This social media post will prove indicative of many today:
Election day is finally here, It’s also time for the #NeverTrump people to get over themselves and vote for the candidate most likely to block that crooked lying Clinton. Voting for McMullin or Johnson is just a self-indulgent hissy-fit same as many of us called out the those [sic] who wrote in Ron Paul in 2012.
Suck it up and vote for Trump to stop a truly evil person from becoming president.
As a “never Trump” voter who has no intention of changing his mind, I am unmoved by such proclamations. If the conservative movement has any hope of regrouping after today, we need to understand why this line of attack proves ineffective.
The unspoken premise is that voting independent accomplishes nothing. Of course, that premise proves ludicrous. If my independent vote truly accomplished nothing, no one would be riled by it. People wouldn’t be posting fallacious arguments from intimidation in an attempt to berate “never Trump” voters. Authors wouldn’t have crafted numerous pieces urging reconsideration.
My little “hissy-fit” is doing precisely what it is meant to. It confronts Republicans with the reality that votes cannot be taken for granted. There are essentially two ways to react to that. Blame voters like me for having the audacity to do what we will with our own vote. Or consider how those votes might have been earned.
The time to worry about stopping Hillary Clinton was back when we had the opportunity to nominate a candidate who in some way approximated a conservative. The party chose not to do that. So now we don’t get to have nice things.
Maybe do better next time.
That’s the point. That’s what my “hissy-fit” accomplishes. It reveals that you cannot have my vote on demand. My vote is mine, and must be earned. So maybe take that into consideration next time and nominate someone worth supporting.
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