Trump Worse Than Clinton? Are You All Insane?
Y'know, a lot... a LOT... of famous libertarians are voicing their opinion that, while they don't like either of the two major choices for president, Trump is "obviously the worse of the two." Penn Jillette, Radley Balko, David Boaz, Jan Helfeld, etc. These are people I normally respect. But, I think they're out of their minds on this.
"She (Hillary Clinton,) is the second worst thing that could happen to this country. But she's way behind in second place, you know? She's wrong about absolutely everything. But she's wrong within normal parameters!" -PJ O'Rourke
"Ugh. I guess I'd say Trump is worse. Clinton is at least a known commodity, and clearly better on trade and immigration, though even those are grading on a steep curve. Trump seems marginally less enthusiastic about starting wars, but who knows? He's been all over the place. On criminal justice, Clinton has a proven record of awfulness, but has vaguely vowed to do better. Trump has a record of demagoguing crime, has brought horrendous people like Rudy Giuliani and Chris Christie into his campaign, and has vowed a heaping pile of more awfulness as president. So I guess that one goes to Clinton. I'd imagine Clinton would be a standard center-left Democrat on tax, spend, and regulatory issues. Trump's policies could well be economically calamitous. So again, a begrudging nod to Clinton." -Radley Balko
"For many years I have believed two things about presidential politics: 1. Every major-party candidate was smarter than me. 2. There is no one worse than Hillary Clinton. I have been proven wrong on both of these this year." - Penn Jillette
Full disclosure,... I'm as libertarian as libertarian gets. That is, I am an anarchist. Specifically a Voluntaryist and Anarcho-Capitalist. My belief is that politics is inherently immoral and that no one should ever be considered to have the right to initiate force on anyone else for any reason.
No government. Not no way. Not no how. Not for *any* God-damned thing. Period. So, I don't have a dog in this fight.
Having said that, I find it confusing at best that so many of these supposed adherents to sound principles and moral philosophy are scoring the candidates the way they are.
In my opinion, they are judging Trump to be the greater evil solely on the basis of the fact that he is a nightmarishly cringe-inducing douche-bag. To be fair, he is. I'll give you that. The man is a catastrophic piece of shit. You will get no argument from me, whatsoever on that front. His plan to "Make America Great Again" reads like a Totalitarian Manifesto of higher taxes, greater intrusion into privacy and possibly laying waste to the most important trade-relationship on the planet, (the U.S. and China.)
But, Hillary Clinton is an actual mass-murdering war-criminal and terror-profiteer. She makes the Underwoods of Netflix's series "House of Cards," look like charitable, self-sacrificing saints. She has actually had people killed for getting in the way of her political aspirations. She has actually waged the kind of "war-on-women" that the Right is constantly being accused of.
Trump can be insulting and disrespectful toward women? Ok, how many child-rapists did Trump get off, knowing they were guilty, and then laughing about it in interviews, while openly admitting to suppressing evidence and framing the child-victim as the aggressor?
When over two dozen women came forward to accuse Bill Clinton of having raped them, all of whom giving the exact same descriptions, in closed, secret testimonials, of Bill Clinton's genitalia, behavior and mannerisms leading up to their violation, was it Trump that said; "Who cares? These women are trash and no one's going to believe them?" ...or was that Hillary Clinton? Was it Trump who then ordered and financed the harassment and identity-destruction of these women or was it Hillary Clinton?
How many Americans died in Benghazi because of Trump?
How many foreign countries paid millions of dollars to Trump, ostensibly for "speeches" given by his spouse, and then received weapons deals from Trump's office while he was serving as Secretary of State?
I could go on and on. But, my point is that these normally libertarian luminaries these so-called "principled people," who are rating Hillary as the lesser evil simply because Trump's personality is so grating, are being morons.
I don't want anyone for president. That's not the point.
