A “conscience clause” still won’t give the Republican Party a principled conscience

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There is a lot of talk of the final battle for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination. Although it is all but certain that Donald Trump will win, the Never Trump crowd is making a desperate last stand to oust him when the Party meets in Cleveland. There are a number of procedural maneuvers and rules changes being pushed by those trying to navigate the process, all of which may or may not actually lift up off the ground. But even if they do succeed and Trump is removed, it is still the Republican Party.

The Republican Party has no conscience, it is a political machine.

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The most ignorant contribution to this election cycle by the Never Trump crowd is the idea that the Republican Party became bad overnight and that prior to the rise of Donald Trump, it was this shining beacon of freedom and liberty that all embraced. There were no wars being fought without constitutional declarations, no unconstitutional surveillance programs, no USA PATRIOT Act, no runaway spending, etc.

Nothing. The Republican Party was all principles.

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But a simple analysis of even recent memory shows us that this is not the case. In 2012, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney was the nominee and his views are all over the place. Starting from when he tried running to the left of Ted Kennedy for United States Senate in the nineties and through his time as Governor, he showed himself to be a weak-spined, left-leaning moderate. As a Governor, Romney signed legislation that “Obamacare” modeled itself after and even passed an assault weapons ban. He has been wildly inconsistent on a number of issues, while also supporting entering war without a congressional declaration, and has voiced his support for the surveillance stance.

2008 Republican presidential nominee and Arizona U.S. Senator John McCain is that, but worse. In Congress, there was John Boehner for the longest time supporting things like the USA PATRIOT Act, runaway spending, and allowing the President to go to war unchecked and without a declaration. He also opposed impeaching the President over any number of violations of his duties and the law. Though still new to the job, Speaker Paul Ryan is showing why he fit in so well being Mitt Romney’s Robin to his Batman.

Eliminating Donald Trump isn’t going to make the Republican great again, because it never has been great.

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If Trump is stopped when the nominating process officially occurs, who are Republicans going to put up? Mitt Romney? Paul Ryan? There aren’t many options for conservatives or libertarians to chose from and those few choices within the party will never get nominated in Cleveland. It won’t be Senator Rand Paul, and it won’t be any Congressman like Justin Amash or Thomas Massie. So who is it going to be?

The Republican Party may succeed in passing through the “conscience clause”, allowing national delegates to vote how they wish, but that’s no victory. In the end, the Republican National Committee will still stand by its moderate brand and with the elimination of Trump, still put in a statist. A different candidate might not hurt your feelings or disrupt the comfort zone of many Safe Space Republicans, but they still will embrace the same left-of-center policies and betray conservatives and libertarians.

Want to stand your ground and escape with your conscience? Unenroll and get out.

Chris Dixon is a liberty activist and writer from Maine. In addition to being Managing Editor for the Liberty Conservative, he also writes the Bangor Daily News blog "Undercover Porcupine" and for sports website Cleatgeeks.

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