Decisions, decisions
Every day there’s some new outrage from Donald Trump and/or Hillary Clinton. That’s almost a given, and it’s something we have grown used to.
“Grown used to” can segue into “grown complacent about.” But I’m not complacent—nor do I think most of you are complacent. Nevertheless I no longer have been describing, detailing, and reacting in print to every single thing that happens during this election season. I register them in my mind, however.
And of course I plan to continue to write about these things quite often, as the spirit moves me. But daily blow-by-blow narration of every single incident (sometimes several-times-daily blow-by-blow narrations)? No; the time for that was during the GOP primary season, when something could still have been done about it.
Trump is now going to be the GOP nominee. Hillary Clinton will almost certainly be the Democratic nominee, absent an indictment which I’ve long predicted will not come. That is our choice (although if a viable third-party candidate with a chance of being anything but a spoiler appeared, I would still support such a candidate). Many if not most of us have already made our choices: Trump, Hillary, none of the above, third-party. Those of us who still haven’t decided for absolute certain (I’m not going to vote for Hillary, but there is a chance of Trump or third-party for me) are not going to decide tomorrow. We probably won’t decide till it’s close to November, or perhaps in that lonely voting booth.
[NOTE: A reader sent me a link to this New Yorker essay by Adam Gopnik about how dangerous Trump is or could be. My reaction to the Gopnick article is that it completely misses the two biggest points about Trump’s most recent supporters, the ones who are only coming aboard now that he’s sewn up the nomination. It’s not surprising that Gopnik, who is of the liberal/left, would miss these points in his zeal to criticize those Republicans, and to characterize Trump as uniquely dreadful among American party nominees (which I happen to think Trump actually is).
The first point that Gopnik seems to miss (or dissembles about; I don’t read Gopnik’s mind, so I don’t know which it is) is that Trump’s late-embracers aren’t embracing him at all; they are very reluctant to do so and have been dragged kicking and screaming to it. The vast majority of them still detest him and are well aware that he’s potentially dangerous. Unlike what Gopnik asserts about them, there is little real acceptance among them of the idea that Trump can be controlled, and I have never observed his description: “Columnists and magazines that a month ago were saying #NeverTrump…now vibrating with the frisson of his audacity.”
In the latter part of his essay, Gopnik describes a line he believes Trump will cross, that of a leader and/or president being an “enemy of the liberal constitutional order of the United States””the order that has made it, in fact, the great and plural country that it already is. [Trump] announces his enmity to America by word and action every day.” That brings us to the second huge point Gopnik misses, which is that most of those who have regretfully decided to support Trump at this late date think that the line that already been crossed by his predecessor, Barack Obama.
Also, it depends what you mean by “enmity.” Trump professes his love for America, but his lack of respect for and willingness to abide by “the constitutional order of the United States” that has made us great is clear, and that latter fact has troubled me greatly about him from the start. Gopnik doesn’t see fit to acknowledge Obama’s violation of that respect, and the right greatly fears and expects Hillary Clinton to continue along those same lines. So there isn’t a person in the race who respects the Constitution (there was, but Cruz and others like Walker are gone).
Trump is merely more rhetorically up-front and less deceptive about his plans to cross that line. These reluctant Trump-supporters don’t delude themselves that they can control him or that he will be faithful to the Constitution—they merely think he is at least partly on their side in what he might end up doing, and Hillary is not.]
I consider Hillary to be the single most dangerous person to potentially be President. Worse than Burr.
Why? She’s a criminal.
We know for a near fact that she sold official acts for money to foreign countries. We known for an actual fact that she is incompetent in foreign policy.
The President can unilaterally and constitutionally in foreign policy. So what harm can she work as President? Unlimited. And make no mistake about it, she wants more money. Secret money. Money that Cheryl Mills and Bruce Lindsey can hide for her.
That criminal mindset and behavior is a recipe for disaster. Add in the fact that she’s immune from impeachment …..
That’s my Trump endorsement.
