By John F. Di Leo –
When the 2016 primaries began, I was excited at the prospect of nominating Governor Bobby Jindal or Governor Scott Walker. I even imagined a dream ticket consisting of the two of them, the Republican Party’s great reform governors who so successfully turned around their states.
But then, they were the first to drop out, and we were left with many others who – in my opinion – were fine in various ways, but didn’t compare. So the excitement left, but I didn’t worry because the Republican Party would still nominate someone who’d beat Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders in a landslide. Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Rick Perry – we had so much talent, so much experience, on that field.
I identified as #NeverTrump in the primaries, of course, because a party with so much provable governmental experience to choose from had no business nominating someone without such a clear record. And I felt that if the Republican Party nominated Donald Trump, throwing over so much talent in favor of an electoral outsider would do irrevocable damage to the Republican Party.
But it happened anyway. The Republicans nominated Donald Trump, and the Democrats nominated Hillary Clinton. So we have a fresh decision to make. The choice is no longer between the real estate and television celebrity, and a field of governors and senators. The choice is now between the real estate and television celebrity, and a serially-corrupt, lifelong-socialist, pathological liar named Hillary Clinton.
Every Republican – and in fact, not just Republicans, but lots of independents, and even lots of Democrats too – have been NeverHillary for 25 years. Many have even been #NeverHillary for 40 years, since they first encountered her offensive anti-Americanism in the mid-1970s as a shifty young lawyer.
Candidate Donald Trump is right on many issues, and wrong on a few. Hillary Clinton is – amazingly – wrong on virtually every issue of consequence.
In reviewing both candidates’ public policies, as posted on their own campaign websites, it is truly stirring how solid Donald Trump’s are, and how off-the-charts awful Hillary Clinton’s are. While we’re right to question how committed Donald Trump is on every line of his platform (he has no record, after all, other than a businessman’s lifetime of donating to both sides)… there can be no question about Hillary Clinton’s.
Clinton’s commitment to every line of her publicly-stated issue positions is proven by an eight-year voting record in the Senate and a forty-year career on the radical leftist fringe of the Democratic Party.
Just read through the “On the Issues” section of the Clinton-Kaine campaign’s website, and you will be shocked at the offensively anti-American positions that she will force down our America’s throat if we make the unforgivable error of voting for her on November 8.
Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine will double down on the Obama record of tax hikes, regulatory expansion, and outrageous government spending. On healthcare, they deny the fatal flaw of nationalized healthcare, and are committed to even more enforcement and nationalization in Obamacare. They support massive targeted bailouts, spending stimuli, and the demonization of individuals and industries alike.
Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine have promised to finish what Obama started in destroying the coal industry, the oil industry, and the insurance industry. The fact that this is putting millions out of work, and will continue to put millions more out of work, doesn’t bother them a bit; if you ever chose to work in or near coal, oil, or insurance, in their view, you deserve the unemployment and bankruptcy that will result from their witch-hunt.
Perhaps the most shocking commitment from the Clinton-Kaine campaign is on the area of the criminal justice system. True to Hillary Clinton’s early career as a corrupt defense attorney, they have promised to do everything possible from the executive branch to shift the balance of power from law enforcement to the criminal element. This may sound like an exaggeration, but just read their policy statements; they promise to end minimum sentencing guidelines and eliminate imprisonment altogether wherever they can… they promise to federalize local police departments at the drop of a hat, and emasculate the police as much as possible… they promise to give felons back the right to vote, and rob policemen of their rights to due process… they promise to appoint federal judges and justices who share their radical positions. Clinton-Kaine make it clear on their public website: shockingly, they’re completely on the side of the criminals.
The Clinton-Kaine campaign is committed to the further destruction of the American culture, through the massive continued immigration effort that’s been accelerating since the 1960s. Rather than using America’s traditional method of moderate immigration of desirable newcomers, at a rate that allows assimilation, the Clinton-Kaine campaign takes the Obama approach of paying for the literal importation of unvetted third-worlders, even of demographics rampant with disease, gang activity, and terrorism. This method turns the American melting pot on its head, and results in crime-ridden, poverty-entrenched, ethnic enclaves that vote reliably for the Democrats, create massive costs for our welfare budget and criminal justice systems, and further ensure class and cultural divisions across American society.
And yes, it’s all on purpose. This is the goal of the Clinton-Kaine campaign, because they simply don’t believe in the traditional Judeo-Christian, limited government, liberty-centered America that our Founding Fathers intended for us.
We could spend months listing their policy flaws – from an intentionally weakened American military presence in the world to a diminished culture at home, from specific attacks on religion to more general softening of standards in education, from the destruction of small business to the empowerment of the regulators and the politically connected.
The Clinton-Kaine team is a clear and present danger to this nation and the world, and it must be stopped. Since their only real opposition (the only opposition with a chance) is the Republican ticket of Donald Trump and Governor Mike Pence, this means there is only one solution for any American patriot: to vote for Trump-Pence. Proudly and decisively, as this is the one and only true way to stop Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine.
The Counter-Arguments
Are there other options? Yes. But every other option falls apart upon analysis.
An Alternate Republican Nominee – Many Republicans, particularly of the NeverTrump camp, hoped, even after the primaries were over, that the Republican Party would deny Donald Trump the nomination and select a more traditional conservative with the record to prove his commitment. This was a valid hope (I shared it!) and the party certainly needs to revise our primary process for future elections, to close the primaries and correct the calendar.
But it’s over for this year. There is no alternate Republican nominee. With days to go, and millions having already voted, a write-in for some other Republican will just waste the pollworkers’ time on election night, and in most states, can’t even be recorded. So this is not an option; it’s just a wasted vote.
