On Holding One’s Nose to Vote Trump

Donald the Wonder Rhino

I get it. I really do. There are three words in the English language that could make you consider voting for Donald Trump, and those words are “President Hillary Clinton.” For years, the name Hillary Clinton has been a convenient repository for everything you despise about the Left: the hypocritical demands that everyone act for the good of the “village,” while she ruthlessly pursues her own material advantage and aggrandizement; the condescending disdain with which she views and treats her fellow citizens, whom she regards as her serfs; the conscienceless trampling on the lives of anyone, foreign or domestic, who dares to stand between her and her schemes for social manipulation; the bald-faced lying in the face of incontrovertible evidence of wrongdoing, and the impunity with which she expects to get away with those lies.

That’s progressivism in its purest, least prettified form. And that’s Hillary Clinton. The idea that America, of all nations, could be staring a Hillary presidency in the face in the first place ought to send chills up the spine of anyone who cares in the least about the fate of mankind.

But if you agree with the above description—and if you don’t, we have nothing to talk about—then I have a question for you: When did you come to this conclusion about Hillary Clinton? Did it suddenly hit you during one of her primary debates with Bernie Sanders? Or did the idea begin to simmer in your mind back around the time she announced her candidacy?

“No,” you object with an insulted tone, “I’ve known what Hillary was for as long as I can remember!” And so you undoubtedly have. Regardless of your present age, if you are a minimally politically active adult (i.e., you at least read the news), and neither a criminal mind nor a knee-jerk progressive (redundant?), then you have likely regarded Mrs. Clinton with the deepest dislike since roughly thirty minutes after you first became aware of her existence.

Now I have another question: What would you think of a sixty-nine-year-old, politically active man who, over many years, gave huge piles of money to support Hillary’s political goals; who talked dirty for years with her husband on the golf course; who personally invited her and hubby to his wedding; and who publicly and repeatedly expressed enthusiastic support for her, both personally and politically, until he was at least sixty-six years old?

If that man were anyone other than Donald Trump, you know what you would think. But the establishment manipulations of this election year have put millions of decent Americans in the impossible position of having to consider supporting a man whom, in any other circumstances, they would have regarded as an enabler of every political thing they despise, in a desperate attempt to thwart that despised thing itself. A conscientious, patriotic American voter could hardly find himself in a more unenviable position.

So I completely accept and respect the judgment of anyone who, faced with the prospect of President Hillary, has settled on Trump as the only realistic way to stop her, given how things now stand. The question, however, and my problem with this whole scenario, is: How did this come to be “how things now stand”?

I’m not particularly a Rubio fan, but common sense and all the polls during the primaries showed that he could have mopped the floor with Hillary Clinton. Likewise Ted Cruz—imagine the debates! Likewise Carly Fiorina, a “historic first woman” trumping the effect of the historic ersatz woman. Likewise, in fact, virtually every serious candidate in the primary field—all but one. (I mean, seriously, the Democrat corruption machine had to step in to save her from Bernie Sanders, for Pete’s sake!) And that one exception is the one who just happens to get the nomination.

Just happens to have had Fox News, Ann Coulter, Matt Drudge, and Rush Limbaugh in his corner since the very beginning, just as Mitt Romney had all those same people in 2011-12.

Just happens to be the only Republican in the field who has made major donations to the Clintons, boasted of being their friend, praised Bill Clinton’s presidency in 2015, and defended and praised Hillary, both during and after her term as Secretary of State, i.e., after Benghazi.

Just happens to be the only GOP candidate (ever?) to advocate full-out socialized medicine and support transgender bathrooms. And one of the few, I’m sorry to say, to have the same touch-back amnesty plan advocated by the New York Times (although I know he couches it differently when he speaks to his supporters).

So I understand—I really, truly do—why a lot of people who preferred someone else are now saying, “Anything is better than Hillary.” But I also feel very strongly that this whole election year has proved to be the GOP establishment’s best-played game ever. They knew the “Tea Party” candidates would be stronger this year than in 2012. A Romney wasn’t going to cut it this time, given that they barely got him through last time. Therefore, since defeating constitutionalists is a far more pressing goal for the GOP old guard than defeating the Democrats, they found their answer: Support Trump to get him over the hump against the hated Cruz, knowing that the stain won’t last, because Trump won’t last. In other words, they’ve chosen Hillary over any defender of the U.S. Constitution, and Trump and his cult members have been their vehicle for achieving this. Conservatives who for years have complained about the Washington “uniparty,” and promised they would never hold their noses to vote for the establishment choice again, have been cornered into doing exactly that, yet again. An unorthodox establishment choice, to be sure, but the only one the McConnell-Boehner-Rove-Ailes-Limbaugh clan could squeeze through this time. So they did.

But I grant that when the alternative is Hillary, even her designated punching bag starts to acquire a bit of a pleasing sheen. I remember, likewise, how much better the milquetoast progressive Romney looked when he was the only alternative to Obama.

What a bunch of traitors the GOP leadership are!

I hate saying all this to so many good people, including some friends of mine, who have been wedged into this hideous choice. And my perspective is admittedly different, not so much because I’m not an American voter, but because I’ve given up on elections as an effective means to any kind of fundamental change of direction during this advanced stage of soft despotism.