like those Godless Marxist despots who have slaughtered over 100 million people in their own countries around the world over the past century.)

This would be bad enough by itself, but then Trump has repeatedly revealed the truth that he doesn’t really know much about Christianity at all.

When asked if he’s getting into Heaven, he says he’s working to achieve that. Yet the Bible makes it clear that “working” to get into Heaven doesn’t cut it. You CAN’T work your way into heaven. God says that as fallen human beings, our best works of righteousness are like filthy rags in his sight; only by admitting we are unworthy sinners and repenting of our sin can we have our sins covered by the sacrificial blood of Jesus Christ. And since Trump believes he has nothing to be forgiven of, he cannot access God’s grace.

If all this weren’t bad enough, every time Donald Trump tries to get people to believe he knows something about the Bible (the document that prescribes the Christian faith), it falls flat on its face and reveals how little he knows. For example, though he claims to “love the Bible,” his favorite Bible verse is “an eye for an eye,” a stance Jesus made clear has been superseded by grace.

Then there was “Two Corinthians.”

You know, despite the fact that more than 70% of Americans claim to be Christians, most don’t have a clue about the Bible. It’s the simple, sad truth. But most people who don’t have a clue about the Bible don’t try to sell themselves as morally perfect adherents who know what they’re talking about. Such feeble attempts at deception make this satire from the Babylon Bee look all too real.

Some people have already claimed that Donald Trump is acceptable because, well, Ronald Reagan was divorced. True, Ronald Regan was divorced and remarried. Despite this, no one who knows anything about Ronald Reagan could claim he was anything but a strong proponent of virtue and family; the more one knows about Donald Trump, the opposite conclusion is reached. Decent people make mistakes, repent of them, and try to do better; according to Donald Trump, he hasn’t made any mistakes.

Some people also claim that Donald Trump is acceptable because, well, King David of the Old Testament committed adultery and murder. This is true. However, while you can read the Psalms recounting David’s gut-wrenching grief and repentance over his sin….Donald Trump tells us he doesn’t even need God’s forgiveness because he doesn’t really do anything to need it. In doing so, Donald Trump has made God out to be a liar (“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” – Romans 3:23; “All we like sheep have gone astray” – Isaiah 53:6; “All our righteous acts are like filthy rags” – Isaiah 64:6) 

Yes, it’s profoundly sad that we’ve come down to a choice between an immoral liberal with a “D” after her name, and an immoral liberal with an “R” after his name. Especially when Republicans as a whole passed over such an outstanding choice in every respect in the primary.

So what choice does a Christian have in such a case?  Well, there is the Constitution Party, which has an outstanding platform–a platform that this party’s nominee actually believes in (unlike the GOP nominee).  Am I under any illusions that the Constitution Party is likely to win?  No. But at least when I vote for Darrell Castle, I won’t feel like I’ve just been in bed with the sleaziest two-timing whore in town like I would if I voted for Donald Trump. As John Quincy Adams said, “Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.”

Keep in mind, too, the advice that other founders gave to Christian Americans:

“Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual–or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country. ” – Samuel Adams

“When a citizen gives his suffrage [vote] to a man of known immorality he abuses his trust; he sacrifices not only his own interest, but that of his neighbor, he betrays the interest of his country.” — Noah Webster

“Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like a fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.” — George Washington

“Nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a State than that all persons employed in places of power and trust must be men of unexceptionable characters.” — Samuel Adams

“Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is their duty – as well as privilege and interest – of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.” John Jay, First Supreme Court Chief Justice

CONCLUSION

When it comes down to it, barring a miracle at the GOP convention, America is screwed, no matter what. Thanks to asinine state Republican parties that allowed their states to hold open primaries (where Democrats and Left-leaning “independents” helped choose the Republican nominee), and thanks to some myopic conservatives who have allowed their anger at the establishment to mislead them into believing in a snake oil salesman, we’re down to a choice between (a) a lying, dishonest, liberal Democrat, and (b) a lying, dishonest, liberal Democrat in the Republican Party.

When you add it all up, as bad as Hillary Clinton is…Donald Trump just doesn’t come anywhere near a minimum standard I could support as “the lesser of two evils.”