Soros money was behind both Hillary and Obama back in 2008. I believe it was a complete surprise to the powers behind the scene that Obama could win. He was about the future. Even Michelle was on record early in the campaign season that he wasn’t ready to serve as President. Once he was in, the Democrats struck while the iron was hot–early on, foisting Obamacare upon the public though it was overwhelmingly unsupported by the electorate. Soros is behind Hillary, not Trump. That alone confirms for me that she is the most dangerous person to assume that office.
We need another revolt. How about based on “I’m tired as hell, and I’m not going to listen anymore:” That’s where I am right now. I’ve had it with the spin doctors who are given so much time on “news” shows. Maybe if we could take their rating down to the basement, some people might have a bit of time to think.
Hillary just said Trump is dangerous and should not have the nuclear codes. Doesn’t understand America and the world. Tempramentaly unsuited to be President said the woman who pitched lamps at her husband and then allowed serial cheating in consideration for money and political cover.
I am firmly convinced Hillary is way more dangerous. Why wouldn’t she do something against Russia or Japan as a favor for China. All for money, of course.
We know Trump is firmly in favor of America and can’t be bribed.
Hillary Clinton must be defeated.
Carthage must be destroyed.
Once again Cornhead has eloquently stated what I have been thinking.
Something else to consider–Hillary and the leftist cabal (a/k/a Democratic Party) have their tentacles throughout government. Put Hillary in charge, and knowing her nature as a government official, we have much to fear. Hillary is the scorpion in the frog and the scorpion story.
Trump has no record as a person holding the public trust. So, as bad as Trump is according to Neo-neocon’s descriptions of him (with which I completely agree), we do not know how evil, if at all, he would be as a government official.
Even if Trump’s nature were to be as evil a government official as Hillary, he does NOT have the connections, through either party, to negatively affect government operations as does Hillary.
So, I urge Neo-neocon to adopt this position:
“I’m voting for Trump because Hillary has already proved how bad a government official she is.”
“Even if Trump’s nature were to be as evil a government official as Hillary, he does NOT have the connections, through either party, to negatively affect government operations as does Hillary.”
He won’t have any cover from the media-aka-Democrat-shills either.
It’s always safer for the Republic to have a Republican president; but either way, we are in for a rough ride coming up.
If the Dems start arming the SJW’s we will be at the same place as the Germans in Neo’s other post today.
Trump doesn’t have much of ideology, he mostly wants to do what works…..
How do you know what works when government is so complicated?
Hire experts and have them argue in front of you, then make decisions. Enough experiments have been done in the world over the last 50 years to know what works and what doesn’t. Trump will choose capitalism more than socialism, but only for that reason. Not because he believes in any of it.
Its a thin reed to lean on, but its all there is.
Ira & AesopFan,
That is exactly how I see it. Hillary has carte-blanche with the existing apparatus. That is already evident with the way the email situation has been handled. I don’t believe Trump would. Maybe our other 2 branches would rediscover their reason for being established in the first place.
Seems to me that “Donald Trump!” is going to be, for David French, Bill Kristol, SJWs, Dems, Clinon, and the flagging #NeverTrump minions the equalivent of “Niagra Falls!”
As in the Stooges….
“Ah, but it wasn’t always thus, I can look back to the days of yourn when I was a very happy married man. Then one day, that rat Trump came and destroyed forever the happiness I ever known. I’ll never forget that day, I just came home from the grave yard shift, and there was a note on a pillow. — ‘Dear Moe, I am running away with Larry.’ …. “And then I came face to face with the rat that ruined my life, it was in ‘NIAGARA FALLS’….”
“NIAGARA FALLS, slowly I turned, and step by step, inch by inch, I walked up to him, I smashed him, I hit him, I bonked him, I bopped him, I socked him and I mashed his face and I knocked him down.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYP1OBZfFK0
I should add that the number one domestic policy for the libs is global warming. I personally heard Hillary say she wants solar panels on every rooftop. Lots of money backing this, but it will extensively harm the American economy.
