The Canary In The Conservative Coal Mine: Former Congressional Candidate Chris Taylor
Most people first heard about Chris Taylor back in February when he garnered a few national headlines. Eight months ago, Taylor was running as a Republican for the U.S. House of Representatives seat for Arizona’s 1st congressional district, but he dropped out of the race when it was reported that he was struggling from a drug abuse relapse that resulted in a traumatic heroin overdose. Check out his interview with a local Arizona news channel to learn more about his personal story.
Now, CopyrightBro has some original reporting to contribute which adds color and context to Taylor’s story.
Following the news of his overdose and withdrawal from the race, we decided to poke around his campaign website a bit. As you might imagine of a Republican campaign site for a congressional seat in a swing state in 2020, it was extremely Trump-y. Every opportunity to name drop the president was taken. They opted for utilitarian fonts that appeal to men with militarized concepts of masculinity. The policy section was light on specifics but used plenty of inflammatory language and relied on common tropes one might hear from Tucker Carlson or Rush Limbaugh. It was extremely polarizing. Interestingly though, the website offered up Taylor’s personal phone number. I decided to reach out to him, personally.
To be frank, my initial intentions in contacting him weren’t entirely innocent and devoid of political influence. I did want to wish him well, but in doing so, I wanted to demonstrate that empathy is more important than dying on political hills, and that connecting through our shared humanity is a good way to traverse the widening ideological boundaries that plague our country and are often exacerbated and exploited by Republicans. I truly did want to wish him a swift and successful recovery, but I also intended for my message to serve as a subtle indictment of the way his party has abandoned honor, empathy, and respect in recent years, as well as their inaction when it comes to addressing America’s opioid crisis. The message I sent read:
Hi, my name is Broc. I’m from NC and may not have been a fan of some of your political views, but I just saw your story online and wanted to say I hope you get the help you need and that your recovery goes well. The opioid epidemic doesn’t discriminate based on political parties, and well wishes for folks trying to overcome that challenge shouldn’t either. 🇺🇸🤟🏼
To my surprise, he responded. And his response shocked me. He said:
Thank you so much! And I bet we aren’t too far off, politically. I actually can’t stand Trump.
Wh.. what? I was blown away. I didn’t expect a reply, and I certainly wasn’t expecting him to say that. My response was a bit incredulous:
Dude really? Your website is very ride-or-die Trumpian haha. I guess you gotta play to your audience a bit. […]
Again, Chris’s reply struck me:
Yeah, I had to, but it’s not worth selling my soul for his hatefulness.
Hatefulness and selfishness are not only afflictions that ail Donald Trump, they’re endemic to the friends he’s found in the Republican Party. The only politician to contact Chris while he was in the hospital recovering from his overdose was his Democratic opponent—no one from the Republican Party reached out to him. He recently announced that he is now supporting that Democratic candidate who was his former opponent. That’s not the only Democrat he’s supporting, though.
In further conversations, Chris revealed to me that he was privately supporting Pete Buttigieg in the presidential primaries, and even told me that Mayor Pete was the only candidate he had ever donated money to. I was also a big fan of Pete, and I personally donated to and volunteered for his campaign, in addition to endorsing him here on CopyrightBro. It was remarkable for me to learn that we really were on the same political page, as he had suggested in his first message to me. It gives me a little bit of hope that not every Republican in office right now is as bought into the performance as they seem.
If you’re a lifelong Republican, it’s worth considering how many more Republican politicians may be running under that label whilst being manipulated by the puppet masters of the Republican Party. How many others’ commitments to Donald Trump self serving, devisive antics are simply a facade they’ve been forced to erect for the sake of receiving support from the Republican Party’s political machine? For people who truly hold some conservative beliefs, considering this paradox for more than a few seconds will lead you to an uncomfortable mental place.
Do your allegiances lie with Donald Trump? If so, you should be offended by the prospect that many Republican politicians don’t actually support him, and are taking advantage of your votes by riding his coattails.
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Do your allegiances lie with your conservative principles? If so, you should take note of the fact that Republican politicians who share your beliefs are breaking from Donald Trump, and consider that Trump is more of a demagogue than a true conservative.
The Republican Party is in disarray: they’re corrupt, they lie, they’re running out of principled stances. That doesn’t mean that the same is necessarily true for conservatism; not all conservative principles are useless or harmful. America’s political system is being ruined by the two party system, and what we need is more parties, not less. For the sake of the future of American politics, let’s hope there are more people like Chris who could build new, righteous political parties that incorporate some legitimate conservative principles once the current Republican Party inevitably implodes.
Today, Chris Taylor tweeted a message announcing his endorsement of Joe Biden. In the wake of his endorsement this morning, we reached out to Chris again, and he provided the following statement regarding his decision:
I swore an oath to the Constitution, I will defend it with my life. There is a reason we don’t swear an oath to the President, but that’s where the allegiance lies today in the Republican Party and that’s why I can’t be a part of it anymore. We need to defend all of the constitutional amendments as vigorously as we defend the Second Amendment: especially the First Amendment, all of it. Freedom of religion means all religions, not just Christianity. Freedom of speech means that athletes have the right to kneel in protest during the national anthem, that people have every right to peacefully protest racial inequality and police brutality, that businesses have the right to mandate masks during a pandemic. Freedom of the press means not discrediting and disregarding reputable news organizations by calling them fake news and “the enemy of the people” simply because the coverage is unflattering.
With all the different serious fires raging in our country right now, the ideal situation would be to elect a once-in-a-generation kind of leader. A professional firefighter, figuratively speaking— a fire science expert who knows exactly what to do to put the fires out and who possesses the courage needed to advance the firehose to the seat of the raging inferno. Someone to finally close this devastating chapter in American history and ultimately heal and unite our wounded nation.
How we long for the wisdom of Abraham Lincoln, the talent of JFK, the energy and compassion of Bobby Kennedy, the tenacity of Teddy Roosevelt and the steady crisis leadership of FDR. I don’t pretend to believe Joe Biden will be that caliber of leader. But I know in my heart that Joe has the love, empathy, compassion, and courageous soul needed to at least attempt to put those fires out.
With the current occupant of the White House, the little hope I ever had that he would even try to do the right thing in any given situation is lost completely. I’m endorsing Joe Biden because I know at the very least, he won’t start anymore fires. Donald Trump has and will continue to light new fires, and he will keep pouring gasoline on the ones that are already raging. He’s unfit for office of any level, and his repeated, disgusting remarks about America’s war heroes wholly disqualify him from continuing to serve as Commander-in-Chief.
It’s evident that Chris’s decision to support Joe Biden did not come as a result of him being a closeted Democrat. He made this decision because Joe Biden is a better vessel of many true conservative ideals than Donald Trump.
In any case, publicly endorsing Biden is an incredible, courageous conclusion to his 2020 character arc of political reckoning and personal growth. I don’t know Chris terribly well, but if I know anything about him at all, these three things are true:
He has massive balls.
He gives me hope for the future of responsible conservative ideas.
He makes me proud, and whether he gets back into the fray of national politics or not, he’ll make you proud. Anyone in America would be lucky to have a Congressman like him.