As election day approaches, many conservatives and even libertarians I’m running into are trying to overcome their aversion to Donald Trump and vote for him anyway because they can’t bear the thought of handing over the Supreme Court to liberals for the next generation. With Hillary, they think, there is no hope of getting originalist justices but with Trump there is.
But I note in my column at The Week this morning that this is a triumph of hope over reality.
Trump may not have a completely worked out judicial philosophy right now. But that doesn’t mean he’ll be a cypher for GOP’s preferences. Once he’s in office, he’ll naturally gravitate toward one that is consistent with his agenda. And what is his agenda? It ain’t anything to do with the GOP’s alleged commitment to limited government, checks and balances, and individual liberties. It is the opposite: Using the heavy hand of government to turn America into a worker’s paradise along the lines of France’s National Front, a xenophobic, protectionist, right-wing authoritarian entity.
With Trump at the helm, the GOP will inevitably get sucked into his vision, rather than vice versa, and it’ll have no use for originalism or limited government or Scalia or Thomas.
Voting for Trump out of concern for the Supreme Court and originalism then is like handing the keys of your church to an arsonist clutching a can of gasoline in one hand and matches in the other — and hoping that somehow he’d spare the inner sanctum and the holy book. He won’t.
Go here to read the whole thing.
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