And Hillary personally whacked billions off the valuations of bio-techs with a few tweets. Bio-tech is on the verge of major cancer discoveries. Delay is death for cancer patients. Public companies need money to invent and test. She can choke off the money with her nutty policies. And her son-in-law will be shorting the bio-techs on advance info from Hillary via the most encrypted phone ever. Criminals.
Just watched Hillary’s speech on national security that she delivered in San Diego today. She made a terrific case against Trump. You can see it on YouTube here, and the transcript is here.
Ann–I should listen to the woman who was on watch during Benghazi and has violated the rules of security while heading the State Department, why?
Definition of insanity–doing the same thing and expecting different results.
So a rich capitalist is more dangerous to the Constitution they friend on to exist under its property rights and protections than a party been bent on making a communist state and being part of a communist world since at least norm Thomas said there was no difference between the cpusa candidates and the dem party… Knowing the goal is a dictatorship of the prols, and his they have been caught colluding for that goal
Got it
Stupid as it is
Your right
Being communist and wanting it is now normalized in the Stalinist sense… Even more so because you somehow think they have reformed
By the way
The band with China will start after the left leaves office called it was their preparations and such that created the situation that can’t be stopped
Or are you waiting to hear from the pravdas of the West that out military is denuded of experience and things are so bad we are canabalizing parts from ships to keep things working and in a conflict you will have to rely on who to build and repair with parts that only come from the opposition and the States around them we can’t protect
“Cannibalization” — pulling scarce spare parts off one ship or plane to fix another about to deploy — is now routine, the captains testified. For example, the USS Normandy has served as an organ donor for 13 different “mission critical” components over the last 45 days, crippling the anti-aircraft cruiser‘s radar. “I could not possibly surge right now” for an emergency deployment, testified Normandy skipper Capt. Scott Robertson.
Naval air forces are in similar straits. Four of the Navy’s 10 carrier air wings are fully manned and equipped, but those four are the ones either deployed or about to deploy, said Capt. Randy Stearns. Getting one of the other six wings ready to go in an emergency would take six to 12 months, “three times as long” as when he was a young officer, Stearns said: “As of today, we don’t have that surge capacity.”
Carrier Air Wing One will not have the funds or parts to fly at all for four months, Stearns testified
You think anyone will fix that????
China’s Communist Party-affiliated newspaper, Global Times, gloated over Locklear’s warning, noting his remarks in a story beneath the headline “U.S. losing grip on Pacific: PACOM.”
In the Times story, Jin Canrong, a deputy dean of the School of International Studies at Renmin University of China, said the American admiral’s comments recognize China as a rising military power. Indeed, it is. China has launched its first stealth drone, known as Sharp Sword, and is developing indigenous aircraft carriers. Its “two-ocean strategy” is based on the goal of building a fleet of five or six carrier battle groups.
China’s first battle group, led by its first carrier, the Liaoning, recently conducted a monthlong exercise that saw the refurbished Soviet-built flattop and her escorts sail south to the waters near Taiwan. During the exercise, a Chinese warship nearly collided with the guided missile cruiser USS Cowpens, which was shadowing the battle group.
Art –
Keep in mind that the PLAN’s new carrier is largely for training purposes only. The PLAN is aware of the fact that the USN has decades of experience in carrier operations, and wants to start developing the experienced crew cadres needed to give the PLAN’s eventual carrier fleet a chance of functioning in an effective manner.
The carrier itself is recognized as a piece of junk for anything resembling operational uses against all but the weakest of potential enemies.
Sharon – No reason to point out the definition of insanity. If anyone wants to know what insanity is, they can just look around.
I don’t think that Clinton’s foreign policy will be the same as her stint at State, though. She’s more (I don’t mean this as an insult) masculine than our current president. She doesn’t like to lose and won’t be bound by contemporary liberal pacifism. She’s not competent, and she’s never surrounded herself with competent people, but she’s ornery. And if you count trade as a foreign policy issue, there’s every reason to believe she’d be better than Trump.
