RUTHFULLY YOURS

If Never Trump Republicans succeed on Election Day, Donald J. Trump will return to real estate, his political dreams shattered.

Hence, the bigger headline on Wednesday, November 9, would read: hillary clinton elected 45th president. Neither independent Evan McMullin, nor the Green party’s Jill Stein, nor Libertarian Gary Johnson will leapfrog Clinton and Trump to win the White House. So, ipso facto, Never Trump = President Hillary Clinton. Full stop.

A President Hillary Clinton would be Obama with a work ethic. Rather than slacking off on putting greens, she will dedicate her impressive work ethic to turbocharging Obama’s policies, America be damned. Thus, here is some of what to expect if Never Trump triumphs:

Hillary Clinton would appoint at least one justice to the Supreme Court. If she only replaces the late Antonin Scalia with a liberal, the 5–4 center-right high court will go 5–4 center-left. And if, among justices Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy, John Roberts, and Clarence Thomas, one or more departs, Clinton would shift the Court even farther left. On issue after issue, the Supremes consequently would order less liberty and more government. They would be eager to reverse the Heller and Citizens United cases and thus jeopardize gun rights and non-union political speech.

Also, scores of Clinton’s judicial appointees would use their federal trial and appeals courtrooms to apply her statist legal philosophy for life.

“We are going to start immediately on comprehensive immigration reform, including a path to citizenship,” Clinton recently promised. From illegal aliens to the lightly vetted Syrian refugees that America’s Angela Merkel would vacuum into the U.S., Clinton would convert these individuals as swiftly as possible into freshly minted Democratic voters. Republicans will find it even harder to win elections as Clinton builds a permanent Democratic majority.

To that end, Clinton’s Justice Department would double down on Obama’s war on voter ID and other ballot-integrity measures. This would expand opportunities for pro-Democrat vote fraud and rigged elections. Good luck, GOP candidates.

Clinton ignored the candidate questionnaire from the 335,000-member National Fraternal Order of Police. “I was disappointed and shocked,” the cops’-union president, Chuck Canterbury, told The Hill. This exposes Clinton’s cold shoulder towards blue lives, even as 2016’s shooting deaths of police officers have climbed 61 percent through August 25, compared to the same period in 2015, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. Clinton likely would turn her back on cops, even as they increasingly endure bull’s-eyes on theirs.

“I want us to defend and build on the Affordable Care Act,” Clinton declared. “That is one of the greatest accomplishments of President Obama, of the Democratic party, and of our country.” Rather than a temporary aberration, Obamacare would become permanent — unless Clinton transforms it into full-blown, single-payer, socialized medicine.

Prepare for rapidly rising costs and swiftly plunging care. New-drug development would slump, as Clinton continues to hammer the “cruel, heartless” pharmaceutical companies. Medicine and medicines would fester, just when America’s graying population needs them most. Tell your parents you love them while you still can.

Clinton likely would continue Obama’s Big Yawn in response to Veterans Affairs’ making veterans await doctors’ appointments until they literally drop dead. VA executives have destroyed proof of their malpractice. Rather than prosecute them for negligent homicide, Obama gave them bonuses. Expect as much from Clinton.

Senator Clinton earned NARAL Pro-Choice America’s 100 percent rating. “She will repeal the Hyde amendment to ensure low-income women have access to safe reproductive health care,” Clinton’s website promises. Translation: The taxpayer-subsidized killing of unborn Americans would roar on under Hillary Clinton.

Clinton would accelerate class warfare. She wants a 4 percent “Fair Share Surcharge” on annual incomes above $5 million, continuation of the immoral death tax, and no change in America’s thoroughly uncompetitive 35 percent corporate tax. Indeed, she would close business loopholes without cutting the developed world’s highest commercial levy, thus swelling America’s corporate-tax burden.

Hillary would release the regulatory hounds. She would deploy the acronym autocrats of the EEOC, EPA, NLRB, OSHA, SEC, and hundreds of other agencies to hogtie American enterprise with more of the red tape that has limited today’s average annual GDP growth to a flaccid 0.95 percent. At the IRS, Clinton would let a thousand Lois Lerners bloom.

Clinton would staff federal agencies with young, aggressive far-left activists who would burrow into the bureaucracy and wreak havoc for decades.

Overseas, Clinton would keep leading from behind, failing to identify America’s chief enemy as “radical Islamic terrorism,” and pretending that militant Islam is just another lifestyle choice.

Unless Obama padlocks it first, Clinton would keep emptying Guantanamo, never mind the recidivism of at least 30 percent of former detainees. (Obama last week sprang 15 hardened terrorists from Gitmo, essentially returning five of them to jihad.) They will kill more innocent people — perhaps including Americans.

Under Hillary Clinton, Israel still would feel the back of America’s hand, just as Iran’s women-hating, gay-killing, terrorism-sponsoring ayatollahs spend $400 million in cash ransom payments, plus more than $100 billion in sanctions relief, under Obama’s nuclear deal. “I support this agreement,” Clinton said.

