The reality is that the election is over and has been since the moment Donald Trump got the Republican nomination. No nominee has ever left the conclusion of the convention season with a polling deficit and rebounded. No nominee has entered the last month of the election behind seven points and rebounded.
“But Reagan in 1980,” you say. It is a myth. In 1980, the Gallup poll deviated from all the other polls until the last couple of weeks before the election. Reagan had a strong debate, the Gallup poll swung in his favor, and legend was born. The reality is that the average of all polls in 1980 had Reagan take the lead in July of that year and he never lost it again. Even if it had been a strong debate at the end that pushed him over — and it was not — Trump self-immolated in the last Presidential Debate this year.
The election is over for president. The Senate and House of Representatives can be saved if Republicans still turn out. But if the election were held today, Hillary Clinton would already have the requisite 270 Electoral College votes to be president, and that is with 10 states still in toss up territory, including Georgia. In fact, internal Republican polling now has Hillary Clinton ahead in Georgia by five points. Trump is that bad of a nominee. Clinton has a better chance of winning Texas now than Trump has of winning Pennsylvania.
That leads me to Evan McMullin. McMullin is currently in first place in Utah. He is an independent Republican running for president and may be the first non-major party candidate to win Electoral College votes since 1968. He is a conservative. He, like Trump, went to Wharton Business School. Unlike Trump, McMullin grew up in a home that often could not be heated in the winter due to lack of money.
McMullin served his country in the clandestine unit of the CIA. He was a spy in Iran and Afghanistan who helped undermine the bad guys. He is a man of character who Republicans can proudly support instead of holding their nose for a man like Donald Trump. There is also a bigger issue Republicans and, in particular, Christians need to consider.
According to the latest polling, 70 percent of evangelicals are willing to accept immoral acts in their political nominees. That is more than the nation as a whole and is 40 percent higher for evangelicals compared with just two years ago. The Age of Trump has led many evangelicals off the cliff of moral relativism. Suddenly, grabbing women by their genitals is fine if you think your candidate will advance the kingdom.
The reality is that Republicans and Christians in America will never get a candidate better than Trump if they settle for Trump now. Affirming Trump will just embolden even greater moral cretins to run for office and will send a strong signal to good men and women that they need not bother.
McMullin is an antidote to this. He is a write-in candidate in Georgia. If you write-in Evan McMullin on the ballot, your vote will count for him. He is not the lesser of any evil, but an alternative to voting for evil. Writing in Evan McMullin will send a clear message that we are not going to settle again for men like Donald Trump. The Republican Party needs to know that nominating men of low character is unacceptable.
Erick Erickson is a Fox News contributor and radio talk show host in Atlanta.
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