But, if you honestly believe that a smarmy asshole is worse than an actual war-and-terror-monger with an established track-record of war-crimes, terror-funding, terror-profiteering and mass-harassment of private citizens, purely on the basis of his smarmy-assholishness... please stay well away from any and all voting-booths come election-day.
End of rant.
*****
"She (Hillary Clinton,) is the second worst thing that could happen to this country. But she's way behind in second place, you know? She's wrong about absolutely everything. But she's wrong within normal parameters!" -PJ O'Rourke
"Ugh. I guess I'd say Trump is worse. Clinton is at least a known commodity, and clearly better on trade and immigration, though even those are grading on a steep curve. Trump seems marginally less enthusiastic about starting wars, but who knows? He's been all over the place. On criminal justice, Clinton has a proven record of awfulness, but has vaguely vowed to do better. Trump has a record of demagoguing crime, has brought horrendous people like Rudy Giuliani and Chris Christie into his campaign, and has vowed a heaping pile of more awfulness as president. So I guess that one goes to Clinton. I'd imagine Clinton would be a standard center-left Democrat on tax, spend, and regulatory issues. Trump's policies could well be economically calamitous. So again, a begrudging nod to Clinton." -Radley Balko
"For many years I have believed two things about presidential politics: 1. Every major-party candidate was smarter than me. 2. There is no one worse than Hillary Clinton. I have been proven wrong on both of these this year." - Penn Jillette
Full disclosure,... I'm as libertarian as libertarian gets. That is, I am an anarchist. Specifically a Voluntaryist and Anarcho-Capitalist. My belief is that politics is inherently immoral and that no one should ever be considered to have the right to initiate force on anyone else for any reason.
No government. Not no way. Not no how. Not for *any* God-damned thing. Period. So, I don't have a dog in this fight.
Having said that, I find it confusing at best that so many of these supposed adherents to sound principles and moral philosophy are scoring the candidates the way they are.
In my opinion, they are judging Trump to be the greater evil solely on the basis of the fact that he is a nightmarishly cringe-inducing douche-bag. To be fair, he is. I'll give you that. The man is a catastrophic piece of shit. You will get no argument from me, whatsoever on that front. His plan to "Make America Great Again" reads like a Totalitarian Manifesto of higher taxes, greater intrusion into privacy and possibly laying waste to the most important trade-relationship on the planet, (the U.S. and China.)
But, Hillary Clinton is an actual mass-murdering war-criminal and terror-profiteer. She makes the Underwoods of Netflix's series "House of Cards," look like charitable, self-sacrificing saints. She has actually had people killed for getting in the way of her political aspirations. She has actually waged the kind of "war-on-women" that the Right is constantly being accused of.
Trump can be insulting and disrespectful toward women? Ok, how many child-rapists did Trump get off, knowing they were guilty, and then laughing about it in interviews, while openly admitting to suppressing evidence and framing the child-victim as the aggressor?
When over two dozen women came forward to accuse Bill Clinton of having raped them, all of whom giving the exact same descriptions, in closed, secret testimonials, of Bill Clinton's genitalia, behavior and mannerisms leading up to their violation, was it Trump that said; "Who cares? These women are trash and no one's going to believe them?" ...or was that Hillary Clinton? Was it Trump who then ordered and financed the harassment and identity-destruction of these women or was it Hillary Clinton?
How many Americans died in Benghazi because of Trump?
How many foreign countries paid millions of dollars to Trump, ostensibly for "speeches" given by his spouse, and then received weapons deals from Trump's office while he was serving as Secretary of State?
I could go on and on. But, my point is that these normally libertarian luminaries these so-called "principled people," who are rating Hillary as the lesser evil simply because Trump's personality is so grating, are being morons.
I don't want anyone for president. That's not the point.
But, if you honestly believe that a smarmy asshole is worse than an actual war-and-terror-monger with an established track-record of war-crimes, terror-funding, terror-profiteering and mass-harassment of private citizens, purely on the basis of his smarmy-assholishness... please stay well away from any and all voting-booths come election-day.
End of rant.
*****
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