I agree hrc and wjc are basically criminals and utterly corrupt. Everything in their world is viewed as what enriches and provides them with power and influence to further amass wealth. This desire for power, influence is shared by djt.
Djt’s only virtue is he is not hrc. His negative is he is a leathal loose cannon.
Nope, not voting for “Caesar-Lite” even half the tyrant is too much.
“To Vote for Trump?” by Ramesh Ponnuru at NRO. Good article. Sample quote: “No voter is under any moral obligation to judge whether Trump or Clinton is the lesser evil.”
KL Smith-How about Trump or Soros? Is there a lesser evil between those 2? If I had to go into battle following one of these commanders and I’m aware that one of them helped secure Obama as President (the present Commander, who wouldn’t want to weigh in on whether a baby born alive following an abortion procedure should be assisted), I know who I would follow. And yes, for me Obama=Soros/Ayers and Hillary Clinton=Soros.
Nick–My opinion of Hillary Clinton hasn’t changed since the first time I ever saw her (the 60 Minutes interview.) We will just have to agree to disagree about her capacity to serve the United States. The Clinton Global Initiative gives a good indication as to what motivates this woman.
Good comments, so I’ll expand the subject a little: why Hillary?
HRC is the worst candidate the Dems have put up in a long time. And yes, we know “she’s owed,” for all the time she has devoted to the Democrat party.
But just who benefited from her time toiling in the Dem vineyards? She did. She was not in it for her party, she was in it for herself. And money. Lots of money.
So why doesn’t the party just say “that’s enough. Your use-by date has passed. Time for a new face.” Is there really no one under 50 in the party who can attract voters better than Hillary? Or even over 50, for that matter.
Maybe there isn’t. It would have been a simple thing for Obama to say to Biden “man up, Joe. You gotta run to preserve what I achieved.” But he doesn’t. Maybe because he knows Biden well enough to know he’s not a better candidate than HRC.
The Democrats must have been worried for a long time that Hillary’s scandalous past would eventually catch up with her — or are they oblivious to it?
I know many readers of this blog se Soros’ hand behind a lot of what goes on in America, and I don’t disagree, but even Soros must be wondering now if HRC is really able to pull it off this year.
Surely America can do better than a candidate who says “sell the house and give me the money,” and another one who says “burn it down to make it better.” So why haven’t we?
Just wondering. . .
Jeffrey Zatlin
For those of you who are not sure what to do or who to support – ask yourself this: whose supporters care about Americans, and whose supporters are burning our flag? And the politicians from which party are defending the America-haters?
So the leftists again are acting like fascists/communists and beating up the opposition..
now, if you think that they will stop if you elect anyone that condones or helps them, and they win by intimidation, then your nuts.
burning the american flag, calling for repatriation of american soil to mexico, and more…
in 100 years they have never ever done anything else to win elections… worked for the russians when the sailors rioted, worked for the germans when the german brownshirts beat up the german communists, and more..
and yet… people think Trump is so bad they would rather have what? stalinists? trotskyites? social justice warriors who claim white males are racists (and by extention white women are the producers of racists, so get rid of them too, right?)
welcome to communist politics…
from the late 1800s to today, the communists think violent protest and action is the way to win, and sometimes it is.
but sadly, if anyone thinks that this is because of trump, they are nuts. its because the candidate the people want is NOT communist, but capitalist that you can see the roaches real colors…
so… do our colors run?
Interesting note on populism from Omaha.
The former Dean of the Creighton Law School ran for the Nebraska legislature. (He lost by a handful of votes.) He was surprised by the number of people who were ready to vote for Trump or Sanders. He concluded that people are fed up with the federal government. They want an outsider.
The NE Unicameral is officially non-partisan so he was talking to Dems. His district is an affluent part of Omaha.
Previously I’ve supported more Reps in Congress – so Trump (R) for Pres.
