…Hold up. I can’t just come out and say it in the first sentence, since that will show up in the Facebook preview and keep people from clicking on the story, and I just can’t have that. Let us discuss some salient points and background for this insane election season first.
First, a few caveats. Note that I did not say “endorsement,” in the title, as I believe that is a loaded term implying that one is an enthusiastic backer of a politician, instead of a mere vote-caster. Also, understand that this is my opinion and does not reflect anyone else here at Sofrep. I have no idea who anyone else is voting for. I would guess that most of the other writers and staff are not voting for Hillary Clinton, but beyond that, I know nothing. With that in mind, let’s continue.
Those of you who have followed me on the News Roundup throughout election season know that, from the beginning, I viewed campaign 2016 as a referendum on Hillary Clinton. I said before the primaries even began that I would support whoever ended up being the GOP nominee, because, in my opinion, Hillary Clinton is the most corrupt presidential nominee in American history. Yes, I mocked Jeb! incessantly, but I would have voted for him vs. Clinton. I would have voted for Ted Cruz, or Marco Rubio, or whoever managed to secure the nomination. If a cheese platter had managed to get enough votes, I would be trumpeting CHEESE PLATTER 2016! All of this was not to vote for the Republican party, but to vote against Hillary Clinton.
But none of the other Republican candidates cut through. Instead, out of nowhere and to much derision, the nomination was secured by Donald J. Trump.
The “Never Trump” crowd was aghast, and seemingly blamed the Republican party for “allowing” this to happen. But the RNC didn’t “allow” anything. Trump won the nomination by, get this, speaking about topics that the Republican primary voters were concerned about and getting the most votes. WEIRD, I KNOW. Arguably, there were two topics that that garnered him the most support: illegal immigration and trade. For whatever reason, the other candidates believed that these topics were unworthy of campaigning on, save for the barest lip service. Did you ever hear Jeb Bush speak passionately about how corporate-driven trade agreements like NAFTA and now, the TPP, have decimated American manufacturing, leaving millions without meaningful work, all to further enrich corporate multinationals? Did you hear anyone else talking in plain English about our insane immigration policies? Did you heard anyone talk about individual liberty? I sure as hell didn’t.
Since I first registered to vote, I have always been a registered independent. I have usually supported Republicans on the national level, since they claimed to be the party of small government and individual liberty. Looking back at the last 16 years, I think that claim is laughable on its face, along with their claims to be the “conservative” party. But I still held my nose and voted for George W. Bush. I held my nose and voted for John McCain. I held my nose and voted for Mitt Romney. And now the same jerkoffs that foisted those terrible candidates upon me have the goddamn NERVE to tell me they won’t vote for Trump because he’s not “conservative” enough? FUCK YOU DUDE. I feel like I’ve been snookered, scammed, hoodwinked and bamboozled. What exactly has the GOP accomplished the last couple of decades? Indeed, I don’t even know what what the party stands for these days. Their track record has been abysmal.
Paul Ryan became speaker of the House Republicans and ten minutes later, immediately gave Obama everything he ever wanted in the budget without putting up a fight. The Republican party has urged on endless wars in the Middle East, sending your sons and daughters to go fight and die in far off lands over obscure religious/tribal conflicts that are none of our business. They have stood by as our national debt has ballooned to 20 trillion dollars, an amount so staggering it’s really a bit beyond comprehension. “Fiscal Conservatism” my ass. Seemingly, the only hill Republicans seem willing to die on is Mount TaxCutsForBillionaires. Everything else, they puss out on, desperately afraid that a hostile media would say mean things about them.
For years now, I have told my more liberal friends that I could agree to go along with some of their whacky social welfare ideas if only we would first fix our massive illegal immigration problem. You cannot have a generous welfare state while simultaneously (for all intents and purposes) turning a blind eye to a wide open border. The math just doesn’t work. The nation is going bankrupt trying to maintain impossible levels of benefits, not to mention the H1-B visa abuses and the displacement of American workers. Indeed, this was pretty much the position of Bernie Sanders up until he ran for president.
