If Donald Trump had not won the White House in 2016, we would all be in prison right now.

Okay, maybe not all of us. But some of us. And some of us are in prison right now because he lost the White House in 2020.

By “us,” I mean social conservatives. Small “o” orthodox Christians from many communions. Pro-lifers.

Many pro-lifers have been conflicted about this election. Yes, Trump gave us the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade. But he seems to think his job on that issue is now done, and that it is only one for the states to handle now. Worse, he wants to subsidize in vitro fertilization, which kills human embryos.

I understand the pro-life ambivalence. I wrote a piece criticizing the Trump-Vance campaign myself, right after they gutted the GOP Platform.

But now I am writing a few days after a debate in which Vice President Kamala Harris is largely viewed to have bested Trump in their only scheduled debate thus far. There are slightly more than six weeks to go until Election Day, with the race for president a toss-up.

And I think it is time for wavering social conservatives to put aside — for now — their misgivings about President Trump and to do whatever they can to help reelect him.

Too Crazy to Believe

If Trump wins, you may feel bad about having supported a man who has — for now, at least — effectively turned the GOP into a pro-choice party.

But if Harris wins, believe me, you are going to feel a lot worse. Especially if you sat on your hands when you could have done something to prevent that catastrophe. Because it will be a catastrophe on every conceivable level — not just this one.

Let’s start with my point about people like us being in prison. Sounds crazy, right? But that is the world we live in now. That is the America we now have.

In fact, the more outlandish the Left’s tactics become, the more it plays into their favor.

It’s a three-step process: 1) The Left does something outlandish. 2) The Right says, “Look at this outlandish thing the Left is doing!” 3) The very people doing the thing say, “That’s outlandish! It’s not happening. That’s just right-wing propaganda.” And people believe them because it’s hard to believe such an outlandish thing is happening.

Put another way, 2024 is the Year of the Hurdle. That is my name for it.

2023 was the Year of the Turn. You remember: Bud Light using a transgender person to sell beer, Target stores selling “tuck-friendly” transgender clothing to toddlers, fights at education board meetings. For whatever reason, 2023 was the year the average guy on the street started to notice that social conservatives have been right all along about the attacks on our culture.

But 2024 has been the hurdle. “Could the federal government really be throwing people in prison because they don’t like their politics?” “Are newborns who survive botched abortions really being left to die?”

The answers are yes, and yes — but still people can’t get their minds around these things. They are hurdles. “Those things happen in other countries, not America,” is what they think.

Remember when the residents of New Orleans who were displaced by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, objected to being called “refugees”? “We’re Americans,” they said. “Other countries, like Bangladesh, have refugees. Not us.”

That is the mentality we face in this election. People can’t believe the things that will happen if Harris wins — indeed, the things that are happening right now — because those things don’t happen in America. That’s the hurdle.

But these things are happening. And they will grow much worse under a Harris administration.

What Has Been …

Check out what the Biden Justice Department tried to do to pro-life activist Mark Houck. Check out what they succeeded in doing to elderly pro-life hero Joan Andrews Bell.

Bell is not the only elderly pro-lifer given a disproportionate prison sentence, or the only pro-lifer whom the federal government has targeted for their views in general. There are several.

It would take another article to tell all their stories. Or the stories of parents who were deemed “domestic terrorists” by the U.S. Education Department for speaking against pornographic materials in their children’s school libraries at board of education meetings. Or weaponizing the judicial system in an attempt to put the Republican presidential candidate in prison.

This is Third World stuff. Banana-republic stuff. It is not supposed to happen in America. The very outlandishness of it creates a hurdle for those of us trying to alert the public to the unprecedented danger these tactics pose to the American Republic.

Yes, Trump has waffled in his defense of the unborn. But Harris is on the side of those who would allow post-abortion infanticide. In Connecticut right now, we are fighting an effort by Planned Parenthood to remove regulations from state law that explicitly require doctors to save the lives of newborns who survive botched abortions. The proposal would also remove conscience protections for medical personnel who do not wish to perform abortions.

Yes, Trump’s character flaws are many. But didn’t we already hash all this out in the 2016 election? And didn’t our support for Trump pay off? The repeal of Roe v. Wade is a victory for the ages. If the Left had secured a win of such epic proportions, they would invent a new flag for it and force us to fly it. Children would be taught to sing songs about it around campfires.

… Completely Burdened by What Will Be

None of Trump’s general-election opponents have ever presented much of a contrast in the matter of character. Harris, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden are all deeply comprised when it comes to issues of personal integrity.

Yes, Trump has dumped on Project 2025. But whomever wins the White House will fill literally thousands of positions in the federal government. We are far more likely to see those positions filled by people broadly committed to conservative principles if Trump wins. With whom, exactly, do you think Harris will fill these positions? We’ve seen the kinds of people Biden has filled them with, and as Harris has repeatedly said, there is “no daylight” between her views and his. They are of a piece. If anything, she is even more extreme than he has been.

This last point is crucial. We are not just voting for one person against another person in this election; we are voting for one army against another army. Each candidate, should they win, will bring with them a like-minded army of thousands to fill governmental positions. If it is Harris, expect further attacks on you and your values through an undemocratic process of administrative law. Expect a knock on your door like the one that greeted Mark Houck.

That knock on the door. That invasion of your own family.

We in the pro-life movement fight for the lives of children — typically other people’s children. But with the ever-escalating extremism of the transgender movement, it is our children the government is now coming after. They don’t want to just kill other people’s children. They want to come into your home and take your child if you don’t affirm his or her gender confusion.

I have all the respect in the world for pro-life leaders who have sounded the alarm on Trump’s abortion pivot. Again, I have done so myself.

But for all the reasons listed above, and so many more, we have to prioritize reelecting him these next six weeks.

Trump’s 2016 victory bought us a respite from worse persecution and ended Roe v. Wade. If he wins in 2024, we live to fight another day, sometimes against Trump himself.

But if Harris wins, it will be lights out for the unborn and for the civil liberties of those who fight for them. So, fellow pro-lifers, spend these next few weeks doing whatever you can to help reelect Donald Trump. The alternative is just too horrible.

Peter Wolfgang is president of Family Institute of Connecticut Action. He lives in Waterbury, Connecticut, with his wife and their seven children. The views expressed on The Stream are solely his own.