Some of you will recall Evan McMullin as one of the three major alternative candidates in the 2016 presidential election, after the Libertarian Party’s Gary Johnson and the Green Party’s Jill Stein. As a mainstream conservative Republican, and as a Mormon, he was an attractive candidate for some. Many Mormons, especially in Utah, and a fair number of other mainstream conservatives were drawn to him as an alternative to this year’s Republican candidate. He got 22% of the vote in Utah and pulled in more than 600,000 votes nationwide. That’s after launching his campaign in August, barely ahead of filing deadlines in only a dozen states; not too bad.
Anyway: Prompted this afternoon by a tweeted question from filmmaker Brian Koppelman, McMullin replied with a short tweetstorm listing 10 steps he recommends for resisting the authoritarianism promised by the presumed president-elect.
Now, I’m not endorsing these steps as sufficient. And I’m certainly not endorsing McMullin politically; he’s a fair-minded guy, but still conservative. But they’re not a bad start.
Most of all, though, I think it is interesting that a standard-issue, non-crazy Republican — the sort of Republican who could easily have won a presidential nomination just a couple of years ago — now finds it necessary to issue such a warning. His consciousness of the looming danger is heartening.
Which is to say: in the coming resistance, we will have allies on more sides that we might have thought. It’s not a bad idea to make common cause with them, to the degree it helps our common cause.
The original tweetstorm (minus #4, which didn’t get linked) begins here:
And here it is, detwitterfied:
If Trump governs as an authoritarian like he has promised, it will be critical that Americans do the following 10 things:
1. Read and learn the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Know that our basic rights are inalienable.
2. Identify and follow many credible sources of news. Be very well informed and learn to discern truth from untruth.
3. Watch every word, decision and action of Trump and his administration extremely closely, like we have never done before in America.
4. Be very vocal in every forum available to us when we observe Trump's violations of our rights and our democracy. Write, speak, act.
5. Support journalists, artists, academics, clergy and others who speak truth and who inform, inspire and unite us.
6. Build bridges with Americans from the other side of the traditional political spectrum and with members of diverse American communities.
7. Defend others who may be threatened by Trump even if they don't look, think or believe like us. An attack on one is an attack on all.
8. Organize online and in person with other Americans who understand the danger Trump poses and who are also willing to speak up.
9. Hold members of Congress accountable for protecting our rights and democracy through elections and by making public demands of them now.
10. And finally, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, have "malice toward none, with charity for all" and never ever lose hope!
