I often find myself in a difficult position within conservatism: One that requires me to defend Trump despite the fact that I don’t like the man. While I didn’t vote for him in 2016, I did in 2020, largely because I felt that I needed to separate my dislike of Trump as a person from Trump as a President. Certainly, Trump’s Presidency wasn’t without its problems, including the growth of the national debt and failures along the southern border. It was, however, much better than the left would have ever given him credit for, which again, places me in this nebulous nuanced position of a non-Trump-supporting Trump voter.

At this point, 2024 couldn’t come fast enough, as Biden has proven to be among the most inept Presidents we have ever had.  His obvious mental decline has become a fine mixture of humor and terror for me, as the President is clearly incapable of navigating himself out of a paper bag, let alone complex and dangerous foreign policy issues that could lead to nuclear war and the deaths of millions. Biden’s own personal health aside, an issue for which I carry a great deal of empathy toward him, it has been clear through reporting done here at RedState and elsewhere that Biden has been using his influence within government to enrich his children and himself.

Upon the announcement of Trump’s candidacy in 2015, the left and the media (I repeat myself) launched into a world of hyperbolic hypothetical situations in which Trump was going to become our most corrupt President of all time. Trump’s ascension to the White House was going to mean the collapse of an otherwise moral government. We heard all sorts of unfounded accusations, which have since proven to be witch-hunt hoaxes, including actions taken within the FBI and DOJ that should have placed employees from those organizations in prison or should have awarded them with a free helicopter ride a là Pinochet. Yet it seems that the modern left is okay with the abuses of power and violations of Constitutional rights at the hands of these criminals (because that’s what they are), as long as those actions land on Trump.

If we were to simply change the last names of the players in the Biden corruption scandals to Trump, there would be no end to the actions taken against Trump to achieve “justice.”  The same standards that seemed immutable for the left in regard to Trump now seem to matter little when aimed through the lens of their own troubled Presidency.

For instance, if Don Jr. dropped his laptop off at a repair place that contained half-naked pictures of him engaged in illegal drug and gun activity, they’d be demanding his immediate arrest and prosecution. If faces within the government had labeled the contents of the Don Jr. Laptop as “Russian Disinformation,” the left would be climbing the walls demanding their resignations and prosecutions for the spreading of misinformation. If Eric Trump had been circling the globe on Air Force One, tagging along for meetings with world leaders with Daddy-O, only to be awarded multi-million (and billion) dollar contracts in the days following those “chance encounters,” the left would be calling foul. If we came to find out that Ivanka was putting Dad on the phone with her business contacts, selling the “illusion of access,” the left would be coming unglued.

When we simply change the players of the game but keep the rules the same, the left doesn’t seem to think it is such a problem. The fact that Hillary Clinton maintained, lied about, and then destroyed Classified information after it had been subpoenaed and then faced no charges seemed fair and reasonable to the left. When she coordinated with a foreign agent to obtain and create a fraudulent document and then peddled that document to the intelligence community as genuine and authentic, she, nor anyone in her campaign, faced a single consequence. When Obama administration officials were made aware that this document was fraudulent, did they immediately go public with the fact that a presidential candidate was engaged in an effort to defraud voters in an election? No. They kept quiet and allowed for Donald Trump’s Constitutional Rights to be trampled in FISA courts. They allowed for illegal and unconstitutional actions to be taken simply because they disliked the man.

When it was revealed that a member of Congress (ahem, Adam Schiff, ahem) knowingly used disinformation to fuel impeachment proceedings, they again looked the other way. They allowed him to use this “badge of honor” to fundraise for his Senate campaign to replace Dianne Feinstein, absent a single criticism. Yet, when Trump sends out campaign fundraising emails after the left’s latest attempt to “Get Trump” through some hurried and fabricated abuse of the law, it’s horrible.

Let me be clear: If Trump has committed a crime, he should be prosecuted to the furthest extent of the law. However, if the standards for those prosecutions of Trump were applied to others who have committed identical or worse violations of those laws, and they escape prosecution, the actions against Trump lose their credibility forever – as do those who bring those actions.

If peddling government influence is a crime, then the Bidens should be prosecuted as well. If the possession of classified material is a crime, then the Bidens and Clintons should be prosecuted as well. If spreading misinformation to overthrow an election is a crime, then three-quarters of Obama Administration staff, Joe Biden, Adam Schiff, and a liturgy of other leftists, should be charged with a crime. I can’t sit here on my throne of nebulous nuance and demand that Trump supporters accept Trump’s crimes while we sit by and watch those guilty of that and worse escape a similar prosecution. It is antithetical to the promise our Consitution holds. I can’t sit here and be lectured about the rule of law and how no one is above it when Hunter Biden is handed sweetheart deals promising not to prosecute him for crimes that the left insists he didn’t commit. Why would Hunter need immunity from prosecution for crimes he didn’t commit? Last I checked, Paul Manafort went to prison because he was an unregistered Foreign Agent conducting business in Ukraine. Now, please explain to me how what Hunter Biden has done and is doing is any different.

Need I mention the DOJ protecting those on the Epstein Client List? Need we cover the US Government’s actions with big tech to commit Constitutional Violations by proxy? Need I point out that Josh Shapiro (Pennsylvania) ignored an order from the US Supreme Court to commit ballot fraud? Need I bring up the frauds perpetrated during the COVID crisis by Fauci et al.?

While I would love to see Trump disappear into unimportance forever, the left’s double standards for corruption are making that desire impossible. Why? Because I hold standards. I am more than happy to demand Trump go to prison – if the Bidens, Obamas, Clintons, Bushes, and everyone guilty of exponentially worse are dragged down with him.

I will not, however, ever support the use of government to target my political opponents.

It is these double standards and the use of the government to target people politically that make it even more important today to support independent journalism in its quest to continue exposing malfeasance carried out by the state. Support us by getting a VIP subscription for premium content from yours truly and the rest of the RedState team. When you use promo code SAVEAMERICA, you’ll get 40% off the regular subscription price.