Cogito Ergo Non Serviam

Clinton Campaign is the Vehicle for Crushing Trumpism

This presidential campaign has been a two-year long disappointment. The Democrats fielded too few candidates (three if one noticed Mr. O'Malley) and the Republicans far too many (17 or so). The result of the process was a pair of candidates who are exceedingly unpopular across the nation, and which will result in a weak presidency regardless of who wins. However, it matters very much not only who wins this election but by how much. It is for that reason, and that reason alone, that readers who are eligible to vote in the US general election vote against Donald Trump using the Clinton campaign as their vehicle. Burying his effort in a landslide is the only way to scotch the rise of a nativist, nationalist fascism that has nothing to recommend it.

Mrs. Clinton's shortcomings are legion, and it is no secret that this journal finds her views to be those of a 1960s Rockefeller Republican rather than a 21st century social democrat. She lies badly, by that one means that no one believes that she believes what she often says. She has a streak of greed mixed with a streak of hubris that often causes needless grief. She is too old to be president. One fears Bill Clinton will take an unfortunately active role in the government. And so on.

That pales into insignificance when one considers that the alternative is Donald J. Trump. He has never held public office. He has never served as a C-Suite executive in a public corporation. He has never really done anything that leads one to believe he could be POTUS. He doesn't do his homework. He doesn't know very much about the world, the lives of ordinary Americans or how government works. He constantly contradicts himself, and he is boorish, vulgar and loathsome. And yet, that is not the prime reason to vote against him.

Donald Trump has assembled a coalition of the very worst of America. He is backed by the ignorant, the hateful, the jealous and the angry. They are racists, xenophobes and misogynists who know nothing beyond their own bigoted ideology. They may not comprise a majority of his supporters, but they are clearly there, they are clearly vociferous, and he has stirred them into a frenzy that cannot end well unless they are quickly disabused of the idea that they are the future.

This journal is painfully aware of the gravity of the term "fascist." It is not to be bandied about lightly lest it lose the impact of its history. Yet, this journal also believes that words have meanings and that when a word's meaning is apt, that word should be used. Mr. Trump is running a fascist campaign on fascist ideals. His most ardent supporters are fascists or their enablers. They must be stopped dead in their tracks.

The ideal way to do that is to defeat them in a landslide of historic proportions. It is not enough that they lose this election. They must lose it by a massive margin, by a margin so great that the Republican Party never again marches to the drum beat of ignorant hatred and bigotry.

It is possible to vote against Mr. Trump by using the Libertarian or Green Party as one's vehicle. The impact of that is far less effective, however. Were Mr. Trump to lose 45% to 40% with the third and fourth parties picking up the balance of the votes cast, his movement would continue. The argument would be that most Americans didn't vote for Mrs. Clinton, and if it hadn't been for Gary Johnson or Jill Stein, Donald Trump would be president. It would enable a narrative that would keep this ugly monstrosity alive through 2020. At that point, it may well become a permanent feature of the American political landscape.

No, Mr. Trump needs to be beaten badly with Mrs. Clinton's vote total approaching 60%. Only then can the right in America see its fever break and the delirium to which it has been subject end.

The country and the world can survive a Hillary Clinton presidency. They cannot manage 4 years of Donald Trump as Il Duce (Il Douchey). The important thing here is to run up the score. The left can start planning on a primary challenge to President-Elect Clinton on November 9. Until then, the goal is to stop Mr. Trump, and more importantly to stop Trumpism from spreading. Readers ought to hold their noses and vote for Mrs. Clinton.

© Copyright 2016 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.



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