Invoking ‘2020’ Evan McMullin Calls for a New Conservative Movement

Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:30 pm

Independent candidate Evan McMullin of Utah, who has called himself the “only conservative in the race,” took the opportunity of his concession speech to make the point that the Republican Party is lost to conservatives.

McMullin had earlier attracted the vote of Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and gave both Trump and Clinton a run for their money in his home state of Utah with 21 percent of the vote. Donald Trump referred to McMullin as Bill Kristol’s puppet and objected that he had never heard of the former CIA officer.

Now, with the election over, McMullin is calling for a new conservative movement, saying that a Trump victory means it is time for conservatives to abandon the Republican Party. According to McMullin, Trump is nothing more than a parasite.

Tonight,” he said, “There are millions of Americans who, I am sad to say, fear their liberties will be challenged by a Trump administration.

“The Republican Party can no longer be considered the home for conservatives. Conservatism is about protecting the fundamental rights: That we are all equal, regardless of the color of our skin, the faith that we practice or our gender. But tonight there are millions of Americans, I’m sad to say, who are now in fear that perhaps their liberties will be challenged and threatened under a Trump administration that has made a campaign of targeting people based on their race, religion and gender.”

“We must hold our leaders accountable now,” he said. “We can no longer trust them to do it. They had their opportunity.”

He ended his remarks by saying “2020” to the cheers of his supporters.

Time will tell what will become of the Republican Party. McMullin says Trump does not represent conservatism but if this is true, neither do establishment Republicans, whose message of hate and exclusion Trump repeated for the past 18 months.

McMullin calls for a new conservative movement, and one is surely needed, as the GOP has not been the Party of Lincoln for a long, long time, and the election of Donald Trump is just the punctuation point on a long decline from greatness.

Hrafnkell Haraldsson


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