This November, Republicans are facing a much larger issue than merely voting for the next president. The problem for Republicans is of such a magnitude that the vote can no longer be about the success of the party. Instead of looking to political demarcations, the real question has become this: What is the ethical identity of America?
It is no news that many Republicans despise Donald Trump but will vote for him because he is the Republican nominee. The vote of many Republicans will be a vote against Hillary Clinton, not a vote for Trump. However, the stakes are much higher than that. We can readily grant that Clinton is a problematic candidate. In a normal race these problems might have been sufficient reason to vote against her. The problem facing Americans this November, however, is that Trump is not merely a problematic politician due to his unabashed dishonesty, xenophobia, misogyny and political ignorance. The biggest problem with Mr. Trump is fundamentally an ethical one that undergirds the very foundation of human worth.
Trump is a man who has repeatedly boasted that as president he will engage in activities that can be described only as grave crimes against humanity. For example, he repeatedly asserted that he would seriously consider using nuclear weapons against ISIS and others and that even the possibility of using a nuclear weapon in Europe was not "off the table." Similarly, on Fox and Friends, he said that the U.S. military should not just kill terrorists, but also their families. These suggestions would be absolutely inhumane even if he were to draw the line at killing the immediate family members, but what about those he might consider to be close enough sympathizers? He has ignorantly claimed that Turkey has sided with ISIS despite Turkey’s active aid in our fight against ISIS and despite the fact that ISIS has carried out several attacks against Turkey. On numerous other occasions, he blamed the terrorist attacks in France, Belgium and California on refugees despite proof that there was no link to refugees in any of these cases. Trump is all too willing to put the target on innocent people’s backs.
Of course, many Republicans will feel that they cannot vote for Clinton for similar ethical reasons, such as her stance on partial-birth abortion. If this is the case, they should keep in mind that Trump is on record strongly criticizing a ban on partial-birth abortion, because it supposedly restricts the rights of women. Since Trump supported partial-birth abortion until he decided to run on the Republican ticket, it is simply self-deception on the part of voters to think that he will do anything to further the cause of the unborn. This includes the delusion that he will be committed to nominating worthy conservative Supreme Court justices. As concerns abortion, then, the two are equal. The problem with Trump goes much deeper.
It would be bad enough if his views were limited to claims such as the disturbing suggestion that we should plunder Iraqi oil to pay for the care of American soldiers. More so, if Trump were merely against American constitutional principles, as shown by his claim that he would reverse libel laws to restrict the freedom of the press, or opposed to the freedom of religion, as displayed in his proposed ban on Muslims entering the country, then one might be right to view a vote for Trump as a vote against Mrs. Clinton. But Trump’s claims don’t merely concern the constitution or political views. They are claims that assault the most basic morality of humanity. The real reason a vote for Trump is morally dubious is that he has recommended mass murder as a permissible course of action. The use of a nuclear weapon, in which hundreds of thousands of innocent lives are immediately extinguished, is simply not ethically permissible. To target the families of terrorists is unjustifiable and should not be rationalized. Revenge murder is still murder. Republicans need to think carefully about the fact that a vote for Trump cannot escape being a vote for a man who has repeatedly endorsed these kinds of crimes against humanity.
With Trump, the Republican party is undergoing a major identity change. There are greater issues at stake than one party “winning” the presidential election. Unlike past presidential elections, this November demands of voters more than a choice between parties and their ideologies. It demands that voters stand against bigotry, racism, sexism, egoism, jingoism and crimes against humanity. It demands that voters stand not only for America, but also for humanity. The ethical compass of America is on the line.