Voting is both a privilege and responsibility. I take the responsibility seriously. On Tuesday, November 8, 2016 I will express my political opinion on federal, state, and local offices and issues by casting my ballot. However, if the election were held today I would neither vote for the Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, nor Green party candidate for president of United States. I consider myself an “Independent”. By this I mean I will vote for the candidate whom I believe will best serve the nation. So in theory I tell myself I will vote for the best candidate, but in practice for national office I have always voted Republican. I do not always vote Republican at the state or local level, but I have always voted Republican for president. In the last nine presidential elections I have cast my vote for the Republican candidate. The streak will end at nine elections.

When I consider the factors that influence the direction of my vote, two influences predominate. First, is my Christian convictions. I had a dramatic conversion to Christianity in my 21^st year that affected the way I see the world and in turn altered my behavior. My vote in the national, state, and local elections is definitely influenced by my Christian world and life view. Second, my political philosophy is “classical liberal”. Freedom of the individual is very important to me. When I believe there is a contradiction between my classical liberal beliefs and Christianity, I always try to line up with a biblical world and life view. The coalition between the establishment Republicans, Christians, and free market (supply-side economists) enthusiasts served me well during the early 1980s. During the late 1980s there were leaks in the dam (Pat Buchanan and international trade for instance), but the leaks were moderate and the flow was generally stemmed. I do think the Republican Party has been slowly drifting from my ideological stance, but the nomination of Donald J. Trump crossed the Rubicon in one fell swoop. I still feel a connection to the Republican Party platform, but the individual candidate is so far removed from my comfort level that I simply cannot vote for him. I will provide a short justification on why I cannot vote for the Republican nominee, but first I would like to mention the other candidates.

It is not that the Democratic Party’s goals are inconsistent with my Christian beliefs, but rather their actual policy proposals are written in such away as to not effectively meet the stated goals without being very harmful to third parties. To assume that you can simply take from one person to give to another without fully analyzing the affect on the “taxee” in question is only one half of acceptable policy. In fact, in most situations the best policy is consistent with a very limited government. And then there is the 30 or so years I have I watched and listened to Mrs. Clinton. My memory of Mrs. Clinton’s personal and relational skills is not a sterling endorsement for her as president. A Clinton presidency continues the trajectory of our nation defined by Pres. Obama. Continuation of our current trajectory is an outcome I do not want. While I find much in the Libertarian party’s philosophy with which I agree, Gary Johnson is a libertarian that ignores the rights of unborn babies and is for policies against religious freedom. I cannot vote for him in good conscience. And then there is the Green party – a no vote for me on the basis of what the party stands for – trees above people. So why can I not vote for Donald Trump?

In a nutshell, our nation is it going to continue its transformation into a more socialist economy. I do not want to be a citizen in a nation that has a nationalist president as we become more socialist.

In a comment on Jeff Haymond’s post earlier this week, one of our readers characterized Trump as a “…womanizing, cheating, xenophobic, racist, ignorant, anti-capitalistic Christian fraud”. This description appears to be accurate. A leader cannot be moral in public life and immoral in private life. I have heard much discussion on voting for the lesser of two evils. [Which weevil represents Trump and which weevil represents Clinton?] I do not know with any degree of certainty if Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump is demonstrably more evil than one another or other presidential candidates or presidents both past and future. From what I have seen and heard I would personally trust neither candidate with the responsibility of the presidency. However, I find Donald Trump’s bigotry coupled with his proposed immigration policy too potentially volatile to risk. While he has moderated his proposed insane immigration / deportation policy from the early days of the campaign, I find his stance on his signature issue at odds with both my Christian and classical liberal beliefs. Donald J. Trump it is the “Lord of the Internment Camps”. I do realize how anachronistic my position is. As Kevin Williamson said: “On the other side of the ledger, the “open borders” Republicans who so concern Trump voters do not, for the most part, exist beyond a few think tanks and opinion columns.” But I do believe the best general policy to help people of all nations is to allow free movement of people between countries. I do not think that people identified as criminals nor those with communicable diseases should be allowed to emigrate, but otherwise the United States should be very accommodating to people who want to be productive citizens. Trump’s other signature issue, trade policy, also is not conducive to human flourishing. A linchpin in the classical liberal philosophy is that free trade not only is the best means for eradicating poverty, but also the cultural contact that occurs through trade is one of the best ways to avoid conflict between nations which may escalate into violence – war. So when Donald Trump promotes trade barriers with China and other nations he is not only hurting individuals in both nations, he is also fanning the flame of international tension. Whether trade is intranational (within one nation) or international, there are both financial winners and losers, but the winners win more then the losers lose. There is a net gain. So unless you think the federal government should enact policy that determines who wins and who loses through trade, you should support free global trade. Trump’s position on trade harms people through government fiat, and I am opposed.

I could continue with other reasons why I cannot support Donald J. Trump in this presidential election. Most of the opposition to Trump I’ve read from other Christians, does not deal with individual policies. I wanted to add to the discourse by providing the two policy reasons mentioned in the previous paragraph.  In some ways, P. J. O’Rourke expresses my sentiments, and he is fun to read.

On November 8 I will vote, I hope, in an intelligent principled manner on all issues and offices downstream from the presidential election. In protest, primarily against the Republican Party, I will cast no vote for president of the United States in 2016.