The politically unthinkable has occurred yet again. Despite poll after poll showing that the vast majority of Americans do not want to see a rematch between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, we are faced with exactly that.[1] Even the No Labels movement, which sought to recruit a moderate candidate for a third-party campaign, has just given up its efforts.[2] Now American citizens will be forced to choose. For many of us, the choice between Trump and Biden will be neither.
For me, a vote for Donald Trump is ruled out for a very simple reason: it is possible for me to imagine Trump ordering a murder. When a man boasts of his ability to shoot someone on Fifth Avenue without losing political support, those words should not be taken lightly.[3] While Trump’s supporters may seek to dismiss this as mere bravado, their argument is unconvincing. The things a person says in moments of bravado provide a revealing window into that person’s character and what that person would like to do if they could get away with it. Given Trump’s demonstrated ability to get away with things that most politicians would not dare, it is morally irresponsible for any American citizen to vote for Trump again. With any other President, no matter how strong my disagreement with his policies, I would have vouched for the President’s human decency, at least to the extent that he was incapable of murder. With Trump I cannot say that, and therefore I cannot vote for him.
However, this does not translate into an automatic vote for Biden. The President and the Democratic Party he leads pose a threat to democracy that is every bit as serious, but more insidious, than the one posed by Donald Trump. By deciding to support Roe v. Wade, even after its repudiation by the Supreme Court, Biden and the Democrats have advertised their belief that liberal orthodoxy outweighs the right of the people to disagree and to vote. The sincerity of the Democrats belief that their antidemocratic tactics on this issue are perfectly natural and appropriate makes liberals a far more potent threat to liberty than Trump supporters. The wrongdoer who believes that he is doing nothing wrong is the most dangerous adversary of all. Democrats have reached the point where they see nothing wrong, and nothing even potentially controversial or objectionable, about suspending democracy on the abortion issue. And since abortion rights are never mentioned in the Constitution, there is no limiting principle that would prevent liberals from trying this approach on any other issue they feel strongly about. The assumption that the liberal view is always right, and therefore liberals can brook no dissent, has poisoned our politics.
From campus speech codes to cancel culture, it is liberals who demand a culture of conformity. It is liberals who have shown a willingness to silence opposing views and threaten the careers and reputations of those who have the audacity to dissent.[4] Since the Bork confirmation hearings in 1987, liberals have defined opposition to Roe v. Wade as being “out of the mainstream.” Worse yet, liberals believe so self-righteously in their own viewpoint that even with abortion bans in place in 24 out of 50 States, liberals still think that the pro-life viewpoint is “out of the mainstream.” Liberals have dogmatically embraced Roe v. Wade even while knowing that the Constitution does not mention abortion rights and knowing that Roe v. Wade had been ridiculed by America’s best, and most liberal, legal scholars, such as Archibald Cox and John Hart Ely. Liberals knew these things but were still willing to impose their beliefs as orthodoxy because they thought they were right. The liberal tendency to sanctify their own views with the force of constitutional law, whether the Constitution says anything about them or not, is a far more dangerous, long-term threat to democracy than Donald Trump.
Likewise, America’s national security is threatened by the complete failure of deterrence under the Biden Administration. When Joe Biden became President, annual American combat deaths in Afghanistan were far lower than a single weekend’s worth of murders in America’s major cities.[5] Nevertheless, Biden chose to order a humiliating and chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in August, 2021. In the bedlam of America’s withdrawal terrorists were able to kill 13 American servicemen at the Abbey Gate of Kabul Airport- a higher death toll than all US combat fatalities in Afghanistan in 2020, when four Americans died in combat.[6] International television broadcast unforgettable images of desperate Afghan civilians clinging to, and falling from, US military aircraft taking off from Kabul Airport.[7]
This Saigon-like debacle triggered an unprecedented level of international disrespect for the United States. Just six months later, when the Biden Administration launched a comprehensive effort to deter Russia from invading Ukraine, deterrence failed. Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine despite a united front of diplomatic opposition from the US and Europe. Biden’s decision to publicly rule out a US troop deployment to Ukraine helpfully simplified Putin’s decision-making process.[8] Then in 2023 and 2024 the United States proved unable to deter the Houthi rebels of Yemen from attacking US and European ships in the Red Sea.[9]
When a country is unable to deter its enemies then everything is up for grabs, including the safety of that country and its citizens. Joe Biden is the first President of the United States in my lifetime who has proven his inability to deter America’s enemies. Even the weakness of the Carter Administration never led to anything comparable to the spectacular failures of deterrence we have witnessed in Ukraine and in the Red Sea. Likewise, the Hamas terror onslaught against Israel on October 7, 2023 would never have happened if the leaders of Hamas had sufficient fear of the United States in their hearts. President Biden is failing in his basic obligation to keep American citizens safe and protect America’s national interests. A vote for Biden is therefore just as unthinkable as a vote for Trump.