An even larger problem confronts the GOP. For you Republicans out there, this may be the last election where the outcome is even in the slightest doubt. The number one reason for this is that the demographic problem that the party likes to pretend doesn’t exist. “Demographics is Destiny,” and all that. The math doesn’t lie. We could be looking at the GOP becoming completely irrelevant on the national election stage. National Review magazine had a fantastic cover story this week illustrating the GOP’s near-impossibility of ever winning a national election again.
In the mountain West, the traditionally competitive states of New Mexico (five electoral votes), Nevada (six), Colorado (nine), and Arizona (eleven) either are already beyond reach for Republicans or soon will be, thanks to booming Hispanic populations and diminishing numbers of non-college-educated whites. In the Middle Atlantic states, the same can be said for Virginia (thirteen electoral votes), North Carolina (fifteen), and Georgia (sixteen), all of which have diversifying economies and swelling college-educated urban outgrowth to complement fast-growing minority populations.
And, of course, Texas, with its 38 electoral votes. As I’ve said on the podcast numerous times, I believe it is too late to overcome this. I think Trump will lose, and lose handily. He has to win every red state and toss-up state and turn at least one blue state red in order to win, whereas Hillary’s path is much easier. I don’t know how the GOP deals with this. The “Never Trump” Republicans will no doubt seize on this as evidence that, if only the voters had chosen someone differently, they could have won. There is little to zero evidence to back up this statement. For example, just because Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are of Hispanic descent, that doesn’t mean that they fare much better with Hispanic voters. Marco Rubio is projected to lose the Hispanic vote in his 2016 Senate race, while Ted Cruz got destroyed in his 2012 campaign, losing the hispanic vote 65% to 35%. And even if the GOP decided to become Democrat-lite, that STILL doesn’t mean that more votes are guaranteed. Another great stat from the NR article:
Ronald Reagan legalized nearly 3 million undocumented immigrants in 1986; only 30 percent of Hispanics voted Republican in 1988, compared with 37 percent in 1984.
Yes, St. Ronald of the Reagan amnestied 3 million illegal immigrants (almost all from Mexico/Latin America) and his thanks was the GOP getting losing 7% of the Hispanic vote two years later! And recall that Mitt Romney, probably the most mild-mannered, middle-of-the-road, vanilla liberal Republican one could find, who was very much open to a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, had a historically awful showing with minority voters after being painted as the next Joseph Stalin by the Democrats. Poll after poll has shown that immigrants and non-immigrant Latinos prefer large governments with plenty of services. And those immigrant children (similarly to all children) will statistically vote the way their parents did. While it’s true that many descendants of immigrants may eventually come around to the GOP platform, this takes generations. For example, I personally know plenty of Republican Hispanics, but that vote gets diluted in the record-breaking tidal wave of new immigrants. It’s like one step forward, 57 steps back for the GOP message.
Like I said on the podcast, even if you don’t think illegal immigration is a big deal, this new electorate brings a new liberal government, who may bring about policies that you DO think are a big deal, like increased taxes, increased spending, larger deficits, larger welfare states, and gun control, just to name a few. So why would this electorate ever vote for the GOP over the Democratic party? Is the GOP destined to be the guy frantically waving his hand in the back of the room, yelling, “HEY! We can do all that stuff for you too!” Or do they honestly think that, given enough time, this electorate will embrace their “conservative” policies? The reason I feel I have to keep talking about this is because I observe the bizarre spectacle of the NeverTrump GOP leaders laboring under the fantasy that they can try again in 2020/2024. Yes, after 4-8 years of more massive immigration and a GOP electorate that shrinks by the hour; this time with a True Conservative Republican that this new demographic will embrace, even though that demographic (nor African-American or Asian voters, for that matter) never has. These Republican leaders are delusional.
