Wrong Is Never Right

When I was a kid, and I wanted to have permission to do something, I would say that everybody else is doing it. My mother, God bless her, would say, “If everyone else was jumping off a cliff, would you do that too?” I think everyone growing up has heard that trope. The point is, wrong is wrong even if everybody else is doing it. The one person I would not like to trade places with these days is Reince Priebus, the Chairman of the Republican Party. Since the fall of 2015 Mr. Priebus has had to sit by and watch his party torn asunder in the name of winning. He has watched the soul of his party ripped to shreds. When Donald Trump finally captured the Republican nomination after a grueling seven month debate schedule and an even more divisive primary season, Priebus did not immediately endorse or support the Trump campaign. At the beginning of the process, Priebus was concerned that if the GOP did not play fairly with Trump, he would take his supporters and make a third party bid but once it appeared that Trump was going to indeed capture the nomination, Priebus and the GOP were stuck with Trump.

Many of the Republican establishment figures balked at this notion and quite a large number of Republicans are still withholding their support for their nominee. The Trump campaign says it has over 90% of Republicans supporting them now but I do not see how that is possible. If that were true, Reince Priebus would not have appeared on the Sunday talk shows threatening establishment candidates with sanctions if they did not get behind the Trump ticket. Much of the support he does enjoy is either grudging at best or is support for the party and not the man. Many Republicans seem fine to abandon their principals and their soul for the sake of winning. To my mind that is opportunistic in the worst way and a complete abdication of the principals the Republican party holds so dear. Today, there are rumors that even former President George HW Bush (41) is voting for Hillary Clinton. Rumors which he has neither confirmed or denied.

Mr. Priebus would do well to remember that more Republicans voted against Donald Trump in the primaries than voted for him. And just because a certain faction of the neo-Republican party thinks it is OK to be racist and bigoted and hate foreigners and want to cut America off from it’s allies and neighbors doesn’t make it right. It will never be right, but go ahead, jump off the cliff.

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