ERICKSON: I will never support Donald Trump
When I wrote in National Review that I was against Donald Trump, I said and have maintained since his entry into the race that if Donald Trump is the Republican nominee, I would support him. No longer.
Trump believes the federal government should fund Planned Parenthood. Trump believes there are good things the child killers do. What is most damning is how so many are willing to be compromised by Trump.
For eight years the conservative movement compromised itself as a wing of George W. Bush's Republican Party. The movement became ill-defined and conservative became a synonym with Republican.
Already, we are seeing pastors and religious leaders compromising their integrity to vote for Trump. Jerry Falwell Jr. has joined the worshippers of Moloch, defending Trump's Planned Parenthood statement on Twitter. Falwell presides over an institution that expels students who have abortions, but is willing to give positive lip service to Trump saying there are good things Planned Parenthood does.
If Trump were elected president, there would be members of the pro-life movement who would compromise their convictions for access to power. If Trump were elected, portions of the conservative movement would compromise the movement to be one degree from Trump. The intellectual institutions on which we have made our case for limited government and freedom would crumble.
And on top of it all, the oligarchs would be just fine. They would coddle and humor a President Trump, a man of mountainous ego, and get their way while the very people Trump promises to help would get table scraps.
It is amazing how many television personalities have compromised their convictions for a discounted stay at Mara Lago. Trump requires compromises of conviction that I in good conscience cannot and will not make. I have become convinced that Trump's pro-life conversion is a conversion of convenience. Therefore I will not be voting for Trump at all. Ever.
A lot of Republicans are going to start making claims that we must rally to the nominee, no matter who he is. I know for certain a large number of Trump supporters will not rally to a Cuban. I will not rally to Trump. Frankly, if Trump is able to get the nomination, the Republican Party will cease to be the party in which I served as an elected official. It will not deserve my support and will not get it if it chooses to nominate a pro-abortion liberal, masquerading as a conservative, who preys on nationalistic, tribal tendencies and has an army of white supremacists online as his loudest cheerleaders.
As we have seen so far, those who are deluding themselves thinking that if they support Trump, he will support them, will instead find themselves slowly compromised on both their integrity and values. They will think the world has shifted while they have stood still, when in reality it will be they who have shifted into Trump's corrupting, compromising orbit.
To stop Trump, Cruz and Rubio must unite. In Georgia, Cruz supporters should support Rubio, since Rubio is ahead in the polls. In places Cruz is ahead of Rubio, Rubio supporters should support Cruz. Neither has a chance to stop Trump as long as they fight each other.
Trump has had no "road to Damascus" conversion. He only wants to date the preacher's daughter. Once he's gotten in her ballot box, he'll be back to his pro-abortion New York values self. I'll play no part in this farce.
Erick Erickson is a Fox News contributor and radio talk show host in Atlanta.
This story was originally published February 25, 2016 at 9:41 PM with the headline "ERICKSON: I will never support Donald Trump ."