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Why I Am Voting for Evan McMullin
Hillary Clinton is awful. No question. This is not a matter of who is marginally more suited for the Oval Office – neither one is. We know Hillary’s sins – deceitful, scheming, greedy, paranoid, vindictive, incompetent, and very likely criminal (feel free to pile on if I missed anything). She has experience, I’ll give her that, but it is not good experience. She was my Senator for eight years, and I can’t recall a thing – good or bad – she did in that time. As Secretary of State, her hands were tied by Obama, but she still embraces his policy choices now. I will concede she may be better on trade and foreign policy than Trump, but that’s not a given.
To say Trump is better is like saying Charles Manson is more likely to go to heaven than Joel Rifkin. He is vain, lecherous, ignorant, and dishonest. He has done nothing to show he has thought through issues, or even cared to learn the responsibilities and limitations of the office he seeks. He has the moral standards of a pig, and a well-earned reputation for being a dishonest business man. Like Hillary, he lies nearly as often as he speaks, but she at least can craft plausible falsehoods. He will lie in his second breath about what he said with his first, and expect you not to notice. He lied about his faith, yet had such contempt for the faithful that he didn’t even bother learning enough to make that lie plausible. He does not have the history of abuse of power that Hillary does, but that’s most likely because he’s never been in a position to do so.
This is not a question of which candidate is more suitable for office. In my opinion, neither one meets even the minimum standard to be called President. I believe both will be bad for the country. Both are unfit.
If you are convinced otherwise, that’s fine. I have regretted votes I have cast in the past, so who am I to tell say you are voting wrong? And even if you are, you are as entitled to do so as I am.
But the point is over the past year both candidates have had the chance to sway me – Trump more so because he was more of an unknown factor. Both have failed. Hillary is still under investigation, still has no rationale for running, and her pandering has only become worse. Trump is marginally better as a candidate, but he is no more honest or decent than he was a year ago.
On a national level, my vote will not affect the outcome of the election. It only matters perhaps in what message it might send (even then it will be but a drop in the bucket).
So I am tossing my vote to Evan McMullin. As a former CIA field operative, he has already risked more for his nation than either major party candidate. On paper, at least, his policies most align with mine. More importantly, he seems to be a decent human being. His lack of executive experience would likely have kept me from voting for him in the primary, but that would have been a case of less fit, not unfit. It is a vote I can cast with a clean conscience, and to me, that is what matters most. Many of you will vote for Trump with a clean conscience. More power to you. As Shakespeare wrote in Henry V, “Every subject’s duty is the king’s, but every subject’s soul is his own.”
And if my vote in any way strengthens the message that voters want a conservative candidate, an honest candidate, and a moral candidate, rather than the fetid charlatans leading the field, so much the better.
Published in General
No, Hillary hurts us long term. Importing new voters, citizens or not. Strategically locating immigrants where it’ll do the most electoral good. Solidifying the Left’s hold on the federal civil service while expanding the administrative state. That’s the “conservative” version of a classic Leftist trope: Make things so bad the people will rise up.
What is The Plan?
Betting that a Leftist educated, increasingly entitled population will rise up against the welfare state?
Betting that being miserable enough will make people into Tea Party members except that this time the Republican Party will appreciate them?
Trying to break down the two party system and replace it with a Euro style parliamentary system?
As he so often does, Michael Ramirez put it brilliantly:
I would also be very leery of 10 years (known, anyway) in the CIA and Goldman Sachs. That’s admittedly speculative, but it’s some icing on the cake as to whether he is what he appears to be.
And I wish that McMullin wasn’t trying to elect Hillary, but he is. I grant you that a McMullin (or a Trump vote, for that matter) vote in solid blue states like New York or California isn’t the same as a McMullin vote in Utah. But to the extent that his goal is realizable, it’s electing Hillary.
Just for clarification, here, I’ll cross-post my comment from another thread [“An Email That Tim Kaine Should Read”].
“Lesser of two evils” is still evil…This is [the Catholic equivalent of] “Hold your nose…”. I am convinced the Guardians Of Priebus got hornswoggled into nominating a Democrat – and won’t admit the error. Someone who thinks Planned Parenthood does “a great job” and will probably nominate his sister to the SCOTUS…No Thank You. This “Never Trillary” is tired of pretzel logic…
NB: I’ve cast my absentee ballot a month ago. I understand folks have other reasons/views. This is mine. Thanks again, @misterd!
Open borders, tax credits, and a constitutional right to gay marriage are not my conservative principles.
You answer you own question.
We DO NOT KNOW what Trump will do.
We KNOW that Hillary Clinton will respond to real time life and death issues of national security with a political calculation.
We KNOW when those under Hillary Clinton’s charge are under attack and they ask for her guidance, Hillary Clinton will not answer their 03:00 AM calls for help and leave her subordinates to die.
I’ll concede your point on the schoolmarmish tendency, but I had the opposite reaction to his interview. McMullin’s statements on this topic actually gave me some shred of pride in the principled dissent within the Republican party. Unfortunately, Trump and his supporters (the enthusiastic ones, not the reluctant ones) seem determined to prove McMullin right.
I was pretty depressed about this election for a while, but for the last couple of weeks I’ve seen that when I go to vote I will, in fact, have two great choices: Johnson/Weld or McMullin/Finn. I don’t like the prospects for the next four years, but I’m pretty excited for the future.
