Here is why I am staying with the GOP.

Submitted by Stuart Fagin (United States), Jul 21, 2016 at 14:32

I agree with Pipes' characterization of Trump, and yet I choose to vote for Trump and stay with the GOP. What drives my decision is that concerns about Trump are outweighed by the single concern that a Clinton presidency may bring about the loss of American democracy. Specifically, four years of a Clinton presidency will magnify the already great weight of Progressive-Democratic Party corruption so as to take the country beyond a tipping point from which democratic governance cannot be retrieved. This will occur through these mechanisms.

(1) Expanding Hispanic and Muslim immigration to about 50 million over the four years of her term. The number may seem outlandish, but what would stop her? These population groups will vote virtually 100% Democratic and shift political center of gravity in the country far enough to the left so that a conservative President, Senate House can never be elected. The enfranchisement of these populations cannot be undone.
(2) The politicization of the Federal bureaucracy will intensify. The only-hire-Progressives policy of the Obama administration with respect to the Justice Department will be expanded to the FBI, IRS and other key bureaucracies. Perhaps the Post Office will be spared. The decline of the DOJ to prosecute Clinton, as well as the secret meeting of the Attorney General and the former president, demonstrates that any Democratic malfeasance can be covered up. Because Federal employees cannot be fired, this politicization of the bureaucracy will be permanent.

(3) Creation of a Supreme Court majority will ensure there are no Constitutional constraints on Clinton's ambitions. Supreme Court appointments cannot be reversed.

(4) The totalitarian drift of the Democratic Party, as demonstrated by the unanimous vote by Democratic Senators to amend the First Amendment in the wake of the Citizens Untied decision, will intensify. Amendments to the Constitution are not easily reversed.

Pipes says Trump has "neo-fascistic tendencies". Yes, but Clinton, and the Democratic Party have totalitarian compulsions and they would be far nearer to their goal with Clinton elected than a President Trump would be. Pipes says "although a Hillary Clinton presidency threatens bad Supreme Court justices, it leaves the conservative movement intact." True, and in normal times, this argument prevails. The problem is that a Clinton presidency does not leave American democracy intact.

It is important to recognize that the Trump ascendancy within the GOP does not signify a change of sentiment away from support of conservative governance. The core tenets of conservatism that Pipes cites, "limited government, a moral order, and a foreign policy reflecting American interests and values", still holds sway among the GOP electorate. Trumpism, a personality cult, will disappear when Trump does, perhaps after his first term. His nomination was facilitated by the catastrophic winner-take-all format of the primaries. The GOP remains the only institution that stands athwart the undoing of American democracy by the Democratic Party.

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