Both are merchants of the same kind of evil that has been rotting our once-great nation for decades. At least with Hillary Clinton in the White House, Republicans and conservatives might be motivated to resist and fight her liberal positions. If Donald Trump is in the White House, his followers have ALREADY demonstrated they are willing to not only excuse his immorality and liberalism, they are perfectly disposed to rationalize it into being acceptable.

In order to support Donald Trump, I would have to overlook and excuse a long list of behaviors and policy positions for which I have castigated Democrats and RINOs for many years.  As Doc Holliday said, “My hypocrisy only goes so far.”

No amount of ignorance or wishful thinking will transform Donald Trump into a genuine, reliable conservative. Trump’s manner may be entertaining for some, but reality TV show coarseness and crassness do not equate to conservatism.

Would Donald Trump be a better president than Hillary Clinton? No. “Better” implies a positive measure that is higher than something else. There is no reliable evidence that Donald Trump would bring any real positive leadership to this desperately floundering nation.

Would Donald Trump be less bad than Hillary Clinton. Probably. Maybe. Hopefully. But consider these facts: (1) Trump spent most of the past 3+ decades as a Democrat, championing liberal policies and funding liberal politicians, (2) Trump continues to espouse a number of liberal positions, and (3) most of the conservative claims Trump has recently made are either belied by his YEARS of liberal advocacy, or are already crumbling in credibility, or both.

In other words, the proposition that Donald Trump would be less bad than Hillary Clinton is a wild gamble at best. In the meantime, Donald Trump would be the face, the visual representative of the Republican Party. When average Americans call to mind what it means to be “Republican,” Donald Trump is going to be the icon that comes to mind for most of them. He would be the top person in the country who calls himself a Republican, so when people see Donald Trump, they will think, “This is what it means to be a Republican.” Do Republicans (maybe the corrupt RINO leadership does, but do rank and file Republicans who still believe in the documented values of the Republican Party) really want people to think “duplicity” and “liar” “misogynist” and “empty words” and “broken promises” and “Democrat lite” and “did nothing about illegal immigration” and “did nothing about the homosexual agenda” and “did nothing about protecting innocent human life” and “did nothing about restoring respect for the U.S. Constitution on the Supreme Court” and “supported the expansion of government meddling in health care” and similar thoughts when they think of what the Republican Party stands for?

What’s more, if conservatives continue to throw in behind Donald Trump and pretend that he represents conservative values, the same discredit will be cast on the public perception of what it means to be “conservative.” Do conservatives really want the average American to visualize Donald Trump and the philosophy of conservatism and think “liar” and “duplicity” and “misogynist” and and “empty words” and “broken promises” and “Democrat lite” and “did nothing about illegal immigration” and “did nothing about the homosexual agenda” and “did nothing about protecting innocent human life” and “did nothing about restoring respect for the U.S. Constitution on the Supreme Court” and “supported the expansion of government meddling in health care” and similar thoughts?

As someone who cares about the success of the Republican values the Republican Party supposedly stands for, and as someone who believes conservative principles are hands-down the best ones to restore this nation to its historic path of greatness, I do not. I care too much about these things to in any way support someone who discredits and makes a mockery of these values and principles.

I also refuse to be held hostage to the lowest common denominator. To willingly allow myself to be wed to the lowest common denominator is to send the message that I believe the lowest common denominator is acceptable. It is not.

Nor can I spend the next four months–much less the next four years–defending someone who is a caricature of what I believe, and attempting to excuse the reprehensible and asinine things he would continue to say and do.

I couldn’t support a liberal RINO like John Boehner or Mitch McConnell for president. Why not? Because despite their nice-sounding words when they need something, their BEHAVIOR reveals liberal actions that betray conservative principles. I can’t support a RINO like Donald Trump for precisely the same reason.

If the last remaining Americans who still understand that liberalism is bad and immorality is wrong sink to a point where they are excusing evil because the chief peddler of it has an “R” after his name and talks a good game (you know, like every other RINO), then there is no hope whatsoever remaining for America.

No, I can’t support Donald Trump, and now you know why.

*** Bob Ellis *** Is a conservative author  and Life and Liberty News contributor

      Read more from Bob Ellis and other conservative authors at American Clarion