If you can’t vote the candidate, vote the platform.
Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton. That’s the choice we have this presidential election. Instead of hand-wringing about how we got to this point, I want to focus on the actual decision come November, what I’ve decided, and how I made that decision.
In my mind, neither is a good choice. There’s just no two ways about it. In the past, as a conservative, I’ve had to hold my nose and vote for guys like Mitt Romney or John McCain because the difference between them and their Democratic opponent was so wide, and had such awful policies (or promises of policies) that there was no contest in my mind.
With Donald Trump, I’m going to have to hold my nose, as well as a number of other body parts, because his policy promises today just don’t line up with what he’s said in the past. But I am going to vote for him. In this episode, I discuss the main reason why.
Mentioned links:
Six reasons Trump is still better than Clinton
50 GOP national security experts oppose Trump
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Show transcript
Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton. That’s the choice we have this presidential election. Instead of hand-wringing about how we got to this point – and there certainly has been a lot of that, and it’s worth trying to figure it out, and if I cover it, it’ll have to get its own episode – I want to focus on the actual decision come November, what I’ve decided, and how I made that decision.
In my mind, neither is a good choice. There’s just no two ways about it. In the past, as a conservative, I’ve had to hold my nose and vote for guys like Mitt Romney or John McCain because the difference between them and their Democratic opponent (Barack Obama, both times) was so wide (because Obama was so far to the Left), and had such awful policies (or promises of policies) that there was no contest in my mind.
With Donald Trump, I’m going to have to hold my nose, as well as a number of other body parts, because his policy promises today just don’t line up with what he’s said in the past. But I am going to vote for him. He’s been so far to the Left when he’s been asked questions in the past, but that didn’t matter much since he wasn’t running for any office. Now that he is, he’s suddenly sounding conservative on social and economic issues, and it just seems too convenient. And even if he’s sincere, I’m not sure someone who’s only recently become conservative is a good choice to lead the political party that is home to most conservatives. It’s sort of like someone who just left Hinduism to become Christian getting elected Pope. You’re not so sure he’s entirely thought through his positions and beliefs.
So then why am I voting for him? One word: SCOTUS. Or, to expand the acronym, the Supreme Court of the United States. More specifically, I believe he’ll pick better justices to the court, far better than Hillary and the Democrats ever would. Normally, I don’t encourage single-issue voting, but actually this one issue affects so many others.
Consider what the Supreme Court has influence over these days. They’ve helped fix the legislative mistakes in a massive takeover of the health care system so that Congress didn’t have to write a coherent bill. They’ve decreed that same-sex marriage is the law of the land, so that the peoples’ representatives didn’t have to. Nine unelected judges have almost become an equal part of the Legislative Branch of government.
And if you look at what Democrats have been trying to do to this country, having Hillary Clinton pick the next 1, 2 or perhaps even 3 Supreme Court justices could have devastating effects for a generation on this country, regarding especially basic constitutional rights in the First and Second Amendments on religious liberty and gun rights. And as Democrats have become more authoritarian – especially regarding your requirement to purchase a financial instrument against your will (that is, health insurance) – they’ll need as many judges as they can who care more for government making you do things that the government thinks you should be doing than they care about the freedom that the Constitution gave us; the freedom that comes from a federal government that is limited in size and scope.
If Hillary Clinton is elected, you will lose freedoms at a much faster pace than you have under Barack Obama. Will Donald Trump’s picks be that much better? I think so. As I said, he’s a recent convert to conservatism, but he’ll have to work with Republicans in the Senate to get a nominee that is palatable to them, so that may hold back his liberal tendencies a bit.
So is my vote for Trump, or against Clinton? Probably some of both, but the issue of the Supreme Court is, I think, of incredible importance.
When Clinton supporters jump on Trump for his latest outrage (and they’ve had many opportunities to do that), I always have some questions for them. Is what Trump just did worse than what Clinton has done? Is it worse than using the Clinton Foundation as a money laundering scheme to buy political favors? Is it worse than Clinton playing fast and loose with our government’s secrets, basically giving them to Vladimir Putin? Is it worse than having her lie to the FBI and to you about doing that? Yes, 50 GOP national security experts recently warned about problems with Trump. Trump’s foolishness does concern me, as does the recommendation of those national security experts. But their thoughts are predictions, as opposed to a proven track record of deception and graft. If Trump screws things up, we’ll likely know pretty quickly. If Clinton screws up, we may never know.
Basically, whatever Trump does, you have to compare it to voluntarily voting for a person who is a proven felon, who already demonstrated she has no problem with graft, who can’t be trusted with an important government job, and who will lie to the authorities and to you to keep her corruption a secret. She did that for her husband, and she’ll certainly do it for herself. You have to realize that you simply can’t trust anything she says (more so than your average politician), and she will simply not allow herself to be held accountable.
“But Trump said something mean, stupid, or scary”, comes the response from Clinton supporters. I’ve even had friends refuse to allow any comparison to Clinton when Trump says something like that. “This is about him, not Hillary”, they claim. Sorry, but even agreeing with you on the latest foolishness from Trump does not let Hillary off the hook. Deflecting from her HUGE problems with the truth is the job of the media. Let the professionals do their job.
And finally, unrelated to all this, I got this quote in an email from listener DocH. “Stop worrying about what the rest of the world thinks of us, and start making the rest of the world worry about what we think of them.” That was from David Burge on Twitter, where he’s @iowahawkblog. He’s got a point. And maybe it does relate to this topic, especially if Trump is elected.
So what do you think? Who are you voting for and why? Or perhaps you don’t know who you’re voting for, or just don’t want to say, but you have your big 1 or 2 issues that will determine how you vote. I’d like to collect these thoughts and feature them in future shows. I’d like to have a segment called “Consider This Vote” with your thoughts on the upcoming presidential election. Leave me a message by calling 267-CALL-CT-0, 267-225-5280. It can be as short as 30 seconds, or as long as you want. Just remember, the show is only 10 minutes or less. If you prefer to write down your thoughts, email me at considerthis@ctpodcasting.com. If you’re on Facebook or Google+, search for me there and you can leave your comments on those pages.
Related posts:
- Episode 47: A Look at the Supreme Court Rulings; Voting Rights Act, Defense of Marriage Act, and California’s Proposition 8
- Episode 130: Failing Econ 101, “FBI Target for President!”, and the Cologne Attacks
- Episode 18: Why I’m Voting for Mitt Romney (and Why You Should, Too): The Economy