Political purity contests are fantastic for social media and cable news, but not so great for conservatives who prioritize winning over perfection. On Monday, Iowa voters chose Trump, despite all his flaws. They didn’t just hand him a razor-thin victory, it was more like a historic tsunami.
Why did they do that? DeSantis is more normal, Haley can bring the much-coveted college-educated suburban women that CNN is infatuated with, yet they broke hard for Trump. Are they blind to Trump’s flaws? His legal situation? Nope. It’s that they have decided perfection isn’t the goal.
I have been wearing the GOP hat since I could vote. Don’t get me wrong, I have donned the jersey of my favorite primary candidate every four years, but I have never taken off my hat. My voting record reflects that philosophy: Bush, Dole, Bush x 2, McCain, Romney, Trump x 2. I am not the first person to say this, but for me, electoral politics is purely transactional. I don’t need a friend, parent, pastor, therapist, role model, hero, or savior when voting for a politician. My vote is cast for who is aligned closest to my views at every stage, first in the primary and then in the general.
Who makes it out of the primary isn’t solely up to me or you. We are presented with a binary choice at the end of each cycle for the general election, and none of my personal choices have ended up being the eventual nominee