For the first time in my life, I will have to vote in a Presidential election in which neither the Republican nor the Democratic candidate has any chance of earning my support. What, then, are the options? I wrote last year that authentic conservatives should be prepared to support Nikki Haley as a third-party candidate in the hope of producing an Electoral College stalemate that would throw the election into the House of Representatives. While I would love to see this happen, Haley has flatly refused to cooperate with such a venture. Of the various third-party candidates, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been drawing substantial support, although probably not enough for him to win even a single State. Americans who are dissatisfied with the status quo and who were hoping for a third-party candidate to ride to the rescue appear to be headed for disappointment.
Unless a better candidate comes along, I intend to vote for myself and write in my own name. Unfortunately for America, there is nothing egocentric about this. Thinking that you could do a better job than political heavyweights like Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton would have been foolhardy, but knowing that you would be a better choice than Donald Trump or Joe Biden is something that I and many other Americans can be confident about. Voting for myself symbolizes the fact that America is now living through an age in which the American people will need to look within themselves for the political leadership they long for. In this election season, the two parties have nothing to offer that does sufficient justice to the honor and grandeur of America’s political traditions. People who wish to uphold America’s heritage of freedom and international leadership will have to concentrate on their own roles as active American citizens rather than waiting for politicians to save them.
[1] Jason Lange, “Trump vs. Biden: The rematch many Americans don’t want,” Reuters, January 25, 2024 at 6:11 p.m., accessed April 5, 2024 at 6:33 a.m.
[2] Aaron Pellish, “No Labels will not field third-party ticket,” CNN, April 4, 2024 at 4:50 p.m., accessed April 5, 2024 at 6:39 a.m.
[3] Jeremy Diamond, “Trump: I could ‘shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters,’” CNN, January 24, 2016 at 12:03 p.m., accessed April 5, 2024 at 6:43 a.m.
[4] Matthew Hutson, “Why Liberals Aren’t as Tolerant as They Think,” Politico, May 9, 2017, accessed April 5, 2024 at 6:51 a.m.
[5] Statista Research Department, “Soldiers killed in action in Afghanistan 2001-2021,” statista.com., February 2, 2024, accessed April 5, 2024 at 6:55 a.m.
[6] Amy Beth Hanson, Terry Wallace, Amy Forliti, “Young dad-to-be was among 13 U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan,” Associated Press, August 27, 2021 at 5:31 p.m., accessed April 5, 2024 at 7:00 a.m.; Philip Walter Wellman, “Afghanistan: Remembering the fallen of 2020,” Stars and Stripes, December 30, 2020, accessed April 5, 2024 at 7:02 a.m.
[7] Gerry Shih, Niha Masih and Dan Lamothe, “The story of an Afghan man who fell from the sky,” Washington Post, August 27, 2021 at 2:08 p.m., accessed April 5, 2024 at 7:06 a.m.
[8] John Wagner and Ashley Parker, “Biden says U.S. ground troops ‘not on the table’ for Ukraine,” Washington Post, December 8, 2021 at 5:20 p.m., accessed April 5, 2024 at 7:10 a.m.
[9] “Who are the Houthis and why are they attacking Red Sea ships,” BBC, 22 December 2023, updated 15 march 2024, accessed April 5, 2024 at 7:12 a.m.