"I can say this with certainty: If Donald Trump is the nominee, I will not vote for him. He stands for a dangerous government-centric authoritarianism, he shows remarkable contempt for the Bill of Rights, he does not respect private property, he does not value liberty, he has been on every side of every issue throughout his life, expressing shockingly liberal positions on countless issues, has financially and rhetorically supported the most implacable political adversaries of the right, including Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, his leadership style is autocratic, and worst of all, it has become increasingly clear that he doesn't have one damn clue about what is going on internationally, or how to confront it. He has used and taken advantage of our collective anger, frustration, bitterness and disappointment with a political class that has failed us miserably, and cynically exploited it. His campaign is one desperate plea for attention after another, his responses to substantive criticisms of his proposals are either vapid, hollow platitudes without substance, or vain, ego-centric self congratulation for being so great and so successful, without actually backing it up with any substance at all. I get it. He reflects our frustration. He says he hates the same people we do. He uses insults to make us all feel satisfaction that somebody is "taking on" the people we think are running the country into the ground. But that is part of the insideous nature of him and his candidacy. He is, if nothing else, a clever and experienced self-marketing machine. He knows what buttons to push, what feelings to reflect and what sentiments to say he shares. He knows how to manipulate people better than any modern candidate for president, and that is what upsets me most about this. He is successfully using the good intentions and burning feelings of a huge number of wonderful people, turning members of the conservative movement -- leaders and activists --against each other. And why? To aid in the acquisition of centralized executive power for himself. And so far, we have let ourselves be manipulated. We have fallen for it and given this cartoon character everything he wants. Attention and power. In reality, he is an empty suit, and there is nothing going on under that ridiculous comb over of his. He is not now and never has been a conservative. He is using and manipulating good people into considering him a savior, and in so doing completely abandoning their movement and everything it stands for. Buckley would be ashamed of us for even entertaining Donald Trump as a candidate. These are not the words of an establishment moderate. I am and always have been an extraordinarily hard right ideologue, with what our friends on the left have called extremist libertarian views. I have never been a member of "the establishment" and one of the biggest reasons I have moved into the think tank world is to serve as an ideological guardian of our movement, throwing rocks from outside the establishment. It is BECAUSE of those reasons that I can never support Donald Trump for president. If he represents the party I belong to, I may be forced to unenroll from that party in order to disassociate myself from his brand of Know-Nothing Crypto-fascist liberal populism. I will never vote for Hillary Clinton, but you do not earn my vote simply by not being her. Reflecting frustration on immigration isn't enough to make me ignore who you really are as a leader, as a person, or what you believe and have believed on all the other issues. I will not be complicit in the internal destruction of the conservative movement by supporting Donald Trump. In my mind, the choice between Clinton and Trump would be the choice between two different types of equally destructive candidate, both adherents to authoritarian liberalism. Where one is better on one issue, they are far worse on another. Neither represent a conservative vision of this country. I will not give my blessing to either of them." Matt Gagnon FB 12/16/2015
