“[T]here are certain standards more important than one year’s election. There are certain codes that if you betray them, you suffer something much worse than a political defeat. Donald Trump is an affront to basic standards of honesty, virtue and citizenship. He pollutes the atmosphere in which our children are raised. He has already shredded the unspoken rules of political civility that make conversation possible. In his savage regime, public life is just a dog-eat-dog war of all against all.”

That’s conservative Republican David Brooks in his New York Times editorial “No, Not Trump, Not Ever.” The widely-respected columnist and a commentator for NPR, who also teaches at Yale, is challenging Republican politics even if it costs him some readers.

“[Reinhold] Niebuhr always said politics is the art of making choices between relative goods and lesser evils. [When they hear me say that, people say], ‘Oh I hadn’t thought of that. Okay, now I can vote Romney or McCain or, you know, Bush Sr. over Dukakis.’ [But that was then.] I am now here to announce to you this doesn’t work anymore. If the candidates are Trump and Hillary, Niebuhr’s quote goes out the window. I see no good option between either one of them.”

That’s Evangelical Republican Michael Cromartie, speaking at the University Club in Washington, D.C., during a lunchtime discussion hosted by the Institute on Religion and Democracy. Cormartie holds a nationally influential position as vice-president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he directs both the Evangelicals in Civic Life and Faith Angle Forum programs.

Brooks and Cromartie are but two of the trusted public voices speaking out within well-informed understandings. Knowing of both men’s moderation, I was at first surprised at, but then grateful for, their very frank and bold public opinions about Trump, for these are desperate times in our country.

The two above quotes are but mild excerpts from their opinions. Their detailed and resolute “not-Trump” convictions are well worth your time to read and ponder.

Here is Cromartie’s comments. Here is Brooks’s editorial.

Let’s have some conversation about this in the Comments area. But keep it civil or you won’t be heard. ‘Nuff said!

©2016 by Charles Strohmer

Image of Air Force One courtesy of Creative Commons. Who will next fly the world in its executive luxury?

For other posts about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, see these, beginning with this one: Donald Trump Is Wrong about the Founding of ISIS [Aug 12]; A Christian View of Not Voting for Donald Trump of Hillary Clinton [Aug 25]; Is Donald Trump Merely Lending His Name to “America”? [Sept 16]; Predicting Presidential Debates [Sept 23]; Who Lost the First Presidential Debate? [Sept 26].

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