I’m now adding – more Press scrutiny of bad gov’t — only available if a Rep is President.
When a Dem is president, the press becomes mostly boot-lickers.
Vote Rep to get a press willing to pursue news about bad gov’t; sometimes they’ll even make it up.
More non-Mexicans than Mexicans were apprehended at U.S. borders in 2014 PEW
Unauthorized immigrants from Mexico make up at least 75% of the total unauthorized immigrant population in 10 states: New Mexico (89%), Arizona (84%), Idaho (83%), Wyoming (82%), Colorado (78%), Oklahoma (76%), Wisconsin (76%), Kansas (75%), Oregon (75%) and Texas (75%).
Mexican aliens seek to retake ‘stolen’ land
Washington Times
a reconquista, a radical movement calling for Mexico to “reconquer” America’s Southwest, has stepped out of the shadows at recent immigration-reform protests nationwide as marchers held signs saying, “Uncle Sam Stole Our Land!” and waved Mexico’s flag.
[and note the spaniards stole the land they live on now… or else they would speak something more akin to Aztec, not spanish]
“We need to change direction,” said Jose Lugo, an instructor in Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder at a campus march last week. “And by allowing these 50,000, 50 million [immigrants] to come in here, we can do that.” (dont ya just LOVE intellectuals????)
“Demographically, socially and culturally, the reconquista of the Southwest United States by Mexico is well under way,” Harvard University professor Samuel P. Huntington said in 2004. “No other immigrant group in U.S. history has asserted or could assert a historical claim to U.S. territory. Mexicans and Mexican-Americans can and do make that claim,” he said.
“We are millions. We just have to survive. We have an aging white America. They are not making babies. They are dying. It’s a matter of time. The explosion is in our population,” Jose Angel Gutierrez, political science professor at the University of Texas at Arlington
[yes, the feminists self exterminated and then sided with people who think the population they belong to shoudl not exist, while thinking somehow,they could contiue to exist and so on…]
Aztlan
MEChA
La Raza (the Race)
[edited for length by n-n]
Viewing America as an authoritarian, patriarchal, male-dominated society that tended to oppress women, children, and minorities, Hillary wrote a November 1973 article for the Harvard Educational Review advocating the liberation of children from “the empire of the father.” She claimed that the traditional nuclear family structure often undermined the best interests of children, who “consequently need social institutions specifically designed to safeguard their position.” “Along with the family,” she elaborated, “past and present examples of such arrangements include marriage, slavery, and the Indian Reservation system.” She added: “Decisions about motherhood and abortion, schooling, cosmetic surgery, treatment of venereal disease, or employment, and others where the decision or lack of one will significantly affect a child’s future should not be made unilaterally by parents.”
Record 94,708,000 Americans Not in Labor Force…
Only +38,000 jobs in May…
Lowest in 6 years…
Private sector puny +25,000…
OBama the Chavista is great, and so would his successor be!!! vote FOR the revolution!!!
Time for a CHANGE…
Oppose Trump!!!!
Teens Beat 78-Year-Old Woman in NYC Subway…
those pesky Amish teens.
(though finally they have found a incident of white teens chasing someone who died of asthma… so after years of saying TEENS you get to see what happens when the TEENS are not suffering deficiency in pigmentation)
ILLEGALS SMUGGLED INTO USA FROM MIDDLE EAST…
CRAWL UNDER MEXICAN BORDER FENCE…
BBC blasted for rejecting work applicants because they are white! [here too in the US]
cant wait for the price controls..
the medical rationing
and more…
Sharon W: the point of Ponnuru’s article is that the lone voter does not have to choose. If one feels, as I do, that your vote is your imprimatur that neither candidate has earned – one individual vote does not matter enough to the outcome to necessitate violating one’s conscience. Plus, most Republicans are hoping aboard the Trump train so I don’t think he has to worry about whether I choose to vote.