Never Trump cultural conservatives should ponder the societal impact of having a relentless, unmitigated, pathological liar in America’s highest office. The poster girl for pay-to-play — who lied to Congress under oath, peddled access to the State Department, abused state secrets, and reportedly skipped State’s mandatory ethics training — would become the role model for little girls from sea to shining sea. “Honesty is the best policy” would wash out with the tide. George Washington’s “I cannot tell a lie” would devolve into Hillary Clinton’s I cannot tell the truth. America’s civic culture would corrode as citizens see the words “Equal Justice Under Law” and hear rim shots. To prosper, Americans would adopt the Clinton Way: Cut corners, shift blame, and lie, lie, lie.

In short, Hillary Clinton would spend four to eight years cremating every tenet of fiscal, social, and strategic conservatism.

But none of this seems to faze the center-right elected officials, campaign operatives, and pundits who lead Never Trump, or the rank-and-file Republicans who heed their siren call.

There is something highly unsatisfying about this unyielding movement. Aside from free trade — where Trump’s promises undermine the conservative ideal of unfettered movement of goods and services — Never Trump’s objections to Trump are far less about what he would do as president, compared to Hillary Clinton. Instead, the Never Trump critique is mainly about how Trump makes people feel. Unusual for the center-right, Never Trump is far more about style than substance.

Otherwise sensible conservative and libertarian thinkers, whom I have known and respected for decades, have used these terms to describe Trump:

“Fascist.” In The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics, Sheldon Richman calls fascism “socialism with a capitalist veneer.” As he added: “Where socialism nationalized property explicitly, fascism did so implicitly, by requiring owners to use their property in the ‘national interest’ — that is, as the autocratic authority conceived it.”

In direct contrast, Trump proposes to loosen Washington’s grip on private enterprise. He wants corporate-tax simplification, a reduction of the 35 percent corporate tax rate to 15 percent, elimination of counterproductive red tape, and an indefinite moratorium on new federal regulations.

Some fascist.

“Racist,” “anti-Hispanic,” “misogynist.” While he could do so more smoothly, Trump is the first Republican nominee to make a direct and repeated plea for the black vote. Once accused of being too harsh on illegal aliens, Trump now is being pummeled for wanting a more “humane” approach on immigration. The “woman-hating” Trump tapped Kellyanne Conway to run his campaign, making her the first female to head a Republican nominee’s White House bid.

“Sociopath.” What, precisely, is the sociopathic policy agenda? How might a sociopathic cabinet look? Why do scores of employees not flee Trump Tower, and his other establishments, screaming: “Sociopath!”

“Intellectually incurious.” Trump is no one’s idea of an egghead. And yet he is intellectually curious enough to seek and accept policy advice from such eggheads as supply siders Steve Moore, Larry Kudlow, and Arthur Laffer, Ph.D.; Middle East expert Walid Phares, Ph.D.; and others.

“He hasn’t read a book in years.” Who knows how many books Trump has read, and when? To her credit, Hillary Clinton seems well read. Too bad the volumes on her shelves offer America the worst possible ideas, such as Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals.

An old friend who is a prestigious professor of political science at a top-tier university used an obscure academic distinction to characterize the Republican nominee: “Asshole.” Others have called him a “profane” and “vulgar” “bully” who uses “the wrong tone” and is (how fitting) “a name caller.”

Donald J. Trump is no one’s idea of Cary Grant. Pity that.

However, this is an election for president of the United States, not concierge at The Breakers, America’s new best friend, or babysitter for one’s newborns. Elegance, an ability to choose the right words at the right time, and a reassuring demeanor would be most welcome in the White House. Unfortunately, Hillary Clinton is hardly awash in such qualities. And even if she were a latter-day Dolley Madison, far more vital things are at stake.

November 8 involves the choice that faces us, not the choices we wish we could have.

If conservatives could unlock the attic of the ivory tower at the Hoover Institution and unsheath a magic wand, Ronald Reagan would be cruising toward his third presidential landslide and four more year of brilliant, affable, good-humored, game-changing leadership. Nothing could be more thrilling right now. Alas, Reagan is unavailable.

It also would be swell to give Milton Friedman or William F. Buckley Jr. a shot at the Oval Office. Too bad they cannot make it either.

That magic wand also has been menacingly elusive.

Love it, hate it, or flatline it, one of these two people will become the next President of the United States: Donald J. Trump or Hillary Rodham Clinton.

One of them will implement the frightful checklist above. The other will not.

And yet, confronted with this stark reality, a disturbing number of prominent conservatives and Republicans still cheer, “Never Trump!”

Astonishing.

The Never Trump crowd is like a family standing in front of its home atop a California hillside during a Santa Ana condition. Propelled by a hot, dry 40-mph gale, a ferocious wall of flame storms up the parched fields toward everything they own. Suddenly, and not a nanosecond too soon, a fire engine swings around a nearby street corner, headed straight for the endangered property.

“What an ugly color!” Dad yells.

“I, too, hate that shade of red!” Junior shouts.

“I wish they’d turn down that siren!” Sis hollers.

“Those big tires might trample my rose bushes!” Mom screams

“Never Fire Truck! Never Fire Truck! Never Fire Truck!” they chant in unison.

Fair enough, but that family shouldn’t cry when the morning sun rises on nothing but ashes.

— Deroy Murdock is a New York–based Fox News contributor and a contributing editor with National Review Online.