Another #NeverTrumper Announces a Change of Heart
Political blogger Mary Ramirez, until a few weeks ago, had been an avowed #NeverTrumper, but in a new commentary, she explains why she not only changed her mind, but why she feels compelled to open up about it.
In May, she wrote:
I’m having a heart-and-gut-wrenching conscience battle with myself right now over what’s least worst. I think Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is an immense danger to this country. And, if his record and his campaign show us anything, presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump looks to be just as bad. Do I end this ridiculous cycle of voting for the lesser of two evils by writing in a candidate or not voting at all? Or, since I know exactly what kind of damage Clinton will cause, do I risk it on the slim, slim chance that I’m wrong about Trump?
Ramirez said she continued to struggle with the issue, saying she “just couldn’t get there” to find a way to vote for Trump, until she read another opinion maker’s piece. As she wrote Friday morning:
This went on for months. I even—for the first time in my recollection—was at odds with my father, with whom I rarely disagree. (Don’t worry, it wasn’t the Hatfields and the McCoys.)
He was convinced Trump was the lesser of two evils, and I couldn’t get there. I just couldn’t.
And then I heard Daniel Lapin paint a picture that I just couldn’t get out of my head. You’re on a ship that’s going to sink. No questions about it—it’s going down like a rock. You find two lifeboats; one has holes in it, and the other has a cover over it.
Now honestly, which one do you choose?
Ramirez said the illustration “put a kink” in her “train of rational thought” about her voting decision. With Clinton, she noted, Americans are faced with a “truly corrupt, utterly evil woman whose capacity for wrongdoing grows by the day.”
She made her decision to vote for Trump, but she also decided to do so in silence. Then nationally syndicated radio host Mark Levin announced publicly he had come to the same conclusion—and suffered an immense backlash from other #NeverTrumpers—which led her to speak out, as well.
She wrote:
Suddenly, the decision I had previously decided to keep between me and the little circle I’d fill in at the voting both came to the surface—and it became clear that unless I was going to sit and nod my head as people slammed Levin (just so I wouldn’t have to talk about my decision), I’d have to share that I had come to that conclusion a while ago, too.
She said she expects backlash from her decision like what other former #NeverTrumpers have incurred. But she had some advice for those who feel compelled to attack those they disagree with:
I’m just here to say we need to get a grip. We need to stop acting like 6-year-olds when it comes to dealing with someone whose decision we don’t agree with—even if we disagree fundamentally and vehemently.
To once again borrow from my favorite Tim McGraw song, we’ve forgotten how to be humble and kind. Let me direct you to my good friend Jonathon Dunne (avidly Never Trump, by the way) who puts it so well: Stop dehumanzing the individual. Stop it.
I stand with Ted Cruz—vote your conscience. For me, that’s a vote to stop Hillary. Make up your own minds, and don’t let anyone bully you into anything different.
