Inadvertent Conservatives for Hillary Clinton

OPINION:

I have coined another neologism to go along with those I have coined over the years. For instance, Kultursmog for a political culture utterly polluted by the left’s politics, Black Cat News Story for a news story that the mainstream media hope will sink a conservative candidate, Boy Clinton for you know who, Bruno for his wife whom a former director of the FBI likened to a member of organized crime.

My coinage, at least for this election year, refers to those fussy conservatives who refuse to vote for Donald Trump. I call them Inadvertent Conservatives for Hillary. The Inadvertent Conservatives for Hillary refuse to vote for Donald after prolonged and very public scrupling over him, scrupling that verges upon exhibitionism. Thus, they enter this election with half an argument. They fume very indignantly that Donald is rude and vulgar and flies around the country in his own Boeing 757. But this is an election year. Donald captured the Republican nomination, and so these indignados have to complete their argument. What do they do? After advancing half an argument their voices trail off. They speak of the Federalist Papers, of little children listening unchaperoned to Donald on their television sets. Possibly they speak of Adolf Hitler. Yes, that Adolf Hitler.

They do not admit that their refusal to vote for Mr. Trump brings Hillary Clinton one vote closer to the White House. They do not say that their political calculation has made Bruno one vote more likely to reside at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, though she probably cannot pass a background check for her security clearance. Thanks to the Inadvertent Conservatives for Hillary, The Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation is ever closer to its next few billions in donations, and the Founding Fathers’ edifice is ever closer to becoming a banana republic.

What will the Inadvertent Conservatives for Hillary do if ever she enters the White House again? What will George Will say when President H. Clinton nominates Elizabeth Warren as the Supreme Court’s first Native American nominee? Or when she nominates Al Sharpton as the court’s first vegan African American, or when she nominates a tourist from the Brazilian rainforest as the court’s first illegal alien? My guess is George will say, “It could have been worse.” He might muse that had Donald Trump become president he might nominate David Duke to the Supreme Court or that President Trump might employ dirty words in the State of the Union Address. I do not think you can ever catch an Inadvertent Conservative for Hillary at a loss for words, but that does not mean that he or she will adequately answer the objection that a vote against Mr. Trump or a refusal to vote for Mr. Trump is a vote for Hillary.

Now, of course, the Inadvertent Conservatives for Hillary are not only against Mr. Trump. They are against his running mate too, Mike Pence. Once again their leader, George Will, is ahead of the pack, finding Mr. Pence insufficiently steadfast to conservative principle. Just this Sunday, George found Mr. Pence “pliable” and he added something about Mr. Trump’s being an “aspiring torturer” and a “boastful adulterer.” Well, George, I suspect that is more candid than being a “surreptitious adulterer,” or how about a closet adulterer?

The fact is Mr. Pence is a solid conservative. I have known him for decades both in Indiana and Washington. He began as an evangelist for free markets at an Indiana think tank, one of the many state think tanks that are now sprinkled across America spreading conservative ideas. He later became a member of Congress and the chairman of the House Republican Conference from 209 to 2011, dark days for conservatives, but they survived the Obama Terror. In 2010 he was spoken of as a conservative presidential contender, so he has been considered for the presidency before. In 2012 he was elected governor of Indiana and continued his predecessor Mitch Daniel’s work of transforming the Hoosier State into a model of conservative governance. His qualifications to succeed President Trump are all in order. As for his piety, he is a devout evangelical.

One of the things about the Inadvertent Conservatives for Hillary is that very few of them have ever tried their hand at governing. Thus their sneers at compromise. I do not fear Mr. Pence’s selling out conservatism. I expect him to advance it, and never to get into a position where he has to be inadvertently for anything endangering the Republic.

• R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. is editor in chief of The American Spectator. He is author of “The Death of Liberalism,” published by Thomas Nelson Inc.