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Hillary Clinton Not Donald Trump Fulfills the Requirements of The Buckley Rule"

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Bill Kristol the editor-in-chief of The Weekly Standard introduced as his thesis the dire observation that Hillary Clinton may or may not be the all-around worst presidential nominee in the history of the Democratic party. But after nearly 188 years of providing the electorate some pretty unappealing characters candidates like James Buchanan and Jimmy Carter George McClellan and George McGovern whose policies might have or actually caused great harm to the nation  it is not untrue to acknowledge how the GOP has been stained by candidates like Warren G. Harding Richard Nixon and now Donald Trump for whom no historically conscious Republican would wisely ignore how many times it was perhaps as well that the Republican nominee did not prevail in the general election.
Matt Bai yesterday observed that Trump doesnt represent the majority of Republican voters nor has he exposed the true nature of the Republican Party as liberals always portrayed it to be. However Trump does represent the partys most aggrieved and motivated supporters right now. And because of these indisputable facts because he has stifled the better judgment of the majority by applying the traditional Alinsky-esque tactic of mobilizing those marginalized along the Alt Right periphery straddling both parties Bai is correct: hes actually taken the party over and made it reflect his own persona. 

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My conservative and Christian values are my rock; my principles that guide me which are forever grounded by the best intentions. And because of this I may well vote now for Hillary Clinton. Not because she is the lesser of two evils but due to her being the most conservative candidate of the two remaining. I do not need a messiah; I already have Jesus in my life. From my angle Mrs. Clinton has already met the criteria for what traditionally is described by conservatives as The Buckley Rule - that is Republicans should always support the most conservative candidate possible. A general rule I adopted last year which Margaret Thatcher wrote in her last autobiography is the understanding that I am ideologically married to my principles; I vote based on my convictions never the consensus even in the face of death threats physical coercion or intimidation. But Mrs. Thatcher was far more succinct in her explanation as I segue into explaining my opposition to a Trump presidency at any cost so long as the republic is conserved.

For my part I favour an approach to statecraft that embraces principles as long as it is not stifled by them; and I prefer such principles to be accompanied by steel along with good intentions.  Excerpt from Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World. p. xxii

My principles are my bedrock my impenetrable fortress in solitude; they are my foundation grounded in steel. But I will not stand by and allow them to erode by permitting them to deter my ability to protect them at any cost. While I am an arch-conservative I am also a pragmatist in protecting mine and my familys safety and interests. Donald Trump represents the greatest existential threat to the life of the conservative rubric. Hillary Clinton is indisputably the most conservative candidate remaining. Because Trump has openly refused to be my knight as a true conservative repudiating seven devastating years of the Obama presidency Hillary Clinton will now become my pawn. She can be controlled easily by her donor class handlers on the merits of her possessing absolutely no ethical or moral principle. Show Hillary Clinton the money and she will do anything: she can engage in just enough or nothing at all to maintain the status quo if nothing else. And while true how Trump also possesses neither ethical or moral standards he is now a politician who for years funded the elitists in American politics. He cannot be controlled by either party much less constrained by our own Constitution any more so than Barack Obama. And unlike Hillary Clinton Trump will force through legal and physical coercion both parties to pass any bill he demands if not entirely bypass Congress altogether. David French today published in National Review the observations that conservatism is invested in the long game our own long march" through American cultural institutions. We would therefore be loathe to discard years of influence for the sake of four months of intraparty peace. And make no mistake that Trump will crash and burn while either campaigning or if we are so unfortunate in trusting our countrymens stupidity in the Oval Office and the American people will not soon look to his partisans and defenders to rebuild from the wreckage. This is why for the sake of the nation those other voices who are conservative and untainted by alliance or association with the newly minted Republican nominee must place their egos and thirst for absolute power aside if for no other reason than to salvage what little opposition to the rise of left-wing socialism remains by not supporting its nationalist Alt Right cousin.

This is why Hillary Clinton is now a marginal threat by all objective moral assessments. It is therefore Donald Trump who must lose as he is the least conservative of the two candidates. This is why I may break with my first decision to vote for neither candidate if in fact Trump surpasses Hillary in the polls late in the race. And as French assessed it is true that Trump represents the dirth in integrity the American people need in their leaders not to mention a woman of low morals in Mrs. Clinton. But to those too blind to avoid not approaching this election as a choice between the lesser of two evils I can find a more pragmatic approach to achieving stability by dragging out the cancer represented by Hillary Clinton as opposed to an instant death by way of the massive Trump heart attack.

Now more than ever the #NeverTrump movement must rise to the occasion one last time during our nations darkest hour now that Trump is officially the nominee. The Republican Party is now a direct reflection of Donald Trump. If elected he will become synonymous with Louis XIV  the most consequential monarch in French history  by declaring himself the state and we will be told to simply eat cake". Only in Trumps case there will be no Cardinal Jules Mazarin to either train him temper or constrain his ambitions  and a matter of time before the far left-wing extremists finally topple his American Bastille.

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