If You Abandon Principle for Victory, What's The Point of Either?

Many Trump backers—those who recognize the fact that he is no conservative, or even a moderate—argue that those of us who are still defiantly #NeverTrump must get behind the nominee so that “we can win”. The Republican nominee, whoever that person may be or whatever their statements and positions on the issues, is apparently deserving of our automatic support. “So that we can win and beat Hillary!”

This is the same set who for years as argued that conservatives must give up, or at least compromise on, certain core issues in order to win. “Then once we’re in office, we can accomplish conservative goals.”

Of course, once in office everything revolves around the next election. Opponents are already fundraising and conducting opposition research. So then conservatives must compromise a little more.

When it begins, it’s all about winning in the name of achieving conservative goals. Then, over time, it becomes all about the winning, with very little else to show for it. The professionals urge us to compromise, just this once, to win. Then we must give a little more. And then a little more. Until, one day, everything is done in the name of winning. Everything is about achieving a Republican Senate, or House, or White House, with very little thought to what comes after. What, substantively, will differentiate a Republican Congress or Presidency from a Democratic one?

Too many begin to believe that parties are just like sports teams, that we should automatically support everyone who wears the same jersey, and oppose everyone who wears a different jersey. This has been a constant struggle within the conservative movement and the Republican Party for years, but Trump has exacerbated the tension even further. He even embraces it as a core tenet of his campaign: “We never win anymore. We’re going to win so much, you’ll be tired of all the winning.” He’s talking about America, but many Trump supporters, those Republicans who have been with him since the beginning, see it as commentary on a party and a movement which never seems to notch any victories which seem to last—from the Presidency, to policy debates in Congress, to the Supreme Court and the culture wars.

So they give a little with Trump. Maybe he’s not a conservative, but he makes deals. He’ll help us win. The first step is always the most important; after that it becomes easier. Maybe we should stop talking about social issues so much. Maybe we should abandon free trade. And when they give up more of their principles for Trump, and he responds with a deal with Democrats that gives away even more, Trump’s supporters will say, “He just needs to do this to win reelection. He has to win reelection.”

The ideal of principle is superseded by the ideal of winning. And soon, winning shifts from being a means to an end to the end itself. Winning becomes its own good.