I've Never Been Prouder of a Politician

Last night the Rules Committee voted down several proposed amendments that would have explicitly unbound the convention delegates. It looks as though there will not be enough votes for supporters of unbinding to even issue a minority report, which would guarantee a vote on the convention floor. They have until Monday to get twenty-eight votes for such a report—last night only twenty-one members of the committee supported a conscience clause amendment.

But one of those twenty-one deserves special attention and praise.

Before the committee met, Mike Lee was keeping his powder dry, being noncommittal when asked how he planned to vote on the proposed rule changes. But once inside Lee held nothing back, giving an impassioned speech in favor of the amendments, an opposing formally binding the delegates, saying that “we have to remember that it’s important for our presidential nominees to win at two levels—first to win at the primary level, and then to win over the delegates…this angst, as we’re going to see in a few days, isn’t going to go away just because we paper over it with rules.”

But that wasn’t all. He appeared to be actively whipping votes throughout the evening, repeatedly conferring with conscience clause proponent Kendal Unruh. He was at the microphone to speak on another unbinding amendment when pro-Trumpers on the committee abruptly moved to end debate, leading the senator to shout “No!” And after departing the meeting, he doubled down on his support of freeing the delegates and allowing them to vote for someone other than Trump.

It’s hard to overstate the political risk Lee took, and the depth of the courage he showed, by so vocally endorsing the effort. During the primary, and in the immediate aftermath—when many top Republicans hesitated to embrace Trump—Lee’s opposition wasn’t nearly as extraordinary. But now he stands in the company of a select few who continue to refuse to bow before the Orange Golden Calf. Only last week was Senator Jeff Flake warned that if he didn’t endorse Trump soon, “when [he] needs something for Arizona, he ain’t gonna get it…if Donald Trump wins for president.”

But Mike Lee’s courage is exceptional even among those other senators expressing opposition to Trump. He alone sat on the Rules Committee, the body with the best chance of stopping Trump’s nomination, and endured enormous pressure from the Trump campaign and RNC to merely go along with the tide. “The unbinding amendment is doomed,” he was likely told. “Just go along with the rest of us. Unite! It will be so much simpler for you.”

But, as he often does in the Senate, Mike Lee stood with only a few trustworthy fellow conservatives against the might of the Establishment. Unlike in so many of those previous battles, the Republican base will not be united behind him now. Roughly half of the GOP has been lured into worshipping at the Altar of Trump, and will forever scorn Senator Lee for his role in the resistance. In the future many Republican voters will remember this above all else, and dedicate themselves to his political defeat on the basis of that committee meeting alone.

But as always, Mike Lee chose not the easy path, but the path that was morally right. It may be one of the bravest political acts in recent memory. For that, he deserves conservatives’ unending gratitude.