Vote Principle, Not Party

As those who object to the deification of the founding fathers are fond of pointing out: they were a collection of mortal men, not Gods. It is of course a valid observation, but an observation that undervalues the unique group of people circumstance brought together, whose influence is felt centuries later.

The Constitution ultimately borrowed from a variety of disparate sources such as the Twelve Tables, the Magna Charta, Locke’s Natural Law, Montesquieu’s separation of powers, and Rousseau’s Social Contract, but it was the rare insight and prescience of the founders that breathed life into what has become one of the most enduring legal documents in modern history.

The Founding Fathers may not be infallible, but they have experience and insight to share, communicated from a time of unique change that forged many of our concepts of governance and citizenship.

It is with that appreciation for the Founders that I cite the man they chose first to secure their freedom, then to defend it:

“However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.” 
- George Washington

During Washington’s time, freedom was a fragile thing, won at a dear price of blood and treasure. Though he was sympathetic to many of the ideals at the core of Jefferson’s Federalist Party, he never joined. Washington’s fears about the corrupting influence of political parties were more important to him than political expediency.

Washington warned against handing America back to the same kind of unprincipled men whose opportunism helped inspire the revolution.

Why Parties?

The theory of a political parties is not an unsound one, it allows people with similar aims to align with one another to enact political change. In that ideal scenario, we should align with a party because it best suits our views.

Over time in America, political parties have become the potent engines that Washington feared. Now rather than choosing a party because it best suits our views, we often allow parties to dictate our views — a factor of embracing party as not a tool, but as part of our identities.

We are not voting Democrat or voting Republican, we are Democrats or we are Republicans.

This party model has given birth to the straight ballot vote, who will fill out their ballot solely on the basis of the letter next to a given candidate’s name.

How can we expect to hold parties accountable and bend them to our will if we back them no matter what choices they make? The public refusing to get in line and voting principle over party is the only way to introduce consequences that have the power to steer the course of a party.

It’s the rare American who has the power to write a check that can change the course of an election: George Soros, the Koch brothers, the Fahrs. The most influence your average American has is their vote.

Surrendering that vote to a party under any and all circumstances renders you without voice. An individual vote may have little chance to impact a party, but it’s the only chance most of us have.

Prior to this election there were a handful of candidates on the GOP side I had a fairly extensive list of candidates I would be willing to vote for, ranging from candidates I had great enthusiasm with to candidates I could accept.

The GOP has failed to nominate a candidate I am comfortable voting for. That failure is on them and on everyone who supported him.

If I choose to stay home or vote for another candidate, this does not constitute the betrayal it is often painted as, not is it a vote for the opposition. It is a single vote placed for a candidate, no more, no less.

Calls for party unity are nothing more than an attempt to crush dissent and force GOP voters to get in line, and has Hillary approaches her inevitable nomination the left will employ similar tactics.

If Clinton or yes even Trump best reflect your values, then that’s where you should send your vote, regardless of party. Being registered as a Republican does not mean the Republicans are owed my vote, it means I felt they could advance some of the ideals that were important to me. Now that they’re nominating a man who is an anathema to those ideals I will not get in line, and I will not be told how to vote.

The worst kind of political opportunists, those that Washington warned us about, are now crawling out from under their rocks to tell us what to do. Opportunists like Mike Huckabee

Donald Trump broke the code, owned the media, and inspired the masses. I will be all in to help him defeat Hillary Clinton and I call upon all fellow Republicans to unite in defeating Hillary and abandoning and repudiating the hapless “Never Trump” nonsense. The dirty little secret is that the Never Trump movement was more about providing high dollar work for the political consultants than stopping the disaster of an Obama third term which is the result of electing Hillary Clinton.

Huckabee’s “dirty little secret” is a brazen lie. Many people warned the GOP that there was only one candidate they would not accept, and opportunists like Huckabee — whose daughter is a senior adviser to Trump — have enabled and legitimized a candidate that simply does not represent our values.

Voters should think carefully about how to cast their votes, and should be influenced solely on what they believe will create the best outcome for the country. A candidate may carry the GOP’s seal of approval, but that doesn’t mean any individual Republican must accept them.

That runs counter to the principles not only of Republicans, but of the republic itself.

The GOP may be throwing a unity party, but I’m not interested in an invitation. I will find a candidate that best represents who I am and who I want this country to be, and failing that I will vote for the candidate I feel will be least damaging to our nation.

If the GOP’s nominee does not win, I refuse to accept blame — that blame falls solely on the shoulders of those who enabled and helped elevate him, not on those he does not represent.