Repost:
I am no BFF of Trump's and I most sincerely hope he loses the nomination. But if he does not, as it appears he will not, then I most sincerely hope he wins the general election, and I will do my part to try and make it happen.
No, that's not an about-face, it stems from two simple facts:
1) Trump is merely smarmy, unprincipled, egotistic and stupid; Clinton is slimy, corrupt and evil. I'll vote for stupid over evil any day of the week.
2) A President Trump will get very few of his crack-pot idiocies put into practice (which doesn't leave much of anything else for him to do); at worst the country will limp along on the status quo; by contrast, a President Clinton would do incalculable harm to the country that will last for decades.
The first is, I trust, self-evident. The second, perhaps, requires a little explanation.
Candidate Trump promises to make enemies with Mexico, build a wall along the entire border at their expense, round up everyone who even smells like an illegal and boot them into Mexico, impose a 45% tariff on imports, chain companies to the US and sic the IRS on them if they dare to leave for better business climes, loose a pack of lawyers on the media with liberalized libel laws, and etc.
President Trump won't get a dime of that done, for several reasons. The office of president does not have the inherent power to do any of that on his own, and if he tries to do it by executive order, a la Obama, the democrats will tie him and the government up in knots with litigation for all of Trump's four years.
So much for unilateral action.
President Trump also won't get a damned thing through Congress unless he gives up his idiocies and comes to heel. To get anything done he will need to have a majority in both Houses of Congress, and that will surely mean having to get the support of all or substantially all of the republicans in Congress. To get that support he will have to "make a deal" with the republicans and he will not be in the driver's seat when it comes to that (he may find that a little uncomfortable, but he'd better get used to it). If the slurs on republicans like McConnell and Ryan have even a hint of truth, they'll be as likely to trust Trump as whatever democrat you wish to name. They won't be willing to simply go along with what President Trump wants. And whatever truth there is in the claims that they're too weak to stand up to the president, it won't work with President Trump for the simple reason that the democrats won't be jeering at them as obstructionist; they'll be supporting them as being grand statesmen, bravely resisting the depravity of Trump. In other words, in distinct contrast to the last seven years, when the democrats brought massive pressure on the republicans in Congress with accusations of being obstructionist and of being more interested in partisanship than in having the country work, the democrats will put massive pressure on the republicans in Congress to be obstructionist, to use the co-equal power of the Congress to frustrate the unconstitutional excesses of the president. Of course that's completely different from the tune they've been playing the last seven years, and utterly hypocritical of them, but hypocrisy has never prevented the democrats from doing what they want.
So much for having a compliant Congress.
As a result, none of Trump's promises, so fervently believed in by his supporters, will come to pass. He'll be brought to heel much faster than his supporters seem to think. The same will go with his appointments to the Supreme Court - perhaps the most valuable jewel up for grabs this time around - they will be at most just slightly left of center, and will in all probability be similar in ilk to Chief Justice Roberts, who is largely a younger version of Justice Kennedy. We would end up with a fairly centrist Court; we won't get as many non-liberal 5-4 decisions as we've become accustomed to, but neither will be get a sharp veer to the hard left for decades to come.
All in all, the country will either have a modest, mild improvement, or, at worst, will muddle through with the current status quo.
On the other hand, President Clinton will get most of what she wants, particularly if half the slurs against McConnell, Ryan, and other so-called RINOs can be believed. Firstly, and worstly, she will get to turn the Supreme Court to the hard left for decades to come. Her appointments may not be as hard left as they would be if the democrats controlled the Senate (assuming they don't regain control of the Senate), but they will definitely be to the left, a la Kagan, and the democrats will put massive pressure on the republicans in Congress, as they have so successfully done to-date, and the republicans will inevitably consent to the appointment of justices who are distinctly leftist.
Secondly, and almost as worstly, she will be more than happy to continue to rule by fiat via executive order, and the democrats will be only too happy to facilitate that rule; they will bring massive pressure to bear to prevent Congress from overriding most of her orders. And with the Supreme Court set to her liking, they won't be overturned by the Court, either.
Thirdly, and also worstly, just as with Obama, particularly if half the slurs against the RINOs in Congress can be believed, the democrats will bring massive pressure on the republicans in Congress to pass her policies, and will condemn them for being hyper partisan and obstructionist, interested more in satisfying a small hardcore minority of right-wing activists rather than in running the country.
The first scenario I can deal with. I won't like it, but I will be able to survive it. The second scenario I cannot deal with and will probably not survive.
So, if enough stupid people do manage to get a stupid idiot chosen as the Republican nominee, I will then do my best to see they can fully follow through on their stupidity, because the alternative will be far, far worse.
As I said above, if I have to, I'll always vote for stupidity over evil, any day of the week.
