_
Trump = National Socialism, Clinton = Revolutionary Communism,
Sanders = Fabian Socialism. The choices are those similar to choices
made in Europe in the last century. Ordering from the lesser to the
greater evil: Sanders, Trump, Clinton. Voting implies consent to the
type of governance advocated.
[Senator
(R-NB) Ben Sasse To [My Friends Supporting Donald Trump]
facebook.com
http://j.mp/1SasseNoTrump
aka
https://www.facebook.com/sassefornebraska/posts/561073597391141
AN
OPEN LETTER TO TRUMP SUPPORTERS
To
my friends supporting Donald Trump:
The
Trump coalition is broad and complicated, but I believe many Trump
fans are well-meaning. I have spoken at length with many of you, both
inside and outside Nebraska. You are rightly worried about our
national direction. You ache about a crony-capitalist leadership
class that is not urgent about tackling our crises. You are right to
be angry.
I’m
as frustrated and saddened as you are about what’s happening to our
country. But I cannot support Donald Trump.
Please
understand: I’m not an establishment Republican, and I will never
support Hillary Clinton. I’m a movement conservative who was
elected over the objections of the GOP establishment. My current
answer for who I would support in a hypothetical matchup between Mr.
Trump and Mrs. Clinton is: Neither of them. I sincerely hope we
select one of the other GOP candidates, but if Donald Trump ends up
as the GOP nominee, conservatives will need to find a third option.
Mr.
Trump’s relentless focus is on dividing Americans, and on tearing
down rather than building back up this glorious nation. Much like
President Obama, he displays essentially no understanding of the fact
that, in the American system, we have a constitutional system of
checks and balances, with three separate but co-equal branches of
government. And the task of public officials is to be public
“servants.” The law is king, and the people are boss. But have
you noticed how Mr. Trump uses the word “Reign” – like he
thinks he’s running for King? It’s creepy, actually. Nebraskans
are not looking for a king. We yearn instead for the recovery of a
Constitutional Republic.
At
this point in Nebraska discussions, many of you have immediately
gotten practical: “Okay, fine, you think there are better choices
than Trump. But you would certainly still vote for Trump over Clinton
in a general election, right?”
Before
I explain why my answer is “Neither of them,” let me correct some
nonsense you might have heard on the internet of late.
WHY
I RAN FOR SENATE
***No,
I’m not a career politician. (I had never run for anything until
being elected to the U.S. Senate fifteen months ago, and I ran
precisely because I actually want to make America great
again.)
***No, I’m not a lawyer who has never created a job. (I was a business guy before becoming a college president in my hometown.)
***No, I’m not part of the Establishment. (Sheesh, I had attack ads by the lobbyist class run against me while I was on a bus tour doing 16 months of townhalls across Nebraska. Why? Precisely because I was not the preferred candidate of Washington.)
***No, I’m not concerned about political job security. (The very first thing I did upon being sworn in in January 2015 was to introduce a constitutional amendment for term limits – this didn’t exactly endear me to my new colleagues.)
***No, I’m not for open borders. (The very first official trip I took in the Senate was to observe and condemn how laughably porous the Texas/Mexican border is. See 70 tweets from @bensasse in February 2015.)
***No, I’m not a “squishy,” feel-good, grow-government moderate. (I have the 4th most-conservative voting record in the Senate: https://www.conservativereview.com/members/benjamin-sasse/ http://www.heritageactionscorecard.com/membe…/member/S001197 )
***No, I’m not a lawyer who has never created a job. (I was a business guy before becoming a college president in my hometown.)
***No, I’m not part of the Establishment. (Sheesh, I had attack ads by the lobbyist class run against me while I was on a bus tour doing 16 months of townhalls across Nebraska. Why? Precisely because I was not the preferred candidate of Washington.)
***No, I’m not concerned about political job security. (The very first thing I did upon being sworn in in January 2015 was to introduce a constitutional amendment for term limits – this didn’t exactly endear me to my new colleagues.)
***No, I’m not for open borders. (The very first official trip I took in the Senate was to observe and condemn how laughably porous the Texas/Mexican border is. See 70 tweets from @bensasse in February 2015.)
***No, I’m not a “squishy,” feel-good, grow-government moderate. (I have the 4th most-conservative voting record in the Senate: https://www.conservativereview.com/members/benjamin-sasse/ http://www.heritageactionscorecard.com/membe…/member/S001197 )
In
my very first speech to the Senate, I told my colleagues that “The
people despise us all.” This institution needs to get to work, not
on the lobbyists’ priorities, but on the people’s:
https://youtu.be/zQMoB4aUn04?t=3m8s
Now,
to the question at hand: Will I pledge to vote for just any
“Republican” nominee over Hillary Clinton?
Let’s
begin by rejecting naïve purists: Politics has no angels. Politics
is not about creating heaven on earth. Politics is simply about
preserving a framework for ordered liberty – so that free people
can find meaning and happiness not in politics but in their families,
their neighborhoods, their work.
POLITICAL
PARTIES
Now,
let’s talk about political parties: parties are just tools to enact
the things that we believe. Political parties are not families; they
are not religions; they are not nations – they are often not even
on the level of sports loyalties. They are just tools. I was not born
Republican. I chose this party, for as long as it is useful.
If
our Party is no longer working for the things we believe in – like
defending the sanctity of life, stopping ObamaCare, protecting the
Second Amendment, etc. – then people of good conscience should stop
supporting that party until it is reformed.
