The Cost of Winning

The latest Trump scandals regarding his grossly inappropriate words and actions towards women has revealed many things. Not only about Trump, but about us as Americans.

Victories always require sacrifice. The question is, what price are you willing to pay to win?

This week, I would love to have written yet another article excoriating Hillary Clinton and her destruction policies and past behavior. I would love to focus all attention and energy in making sure her political career ends now. However Donald Trump keeps getting in the way.

I could ignore it, pretend it isn’t happening. But that would be a dereliction of duty. Trump is changing America. And not for the better. People I would have gladly stood shoulder to shoulder with are now excusing the inexcusable, defending the indefensible.

Becoming Your Enemy

Victory, or merely winning, is never an acceptable goal. Because it nearly always results in principles being thrown out the window. And when principles are gone, we are no better than those we fought against.

It’s true that in this instance regarding morals and treating women properly, the left has absolutely no leg to stand on. They have denied the existence of absolute truth. As soon as morality is relative, as soon as absolute truth doesn’t exist, you cease to have any standing to be able to condemn behavior of any kind. Period.

However, the argument that “the people on the left have done what Trump talked about and have corrupted culture and mocked morality. Therefore, what Trump said is no big deal because they’re hypocrites anyway,” is completely disingenuous.

First off, it’s not just the left that is outraged. It’s moral Americans on every location of the political spectrum. Second, just because a hypocrite points out a wrong doesn't discount the fact that it’s still wrong. Just because a sex pervert points out sexual perversion, doesn’t mean that it’s not still sexual perversion.

Consistent Condemnation

What Trump said was wrong, what the left says and does is wrong, however we do ourselves a great disservice by not being consistent. We must consistently condemn what is wrong no matter which sided it comes from.

If it’s true that we’ve come down to a binary choice between Clinton and a Clinton donor, let’s stop trying to sugar coat things.

Looking at two apples that is rotten to the core, you can usually differentiate between which one is more rotten than the other. However, it doesn’t change the fact that both apples are still rotten to the core.

Let’s be honest. Let’s stop trying to defend what we know is blatantly wrong and morally reprehensible. The moment you begin defending something you normally would condemn, you know you’ve crossed a line. That moment is when your principles have begun to rot and you’ve begun to follow a person.

No one is supporting Trump because of this behavior. However the fact that people are defending him despite this behavior is what is alarming.

No matter who wins, the next four years are going to require more of us than we’ve ever had to give. It’s going to require more dedication to our core principles than we’ve ever had to give. A victory on principle is worth whatever price is required. A victory for or against a person, however, is another story.

Jonathan Paine

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