A Third Party or Independent Candidate – Many good patriots dream of a year in which the two-party duopoly can be broken, and a third party will rise to the top, in support of the Constitution and honest politics. I share this dream. In the spring, when it looked, shockingly, like the nominees would indeed be Trump vs. Clinton, we hoped this would be the year for it. We watched throughout the summer to see if a Libertarian or Constitution Party nominee would catch fire… and they did not.
For whatever reason – Darrel Castle’s lack of money, Gary Johnson’s lack of charisma, Bill Weld’s lack of libertarian principles – none of them caught the fire they need to become a potential winner. All that these many candidates can do, especially independent candidate Evan McMullin, is to deny Donald Trump several states and swing the election to Hillary Clinton.
For this reason, a vote at the presidential level for any of these choices is worse than a wasted vote, it’s a reward for conscious spoilers.
A Dream Scenario – Many good patriots have a particularly creative dream this year: that they can engineer enough state victories for different third party candidates to ensure that neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump gets a majority of the Electoral College delegates, throwing the election into the House of Representatives. This is clever, but has two fatal flaws:
- It could only work if we were sure of taking states from both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, but this will not happen. The only states in which Gary Johnson or Evan McMullin have the slightest chance of winning are states that would otherwise go Republican. This is not in question. All that a vote for these people can do in Utah, Colorado, or elsewhere is to split the anti-socialist vote, and thus deliver those states – and therefore the election – to Hillary Clinton.
- Even if it did work – that is, even if it succeeded in sending the decision to the House of Representatives – either Trump or Clinton would still become the president. By law, the House must choose from the top three vote-getters in the Electoral College. Does anyone whose mind isn’t riddled with pot or heroin truly believe that the House would dare to pass over the candidates who each won 47% of the vote and 49% of the EC delegates, in favor of the guy who won one state and just two to four percent of the popular vote? Politically, realistically, it could NEVER happen. In fact, it’s much more likely that the effort would cause Hillary Clinton to be selected, because of the makeup of the House and their general fear of political backlash.
The Hamilton Rule – Many good patriots cite an occasion, in the election of 1800, when the election went to the House, and Alexander Hamilton was asked to advise on the choice between John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Aaron Burr. Hamilton said “If we must have an enemy at the head of government, let it be one whom we can oppose, and for whom we are not responsible.” This is a logical position for certain cases, but to apply it to the election of 2016 is nonsensical:
- Hamilton chose Jefferson over Adams, because he considered them roughly equal threats, and he knew that Jefferson’s likely errors were, if anything, less risky (in his view) than the likely errors of Adams, his own party’s nominee. He knew that Jefferson was a fellow believer in limited government; Jefferson’s problems were mostly that he believed in too many limits… that’s hardly the problem today. Hillary Clinton is no Thomas Jefferson! A better comparison would be to ask whether Hamilton would support Benedict Arnold, or Bloody Ban Tarleton, had one of them secured the opposition party’s nomination. Jefferson was a fellow patriot, these others were proven to be true enemies of America… as we know Hillary Clinton to be today.
- The Hamilton Rule is also dependent on the theory that we will have a fresh chance for a do-over in 2020. We will not. Among the firmest Clinton-Kaine promises is an array of changes to our immigration and legal system designed specifically to change election law and ensure that the Democrats never lose the presidency again. They will immediately naturalize some 20 million-plus aliens and give them the vote… they will ban any and all state limits on felon voting so that criminals can vote… they will continue to bring in more immigrants every year to continue to pad their voting numbers… they will declare Voter ID requirements and all similar restrictions on vote fraud to be illegal. They will, in effect, legitimize and standardize Democrat vote fraud from coast to coast. If the Democrats are not defeated in 2016 – at least, these Democrats – they may never again be defeated.
Forgive the overused pun, but… NeverHillary trumps NeverTrump. Obviously.
Hillary Clinton is a proven danger to those around her, from her inescapable and constant criminality to her destructive positions on the issues. Donald Trump, while nowhere near as good or strong a candidate as the Republican party could have nominated this year, is undoubtedly better than Hillary Clinton. It’s almost impossible to imagine anyone on the scene who wouldn’t be.
Besides, there is another issue of critical importance that is always relevant, but especially so this year: the vice presidency.
Tim Kaine is a Hillary clone, and if she dies, resigns, or is impeached, he will take the helm, with all of her policies and none of her baggage. If he takes over in the first two years, he’s sure to win reelection (remember LBJ in 1964)… and if she survives past January 21, 2019, he could serve as much as ten years!
By contrast, Mike Pence is a terrific, solid platform Republican. In a dozen years in Washington, his ACU rating went from 100% to 99%. That just doesn’t happen! Mike Pence is a solid, principled man, one of the very rare few in public office whom virtually all sides acknowledge to be an honest and ethical advocate of the Founding principles of our nation. It is widely expected that Donald Trump will be a delegator, and will give Mike Pence broad rein over policy and personnel… and if Trump leaves office for any reason, good or bad, it couldn’t possibly be left in better hands than Governor Pence’s.
25% of our presidents have come up from the Vice Presidency. The odds are probably greater than usual that this will be the case in the years to come, considering both Clinton’s and Trump’s ages and situations.
And so it is without the slightest hesitation that I will happily vote for the team of Donald Trump and Mike Pence… both because I believe it is a moral imperative to stop Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine, and because putting the great Mike Pence in the Executive Branch as second-in-command will be a true and permanent joy!
Copyright 2016 John F. Di Leo
John F. Di Leo is an actor, writer, and international trade expert based in Chicagoland. A former Vice Chairman of the Greater Chicagoland Young Americans for Freedom, a former County Chairman of the Milwaukee County Republican Party, and a lifelong Republican, his columns are frequently found in Illinois Review.
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