By Scott Tibbs, January 20, 2017
In the fall, I was a #NeverTrump voter, and I make absolutely no apologies for that. However, Trump will be sworn in as President later today. Let's be honest with ourselves: Among Republicans, the #NeverTrump movement is over. He won and he is the President of these United States. So where do #NeverTrump voters like myself go from here, and how do we deal with the new President? What should our reaction be to his policies, his administration and how he speaks publicly?
The answer is simple: We should treat him exactly as we would have treated Hillary Clinton has she been elected. We treat him exactly how we treated (or hopefully treated) Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton: We will support him when he is right and oppose him when he is wrong. We will praise him or criticize him based on principle. Thus far, I am cautiously optimistic on the direction of the Trump Administration and the transition. The biggest source of my optimism, obviously, is Vice President Mike Pence, who is a genuinely good man and principled conservative and dedicated Christian.
As someone who did not vote for Trump, I am in a stronger position to support him when he is right. I vehemently opposed him in the 2016 election and harshly criticized him on numerous occasions, so you cannot accuse me of simple partisanship when I defend or support him. You cannot say "both sides do it" when I criticize Democrats for unfair attacks on Trump. I do not have a side, because I did not vote for Trump. I will, however, support him when he deserves it.
Hillary Clinton is irrelevant!
This is very important, and this needs to be very clear to Trump partisans: Hillary Clinton is irrelevant. She will never be President. She will never run for office again. There is absolutely no danger of her doing any harm to this nation whatsoever, at least in any capacity as an elected official. You cannot use her to fear-monger any longer, because her political career is dead. You might as well be fear-mongering about Ted Kennedy. Trump's policies, his performance, his ethics and his public statements stand or fall on their own merits. "Hillary is worse" is a totally invalid argument and became totally invalid the nanosecond she conceded.
I cannot say whether I will vote for Trump or not in 2020. Obviously, that depends on how he does as President. If he does well, I will happily toss aside my opposition to him and vote for him. Trump is who we have, and Trump is the President. So let's move forward to, as best we can, Make America Great Again.