But back to Hillary Clinton. I think we get a little sidetracked looking for specific “smoking guns” in this never-ending email scandal, while ignoring the larger issue. That issue is that she was accepting enormous checks from foreign governments while acting as America’s Secretary of State. That alone should disqualify her, and I don’t want to hear another goddamn word about all the good work that the slush fund known as the Clinton Foundation does. She combines all the terrible qualities of both the corporatist, Neo-Con right wing and the open-borders, massive welfare state left wing.
https://twitter.com/BKactual/status/794279317924708352
She has shown that her first instinct is to always lie, even over trivial matters like whether she was in New York during 9/11, or dodging sniper fire in Bosnia, or how she tried to join the Marine Corps. As has been talked about on this website ad nauseam, her actions with classified material would have landed anyone else in jail, or, at a minimum, the loss of both their career and clearance. She and her shyster husband have greedily enriched themselves by serving in public office while selling access to the highest bidder. Her terrible judgement and counsel to President Obama has led to complete chaos in the Middle East and North Africa, leading to the insane migrant crisis that is threatening to bankrupt Europe.
As for Trump? Like I said, I don’t think he has a chance, but the only poll that matters is the one where the votes are counted, so anything is possible. I have no idea what kind of president he would make. He could be a very bad one, or a very good one. He has few specific policy positions, and tends to be all over the map. He is thin-skinned, has little care for complex foreign policy decisions, and is wildly unpredictable. This, along with his confrontational manner, scares people. But again, how anyone can look at the last twenty years of our STUPID foreign policy and worry about Trump makes me laugh. Trillions of dollars spent, thousands of America’s best young men and women killed, and for WHAT? Iraq is a basket case, Africa is a mess, and Afghanistan is a complete botched-abortion disaster. GREAT JOB FELLAS. Get the hell out of here with that crap.
Recall that I cast my vote not for DJT but against Clinton. I looked in vain for an existing candidate who would embrace my beliefs of strong national borders, limited foreign intervention, fiscal conservancy, taking care of American citizens and veterans first, and respect for individual liberty. Apparently those don’t exist. Instead, I have the Republicans who can’t wait for more war and lecture me about sexual morality and the Democrats who want to take all my money and throw me in jail for Triple Plus Ungood BadThink. I’m screwed.
That’s why I always rag on the NeverTrumpers. This is the crowd that would rather lose an election with a guy they agree with 100% of the time than win an election with a guy that they agree with 65% of the time, only to end up with a President that they disagree with like 90% of the time. It’s baffling. I’ve tried reasoning with them; haven’t made a lot of progress. But if there was one argument that I would make to the NeverTrump crowd, it is the argument for transparency and scrutiny of the executive branch, in which I am a fervent believer. Our media fawned over Obama like he was the second coming of Christ; practically jizzing themselves on his inauguration. OF COURSE they will do the same thing for Queen Hillary. As they did with Obama, the press will ignore and downplay incompetence and transgressions in favor of obsequious gushing.
We know this because that same media has dropped any pretense of objectivity in this election, and is 100% united against Trump. He would be the most scrutinized president in American history, far more so than Clinton. He would enter office as the enemy of a hostile and combative press, who would be relentless in trying to uncover whatever nefarious tricks a President Trump would try to pull. It’s not a bad argument. And if you are looking to throw a wrench into the system, he’s not just a wrench, but a goddamn hand grenade. Unlike any other Republican I’ve ever seen, Trump actually pushes back against a hostile liberal press, and people like a fighter. It is also comforting to know, in our scripted, incestuous political world, that there is still a chance for an outsider to come out of nowhere and actually have a shot at pulling something like this off, which was also true of Bernie Sanders.
Plus, in the off chance that Trump pulls this off, imagine watching the long faces of the media during election night as they try not to cry on the air. THAT ALONE is a good argument for voting Trump. Seriously, if he wins I will watch MSNBC all night, laughing my ass off as they all somberly proclaim doom for the United States. To be sure, the United States IS doomed, just not yet.
Therefore, in the United States Presidential race of 2016, I have cast my ballot for Donald J. Trump for the 45th and final President of the United States. God help us all.
P.S.- If you care to share, let me know who you’re voting for in the comments… no judging, I promise.
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