A case against Donald Trump

Courtesy of Ross Douthat.  Mr. Douthat already penned a case against Hillary Clinton.  From a traditional believer’s POV, the concerns about a Hillary presidency are pretty clear.  For those who aren’t necessarily conservative, but who worry about the growing notion that our corporate, political and media institutions are one big, happy family that spends most of its time passing money back and forth, a Clinton presidency probably won’t inspire much hope.  Because of this, some people are understandably looking for alternatives.  And in the real world of American politics, the only viable option to Clinton’s presidential machine is Trump.

So that is the focus here, especially for those who aren’t only concerned about Trump from a moral, Christian viewpoint.  Those who set all of Trump’s moral failings aside for the important issues are in the unenviable position of doing what they rightly criticized supporters of Bill Clinton for doing in the late 90s.  If you imagine you will renounce Trump the man, deplore everything he says about others, but throw your support behind him nonetheless due to the inevitable results of a Clinton presidency, then you should read this piece.

Douthat dodges the more inflamed and hysterical predilections, as well as the most vitriolic insults aimed at Trump.  After all, as many have said, these things aren’t new.  Since I started paying attention to politics, Republicans and their candidates have always been portrayed as warmongers, hate mongers, bigots, homophobes, sexists, racists, corporate shills and imperialists just itching to nuke the world.  If people say Trump could nuke everyone, they said the same about Reagan.  Hollywood even went so far as producing a big budget made for TV movie based on the logical consequences of Reagan’s policies.  And yet, not to spoil the story, Reagan didn’t nuke the world and we didn’t all die.  So for those who look back and say ‘we’ve heard all the insults and criticisms before’, this is also worth reading.

And if you’re sure that only Trump can stop the abortion crisis in our nation, and it’s his presidency that can turn things around through the SCOTUS, then read Ross’s piece from today’s NYT.

I’m not saying vote Hillary.  And I know that on November 9th, one of these two candidates, who can only argue that they are less rotten than the other candidate, will be our president.  It should reflect poorly on us as a nation that it’s come to this.  Perhaps between now and 2020 we can learn our lessons.