Its interesting the images, and videos, and the statements of the mayor blaming trump for the behavior of people yelling california is mexico, and such like this
http://media.breitbart.com/media/2016/06/Trump-San-Jose-1-Joel-Pollak-640×480.jpg
“Trump this is Mexico
You are not welcome on native/mexican soil”
funny, but i thought spain was part of europe, and they speak spanish… hmmmmm…
Trump just doesn’t bother with the intellectuals. That’s why Kagan and Co. find fault with him. But Bill Buckley was similarly disrespectful: “I would rather be governed by the first two thousand people in the Boston telephone directory than by the two thousand people on the faculty of Harvard University.” — JR
Trump = Hitler
http://d1jrw5jterzxwu.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/default/files/uploads/trump_hitler.jpg
The Trump equals fascism charge is wrong, reckless and dangerous
http://netrightdaily.com/2016/06/trump-equals-fascism-charge-wrong-reckless-dangerous/
Belmont Club
Greetings, Slaves
PJ Media…
Perhaps the first major 20th century writer to realize that the ambition of all true Communists should be to become billionaire revolutionaries was Hilaire Belloc. In his 1912 book, The Servile State, Belloc argued the then-burgeoning Communist movement would find more success ditching Leninism in favor of an alliance with Crony Capitalists to reinstate Slavery. “Slavery, or a Servile State in which those who do not own the means of production shall be legally compelled to work for those who do, and shall receive in exchange a security of livelihood.”
This modern form of slavery would address not only the concerns of the revolutionaries by fixing job insecurity and guaranteeing retirement on a plantation basis, but also assuage the monopolists, who stay up nights worrying about preserving market share in the face of competition. An alliance between socialists and crony capitalists would solve both problems at once. The only price to pay for this convenience is the loss of public freedom and that is readily paid.
As for the rest, it would be sustainable. The crony capitalists would underwrite the projects of the collectivists. The ant-heaps of each would be so similar to the other that only a few changes in signage would be needed to turn regulated capitalism into the workers’ paradise. It was a tremendous insight. Belloc realized Bolshevism was was too obviously destructive to last and anticipated the rise of what we would now call the Blue Model. F.A. Hayek paid tribute: “Hilaire Belloc … explained that the effects of Socialist doctrine on Capitalist society is to produce a third thing different from either of its two begetters – to wit, the Servile State.” Regarding the Servile State, George Orwell realized whatever name it gave itself, such an unholy alliance would be much the same quantity.
Many earlier writers have foreseen the emergence of a new kind of society, neither capitalist nor Socialist, and probably based upon slavery … A good example is Hilaire Belloc’s book, The Servile State … Jack London, in The Iron Heel … Wells’s The Sleeper Awakes (1900) … Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1930), all described imaginary worlds in which the special problems of capitalism had been solved without bringing liberty, equality, or true happiness any nearer. More recently, writers like Peter Drucker and F.A. Voigt have argued that Fascism and Communism are substantially the same thing. And indeed, it has always been obvious that a planned and centralized society is liable to develop into an oligarchy or a dictatorship.
The crucial point would be that this proposed Third Way would be more secure than the traditional Leninsim which rested upon the unholy Troika of Party, Army and Cheka. Paychecks would actually be met, courtesy of the crony capitalists. It’s not surprising that after the collapse of the Soviets, the next collectivist social project was the much more “responsible” EU. But Larry Elliott, arguing in the Guardian for a British exit from Brussels, realized that distinction was more a matter of degree than substance. He characterized the EU not as “the US without the electric chair; it is the USSR without the gulag.” The correspondence with Belloc’s 1912 prediction is eerie.
