Dear GOP: Loyalty Should Be to Principles, Not People

FILE - In this Feb. 25, 2016 file photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, left, waits as fellow GOP presidential candidates Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., center, and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, talk during a break in the Republican presidential primary debate at the University of Houston in Houston. Nancy Reagan spent decades protecting the legacy of her husband, but some of President Ronald Reagan's famous political advice appears lost among the White House candidates who embrace him as a guiding light. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)

If the 2016 election had gone as I would have preferred, we would be experiencing a Scott Walker administration right now. His solid, proven leadership in the state of Wisconsin is exactly the type of thing we need on the national stage.

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But that didn’t happen. The country wanted something else, and Scott Walker is too regular, principled, and composed for their liking. His history doesn’t include explosive tweets or primetime, reality show television spots. Some may even consider him boring.

Boring is what we need right now.

Regardless of my preference, Donald Trump is our president. He is my president. I didn’t vote for him in the primaries or on November 8th, but I’m adult enough to recognize that he won the election.

That doesn’t mean I should support everything he does.

There has been a tendency among the Right to fall in love with people and not principles. This has been true for a while, but it became especially apparent in this last election cycle. If we do not accept this truth, we will never be able to clean out the cobwebs, improve our standing, gain more ground, and increase our ranks. Trump the candidate was all about being the bully, whether against his fellow GOP candidates or against his ultimate opponent, Hillary Clinton.

On Sunday morning, President Trump took to Twitter (which happens way more often than it ever should), and tweeted the following.

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It is nothing short of an embarrassment.

When one mentions that, though, the responses include:

  • But…Obama was embarrassing! He treated the office with casual regard, and with much disrespect!
  • But…Clinton was a shameful president! He got sexual favors from an intern while in the Oval Office!

Yes. Those statements are true. My response is, “…and?”

The actions of Obama, Clinton, or any other politician do not neutralize the very unserious actions of the man who currently inhabits the Oval Office. As a friend of mine so deftly stated:

“A thing is either wrong or it isn’t. ‘Wrong’ shouldn’t be judged on a sliding scale that uses the behavior of others as a baseline.”

Trump’s social media wrongs aren’t the worst sins ever committed in the history of mankind, but they are wrong, and entirely unbecoming of a president. Stating this fact doesn’t diminish the other wrongs committed by presidents of the past.

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I don’t like how the media has long been kind to liberals while ruthlessly going after conservatives. I don’t like how indiscretions, or flat out criminal behavior, is glossed over because the perpetrator is a (D) or a friend to them. I don’t appreciate how those on the Coasts view us in Middle America as uneducated, racist hillbillies who only care about the Second Amendment.

I can dislike all of those things and simultaneously take issue with President Trump’s behavior. In fact, I should. 

If you take an action you have long despised from the Clinton or Obama years, switch the main characters to card-carrying members of the GOP and suddenly find that behavior acceptable?

Then congratulations, you’re part of the problem.

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