You will probably be less than shocked to find out that “conservative” columnist David French is voting for Vice President Kamala Harris.
The nation’s preeminent TDS sufferer recently penned the latest of a seemingly endless list of “Orange Man Bad” op-eds for The New York Times in which he announced his choice for president while regurgitating much of the anti-Trump claptrap for which he has become known over the past decade.
But what is noteworthy about this article is that French claims he is not just voting for Harris because Trump is a big doodiehead. He is doing it to save conservatism.
Yes, he actually wrote that with a straight face, dear reader.
He starts the article by establishing his pro-life bonafides, affirming he believes “life begins at conception” and highlighting his career as a “pro-life lawyer who worked for pro-life legal organizations.”
Then, he makes his declaration. “But I’m going to vote for Kamala Harris in 2024 and — ironically enough — I’m doing it in part to try to save conservatism,” he wrote.
French continues, arguing that Trump and the MAGA movement “has pushed Republicans further away from Reaganite conservatism” and “divorced Republican voters from any major consideration of character in leadership.”
The author then claims that Harris is the better choice for president because Trump lies.
Even worse, Trump’s lies are contagious. The legal results speak for themselves. A cascade of successful defamation lawsuits demonstrate the severity and pervasiveness of Republican dishonesty. Fox paid an enormous settlement related to its hosts’ relentless falsehoods during Trump’s effort to steal the election. Rudy Giuliani owes two Georgia election workers $148 million for his gross lies about their conduct while counting votes.
French acknowledges that all politicians tell falsehoods, but fails to even consider the massive lies told by Democrats and their close friends and allies in the activ ist media – ones that have garnered their share of defamation lawsuits.
Then, he claims that the Republican Party, with Trump as the figurehead, is more prone to embracing political violence. We already know where this is going, don’t we?
Let’s take another assertion that should be relatively uncontroversial: Political violence and threats of violence have no place in the American democratic process. Yet threats and intimidation follow the MAGA movement like night follows day. One of the saddest stories of our time is the way in which even local election officials and local school board members fear for their safety. The level of threat against public officials has escalated in the MAGA era, MAGA Republicans often wield threats as a weapon against Republican dissenters, and every American should remember Jan. 6, when a mob of insurrectionists ransacked the Capitol.
Surprisingly, French does grudgingly acknowledge that “threats and violence aren’t exclusive to the right” and mentions the assassination attempt on Trump, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and Republican lawmakers at a baseball practice.
Still, somehow, J6 and threats against local officials are worse because Trump played a song by the J6 Prison Choir at one of his rallies and tried to dispute the outcome of the 2020 election. Apparently, shooting a former president isn’t as egregious as playing a song to the TDS-infected mind.
Then, French makes the irrational choice to blame Trump for the rise in abortion rates after the overturning of Roe v. Wade. He attacked the former president for his seemingly moderate stance on abortion and the rise in women undergoing the procedure.
But when we’re dealing with a complex social phenomenon, political and legal issues are rarely simple. For the first time in decades, abortion rates and ratios increased under Trump. In addition, the best available evidence indicates that abortion rates are up since the Dobbs decision.
French then says he cannot vote for Trump as a “conservative” because “I loathe sex abuse, pornography and adultery” and claims “Trump has brought those vices into the mainstream of the Republican Party.”
So, essentially, every negative aspect of the Republican Party and the conservative movement is Trump’s fault.
Yet, none of French’s mental gymnastics result in arguments that make Harris look more attractive than Trump from a conservative perspective. Every complaint he has about Trump is even worse when it comes to the vice president, who is far from being pro-life. Indeed, during the 2020 campaign, she infamously said that if she were president, she would force states passing abortion restrictions to run it by her first so she could give her royal blessing on the legislation.
When it comes to political violence, arguing that the right is somehow worse is absurd on its face. Most recent acts of political violence have been coming from the left. So far, nobody on the right has tried to assassinate President Joe Biden or other Democratic politicians. Moreover, Antifa has been a thing since shortly before Trump was elected. Also, is French forgetting the “Summer of Love” during the George Floyd riots? Perhaps his TDS caused him to hallucinate images of people in MAGA hats torching black neighborhoods?
Lastly, if French abhors sex abuse, pornography, and adultery, why would he support the party that wants to trans children, subject them to sexually inappropriate material, and indoctrinate them into LGBTQ ideology? It is almost as if French does not actually care about these issues as much as he wants us to believe.
As with any politician, there are things to like and dislike about Trump. But French’s continued derangement over the man shows just how irrational TDS can make someone become.