“Will Utah’s conservative Mormons vote for Hillary Clinton?”

The BBC interviews Mike Leavitt, who was Utah’s Republican governor (1993-2003), and who served thereafter as Administrator of the national Environmental Protection Agency (2003-2005) and then as Secretary of Health and Human Services (2005-2009) in the administration of President George W. Bush:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p046nzg7

As for myself, I’m debating whether I should cast my vote for the Libertarian Party ticket of Gary Johnson and William Weld or for the independent candidacy of Evan McMullin.

I’m probably more aligned, on the whole, with Evan McMullin, but voting for him would have few long-term ramifications beyond November.  Casting my ballot for Johnson-Weld would have the positive value of helping the Libertarian Party gain a bit more prominence.  I’ve often thought that robust and prominent ongoing debate between Libertarians and conservative Republicans about how much the government can be reduced in size and how many government services might advisably be privatized, as well as about how interventionist our foreign policy ought to be, would be very salutary for the United States.  (Libertarian Party foreign-policy positions are among the things that prevent me from signing on as a member of that Party.  But I do think that they pose a substantive challenge to mainstream “establishment” thinking that is worthy of engagement and that often makes important points and raises issues worth considering.)

In the meantime, we’re stuck with the unpalatable, indeed repulsive, choice of Mrs. Hillary Rodham Clinton versus Mr. Donald J. Trump.

I’m told daily that I must back Mr. Trump in order to defeat Mrs. Clinton.  But, in my judgment, it’s just as imperative to back Mrs. Clinton in order to defeat Mr. Trump.

I can do neither.

Here’s an item from back in March that captures something of the problem:

“It’s Over, Gandalf.  We Need to Unite Behind Saruman to Save Middle Earth from Sauron!”

And here’s a rather inside-baseball illustration, from Jonah Goldberg, of the damage that Mr. Trump and Trumpism are doing to what I once fondly thought of as the conservative movement:

“On Naming Names”

Some pro-life people see Mr. Trump as our great white hope for saving the unborn.  Would that this were true!  I’m a pro-life person of long standing, but I see no such hope:

“For Pro-Lifers, a Bad Omen for Their Future in the GOP”

I see Mr. Trump as essentially a Democrat — though, for his current purposes at least, a demagogic and nationalist one — on abortion, as on other issues:

“Donald Trump, George W. Bush, and Lies”

Speaking of lies, though, the lead editorial in yesterday’s edition of the Wall Street Journal correctly notes, regarding the new summary released by the FBI about its investigation of Mrs. Clinton’s email scandal, that “The new information makes a hash of what’s left of the former Secretary of State’s credibility.”  (I would provide a link, but the article is behind a subscriber pay wall.)

The presidential polls seem to be tightening.  It’s unlikely, though not impossible, that Mr. Trump could still win the White House.  If so, it won’t be because Americans generally adore him, or even like or trust him.  The winner of this election will be the Democratic or Republican candidate who is somewhat less abhorrent to the electorate than the other.

What a sad, sad, sad political year.