In just a few days, it will be the final day for
people to vote in the 2016 US Presidential election. This election is going to be historic.
Barring some totally unprecedented occurrence, either
the Democrat or the Republican nominee will win the general election. There is one of those candidates whom I really
don’t want to win. On the other hand, I
really, really, don’t want the other
candidate to win.
I’m reminded of an incident that’s recorded in the
Book of 2 Samuel in the Bible. As the
consequence of a bad decision and action by the nation’s leader, something bad
was about to happen to the nation. The nation’s leader, King David, was given
the choice of which consequence would occur.
Each consequence would be bad, but each one would be bad in different
ways. In the end, Kind David chose the
consequence that would hit hard and quickly, but that would last the shortest
amount of time.
I can see some parallels between the things from which
King David had to choose and the choice the American people face in this
Presidential election. Regardless of who
wins, there are very likely to be some bad consequences.
Let’s start with the Republican candidate. We have in this person someone with basically
no political experience, someone who has been recorded saying things that are disrespectful
of various people, and who has often seemed to demonstrate the need for
attention and self-glorification. On the
other hand, the Democrats have nominated someone who seems to have surrounded
herself with a culture of corruption for many, many years. While as of this writing there has been no “smoking
gun” that has directly implicated her, logic tells us that she must have been
either involved with or aware of the things going on around her. Even the FBI director has said that at the
least, her actions have been “extremely negligent.”
The biggest strength of each candidate is the fact
that they are not the other candidate.
When the media and the people are talking primarily about one of the
candidates for several days in a row, it is the poll numbers of the other candidate that seem to improve.
So, Americans are now faced with a choice between
these two people. Yes, there are indeed
third party candidates, but none of them will win. Either Democrat Hillary Clinton or Republican
Donald Trump will win the general election.
I really don’t want Donald Trump to be the next
President. I’ve already described some
of his shortcomings. I think that if he
were President, he’d be more likely to act rashly and in a non-statesmanlike
manner in the event of a crisis, which might tend to make the crisis worse.
On the other hand, I really, really don’t want Hillary Clinton to be the next President. In addition to the culture of corruption I
already described that would likely tend to become even more perpetual around
her as President, I simply disagree with the vast majority of her positions on
the issues.
Many have said that this election is going to be
primarily about the makeup of the U.S. Supreme Court, as the next President
will likely nominate three, four, or perhaps even more justices to that Court
during the first (and hopefully only) term of his or her Presidency. I tend to agree. And for me, the bottom line is that I believe
it is better for this nation to have justices whose judicial philosophies are
more along the lines of the late Antonin Scalia and of Clarence Thomas than
those of Stephen Breyer or Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The Scalia and Thomas model is generally to interpret the Constitution
in light of what the things it says meant at the time those things were
written. The Breyer and Ginsburg model
is more along the lines of molding the words of the Constitution into what they
want it to say currently, or as some people have descried it, legislating from
the bench.
The next US President is likely to leave his or her
mark on this nation for decades to come, especially if he or she indeed is able
to successfully nominate several people to the US Supreme Court. Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have
indicated plainly enough the types of judicial philosophy they would be looking
for in Supreme Court justices, and the way I see it, this nation will be far
worse off for a longer period of time if the Supreme Court has a super majority
of justices in the Breyer-Ginsburg model than it will be if it has a majority
of justices in the Scalia-Thomas model.
That being said, even though I really do not want
Donald Trump to be the next President of the United States, I really, really do
not want Hillary Clinton to be the next President, and therefore I will have to
grudgingly support Donald Trump for President, knowing that he has the best
chance of anyone else in the current race of keeping Hillary Clinton from being
elected. Then we can pray that the bad
consequences of a Trump Presidency will be less, fewer, and shorter-lived than
that of a Hillary Clinton Presidency.
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