Inadvertent Conservatives for Hillary

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 and "Bruno" for his wife, Hillary Clinton, who 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 Trump 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 Trump is rude and vulgar and flies around the country in his own Boeing 757. But this is an election year. Trump 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 to Trump on their television sets unchaperoned. Possibly they speak of Adolf Hitler. Yes, that Adolf Hitler.

They do not admit that their refusal to vote for 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 again, though Hillary Clinton 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 Clinton enters the White House? What will George Will say when President Clinton nominates Sen. Elizabeth Warren as the Supreme Court's first Native American nominee? Or when she nominates Rev. 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 he will say, "It could have been worse." He might muse that had Trump become president he might've nominated former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke to the Supreme Court or employed dirty words in the State of the Union Address. I do not think you can ever catch Inadvertent Conservatives for Hillary at a loss for words, but that does not mean they will adequately answer the objection that a vote against Trump or a refusal to vote for Trump is a vote for Clinton.

Now, of course, the Inadvertent Conservatives for Hillary are not only against Trump. They are against his running mate, Mike Pence, too. Once again their leader, George Will, is ahead of the pack, finding Pence insufficiently steadfast to conservative principle. Just this Sunday, George found Pence "pliable" and added something about Trump 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 that Pence is a solid conservative. I have known him for decades, both in Indiana and Washington, D.C. 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 chairman of the House Republican Conference from 2009 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 Daniels' 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 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.

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R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. is founder and editor in chief of The American Spectator, a political and cultural monthly, which has been published since 1967. He's also the author of several books.