Belloc argued that the only two exits from the evils of crony capitalism were an expansion of property holdings to the great majority of the people (the classic conservative program) or collectivism. Of the two alternatives, the elites would find collectivism far the easier path. He wrote, “if you are suffering because property is restricted to a few, you can alter that factor in the problem either by putting property in the hands of many or the hands of none … a trust or monopoly is welcomed because it ‘furnishes a mode of transition from private to public ownership.'” Crony capitalism furnishes collectivism so well that the Servile State becomes indistinguishable from the Workers’ Paradise and its leaders equally interchangeable. Thus we have billionaires who become men of the people and men of the people who become billionaires. Who could have foreseen this in 1912?
https://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2016/05/21/greetings-slaves/
F – Biden is being held in readiness to drop in when the Evil Empress is indicted. Only question the Dems are still deciding is whether the indictment and replacement should be before or after the convention.
Neo — friend of mine says he’s going to make a billion dollars selling barf-bags outside the polling places. I said, “Hell, no! I’m getting there first with my patented clothespins with padding on the tips, so they don’t hurt your nose!”
Art, honestly, speaking as a politically conservative woman who opted not to have kids for a variety of reasons, we, humankind, have evolved beyond the point where our only purpose for existence is reproduction. The problem is not fully evolved people choosing to have a sensible and responsible number of children, the problem is third-worlders being subsidized to have all the kids they can. The solution is to stop subsidizing them, not to get into a breeding-like-rabbits contest with them.
Hundreds of years ago, the first world began to move away from conditions that favored the breed-til-you-die-in-childbirth scenario that you seem to favor. With longer lifespans and drastically reduced infant and child mortality, you don’t need to spew babies in hopes that one or two survive to adulthood. With automation, you don’t need masses of people to labor – in fact masses of people simply mean masses of unemployment.
Democrats want masses. Unhappy masses. Poor masses. That’s why they want poor third worlders having large numbers of children on the dime of what remains of the first world’s middle class. Attack the right villain.
as seen on FB: Brian Tresp Many realize that Trump is chemotherapy. You normally wouldn’t choose to take it, but at this point it’s the only way to kill the cancer.
—
i’m not that fond of Trump, but given the choice between him & Shrillery, it’s not even close.
that’s why i’m voting for Bernie Tuesday, hoping to help her lose here in #Failifornia, and why i’ll be voting for Trump in November.
@Cornhead – you hardly make the case FOR Trump nor against Clinton.
First, we suspect her of many things not yet proven, and have for years been reflexively anti Democrat. So, we flippantly say she is “dangerous”, and a “criminal”.
What does seem likely with Clinton as POTUS, we’d see four more years of Obama-like presidency…
A disaster? No – we need only look at the large European nations to see where that leads.
And, unlike Obama, she did vote for the Iraq war. How independent was she as SecState? Probably not much, at least on the big policy issues (e.g. Obama’s Red Line). Still, she was a “realist hawk” in the administration (e.g. allying with SecDef Gates on Afghanistan surge).
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2013-04-03/clinton-legacy
Definitely the wrong leftward direction, to be sure, but hardly a disaster in the next four years.
What is most galling are all the questions of impropriety surrounding her and that she could possibly be “rewarded” with the POTUS and avoid any recrimination, if not criminal charges.
That IS a hard pill to swallow for us all.
About the only thing Trump has going for him is that he is flying the GOP flag.
But if he is so “Pragmatic” (as a commenter elsewhere put it) as to have no discernible path forward, as he is so “mutable” (great word used by Neo), that flag is rendered meaningless.
So then, What ARE we going to get? Who knows?
Throw in his reaction over even the smallest of disagreements or challenges, his lack of transparency, his lies when there isn’t even an advantage to do so, his hints at Authoritarianism, and his “pragmatism” around Constitutional limitations to presidential power, what should that tell us?
Short of a third party candidate winning, it looks like a choice between four more years of rot vs taking a chance on Base Jumping off a cliff with a guy who hasn’t done it, doesn’t seem to know what is required, doesn’t have a clear path from A to point B, and seems prone to make random leaps.
“Chemotherapy” is a extremely well tested solution. Trump is not even a close analog.
The downside tail risk is orders of magnitude greater with Trump than with Clinton.
What to do? These two are not the only choices we have.
Vote Libertarian and down ticket GOP.