Yes, I get it. Trump is Russian Roulette with five bullets in the revolver while Hillary is Russian Roulette with six. That’s why I agreed I’d vote for him if he wasn’t leading Hillary in Kansas by 5%.
Just realize that “it’s possible he might not screw the pooch” isn’t a sales pitch to put one’s mind at ease.
But if it did, for whom would you vote?
Oh hey, reasons not to vote for Trump that I haven’t seen before!
Sorry man, I just have to be fair, and I posted the same comment on a “Why I’m voting for Trump” post. So, you know, fairs fair.
I’m going to write McMullin in as well.
Most people would buy a five bullet Russian Roulette sale over a six.
Faint praise, indeed. But whatever meets your Presidential standards.
I’ve considered voting for McMullin – He’s on the ballot here in Iowa. There does seem to be a case made that’s a conservative alternative to the rest, and it would be a signal that he has support. The downside is that he doesn’t represent an actual party, nor does he have any governing experience or record to appeal to.
I’ve considered a strategic vote for the Libertarian party. But the party itself is kinda bonkers and the two candidates are almost parodic. Nope.
Right now I’m planning to write in Walker and Jindal.
Any sensible person wouldn’t be pulling the trigger in the first place.
It strikes me that all of you are missing the point. Behind Hillary stands the Democratic Party, and they have a goal which she shares — flooding the country with illegal immigrants, registering them to vote, and fixing elections, on the one hand; and shutting down freedom of speech with the other. They have the circuit courts, which will be the tool, and they are on the verge of getting the Supreme Court. If you think that the fix is in this year with 96% of the donations from reporters going to Hillary, just wait. Trump may be bad, but he does not compare to what you are going to get. A vote for Evan McMullin paves the way for Hillary, and he is honest enough to admit his preference.
There is only one reason anyone can possibly vote for this guy, and that, quite simply, is to help Clinton win. I cannot imagine how anyone can possibly want those criminals back in the White House. Trump needs every state he can get, including Utah, which is the only state this ridiculous candidate has even the wildest chance of getting. According to the polls, he isn’t even ahead in Utah.
Not sure you fully understand the pressures brought to bear to pull the trigger in a game of Russian Roulette:
https://youtu.be/kE_zqVPr4HI
I consider accuracy to be a staple of principled dissent. McMullin’s comments went far beyond a critique of the least desirable of Trump’s supporter’s, and did so patently.
#NeverTrump Logic:
Trump Voter Logic:
Do y’all really not see why we find this “logic” hard to swallow?
I hope very much that you are right and I am wrong about the accuracy of his assessment.
No.
Me too. I’ve seen some reasoned arguments to abandon the Republican Party, mostly based on policy. If I felt that racism, per McMullin, was a deep problem in the party and that Democrats were correct about the extent of that problem, I’d do so tomorrow. I prefer, however, to go with the evidence before me since McMullin provided none.
Thank you, Titus!
Actually, both sets of “logical” propositions make sense to me, perhaps because I’m unsure as to how votes will be interpreted. My guess, at the moment, is that Hillary is going to win regardless of how I vote. So the question becomes, given this, what is the best “message” I can send with my vote? If I refuse to vote for either, does that get counted as “couldn’t stand either?” or “too dumb to figure out how to fill in the little oval?” If I vote McMullin, does that count as “really likes bald guys” (true) or “would prefer someone completely inexperienced, but who at least shows some interest in genuinely conservative ideas —and has also done brave stuff ( I’m very big on people doing actual brave stuff) ?”
Just talked to a woman who, though she is planing to vote for Hillary, was considerably cheered by my prediction that Hillary won’t last a year in office, and we’ll end up with a boring old white guy again. “Everyone I know, on both sides, is ashamed and disgusted by our choices,” she lamented. Which I took to be good news.
McMullin, of course.
If my vote mattered, it means a tie ball game. Voting one or the other would put on my shoulders the responsibility for putting a vain, greedy vindictive, power seeking, abusive villain in the White House. Why would I do that? Keep it tied, send it to the House, hope they make the right decision.
I made it to the main feed!
I wrote in McMullin as well. We can talk for hours, write for pages, agonize, weigh, philosophize…and I love doing all those things. But at a gut level, I can’t help but feel I’m surely entitled to set the bar for my vote at “decent human being” without being labeled difficult or blind or self-righteous or virtue-signaling or the like. Or if not, I suppose I can get used to those titles.
No need for apologies. Was just getting tired of seeing people posting their “Why I am voting for Trump” and “Why NT’s need to vote for Trump” posts. Whether it was heard or not I wanted to say what I had to say on the topic, even if it wasn’t wholly original.
McMullin is beating Hillary in Utah, and Trump is beating both of the other two. Hillary isn’t going to win Utah. It looks like Trump is pulling ahead there anyway.
I voted for McMullin in Texas. If Hillary has any chance of winning in Texas, Trump will not be president (Trump’s going to win Texas, almost certainly).
Mister D, thank you for stating the case so clearly and concisely. I have been saying the same thing for some time, and have been accused of supporting Hillary by not voting for Trump. That argument is totally bogus. No one can truly refute what you have said, and I am in total agreement with you.