VOTING
Now,
let’s talk about voting: Voting is usually just about choosing the
lesser evil of the most viable candidates.
“Usually…”
But not always. Certain moments are larger. They cause us to
explicitly ask: Who are we as a people? What does the way we vote
here say about our shared identity? What is actually the president’s
job?
THE
PRESIDENT’S CORE CALLING
The
president’s job is not about just mindlessly shouting the word
“strong” – as if Vladimir Putin, who has been strongly bombing
civilian populations in Syria the last month, is somehow a model for
the American presidency. No, the president’s core calling is to
“Preserve, Protect, and Defend the Constitution.”
Before
we ever get into any technical policy fights – about pipelines, or
marginal tax rates, or term limits, or Medicare reimbursement codes –
America is first and fundamentally about a shared Constitutional
creed. America is exceptional, because she is at her heart a big,
bold truth claim about human dignity, natural rights, and
self-control – and therefore necessarily about limited rather than
limitless government.
THE
MEANING OF AMERICA
America
is the most exceptional nation in the history of the world because
our Constitution is the best political document that’s ever been
written. It said something different than almost any other government
had said before: Most governments before said that might makes right,
that government decides what our rights are and that the people are
just dependent subjects. Our Founders said that God gives us rights
by nature, and that government is not the author or source of our
rights. Government is just our shared project to secure those rights.
Government
exists only because the world is fallen, and some people want to take
your property, your liberty, and your life. Government is tasked with
securing a framework for ordered liberty where “we the people”
can in our communities voluntarily build something great together for
our kids and grandkids. That’s America. Freedom of religion,
freedom of the press, freedom of association, freedom of speech –
the First Amendment is the heartbeat of the American Constitution, of
the American idea itself.
WHAT
IS MOST IMPORTANT TO MR. TRUMP?
So
let me ask you: Do you believe the beating heart of Mr. Trump’s
candidacy has been a defense of the Constitution? Do you believe it’s
been an impassioned defense of the First Amendment – or an attack
on it?
Which
of the following quotes give you great comfort that he’s in love
with the First Amendment, that he is committed to defending the
Constitution, that he believes in executive restraint, that he
understands servant leadership?
Statements
from Trump:
***“We’re going to open up libel laws and we’re going to have people sue you like you’ve never got sued before.”
***“When the students poured into Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government almost blew it. They were vicious, they were horrible, but they put it down with strength. That shows you the power of strength. Our country is right now perceived as weak…”
***Putin, who has killed journalists and is pillaging Ukraine, is a great leader.
***The editor of National Review “should not be allowed on TV and the FCC should fine him.”
***On whether he will use executive orders to end-run Congress, as President Obama has illegally done: "I won't refuse it. I'm going to do a lot of things." “I mean, he’s led the way, to be honest with you.”
***“Sixty-eight percent would not leave under any circumstance. I think that means murder. It think it means anything.”
***On the internet: “I would certainly be open to closing areas” of it.
***His lawyers to people selling anti-Trump t-shirts: “Mr. Trump considers this to be a very serious matter and has authorized our legal team to take all necessary and appropriate actions to bring an immediate halt...”
***Similar threatening legal letters to competing campaigns running ads about his record.
***“We’re going to open up libel laws and we’re going to have people sue you like you’ve never got sued before.”
***“When the students poured into Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government almost blew it. They were vicious, they were horrible, but they put it down with strength. That shows you the power of strength. Our country is right now perceived as weak…”
***Putin, who has killed journalists and is pillaging Ukraine, is a great leader.
***The editor of National Review “should not be allowed on TV and the FCC should fine him.”
***On whether he will use executive orders to end-run Congress, as President Obama has illegally done: "I won't refuse it. I'm going to do a lot of things." “I mean, he’s led the way, to be honest with you.”
***“Sixty-eight percent would not leave under any circumstance. I think that means murder. It think it means anything.”
***On the internet: “I would certainly be open to closing areas” of it.
***His lawyers to people selling anti-Trump t-shirts: “Mr. Trump considers this to be a very serious matter and has authorized our legal team to take all necessary and appropriate actions to bring an immediate halt...”
***Similar threatening legal letters to competing campaigns running ads about his record.
And
on it goes…
IF
MR. TRUMP BECOMES THE NOMINEE...
Given
what we know about him today, here’s where I’m at: If Donald
Trump becomes the Republican nominee, my expectation is that I will
look for some third candidate – a conservative option, a
Constitutionalist.
I
do not claim to speak for a movement, but I suspect I am far from
alone. After listening to Nebraskans in recent weeks, and talking to
a great many people who take oaths seriously, I think many are in the
same place. I believe a sizable share of Christians – who regard
threats against religious liberty as arguably the greatest crisis of
our time – are unwilling to support any candidate who does not make
a full-throated defense of the First Amendment a first commitment of
their candidacy.
Conservatives
understand that all men are created equal and made in the image of
God, but also that government must be limited so that fallen men do
not wield too much power. A presidential candidate who boasts about
what he'll do during his "reign" and refuses to condemn the
KKK cannot lead a conservative movement in America.
TO
MAKE AMERICA GREAT
Thank
you for listening. While I recognize that we disagree about how to
make America great again, we agree that this should be our goal. We
need more people engaged in the civic life of our country—not
fewer. I genuinely appreciate how much many of you care about this
country, and that you are demanding something different from
Washington. I’m going to keep doing the same thing.
But
I can’t support Donald Trump. / Humbly,/ Ben Sasse / Nebraska
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