My POTUS Vote 2016

The following are my thoughts on how I am going to vote in the 2016 POTUS election, and why.  My purpose here is not to persuade anyone that one candidate is better or worse than the other. My intent is simply to share what I am doing since many of you have asked.

Most of us don’t enjoy reading lengthy opinions on politics, therefore, I will let the cat out of the bag from the start. Once you read for whom I am voting, you may want to continue and find out my thinking behind it.

I will be voting third party; Gary Johnson. I will be voting for him for purely strategic and tactical reasons. Frankly, I think he is an idiot.  As a Libertarian, I am not impressed with his policies, or the theory from which he approaches issues.  Besides not having as much juicy, scandalous smut reported on him, I don’t find him superior to either of the other two.  In my view none of the three are fit to be POTUS. I’ll spare the details since every negative thing that can be brought up has been discussed and argued ad nauseam. Still, a quick overview to substantiate my thought process may be helpful.

Hillary Clinton is the epitome of white privilege. She is corrupt in all the ways that Washington politicians are corrupt; her corruption runs broad and deep. She, at the very best, has been careless and flippant with things that actually matter like national security.  At worst her actions may be classified as treasonous. Frankly, I am just sick and tired of politicians like her, and her specifically, getting away with things that anyone outside of their group would be prosecuted for and crushingly punished. Enough with abuse of power.

She has accomplished nothing persuasive for me to even consider any accolades that are electable.  So she has tried to fight for women and children; not impressive. With all of her considerable power and influence, she has produced surprisingly small positive effect in those areas.  I would put the average, underpaid social worker’s actual accomplishments up against Hillary’s accomplishments any day. She, however, is agenda driven. 

We have begun to see that she wields her power imperiously to accomplish her personal interests.  We have no reason to believe that those behaviors will suddenly change for the better upon being sworn into office; she will only be infused with more power and resource than ever before with which she can continue on with her agendas. Her particular agenda-plus-power is specifically problematic because there would be no functional federal braking system in place with which to slow or stop her.  She will have an ability to usurp the constitution, and the conventional executive branch protocol in ways that are not positively innovative, but that are corrupt and damaging in unprecedented ways.

Donald Trump is repugnant. Simple question: When shit hits the fan, will Trump support his own interests or the nation’s? If we are splitting hairs, we can say that Trump would hypothetically be less damaging as a president than Hillary simply because he will be stopped at every turn from trying to accomplish his agenda.  While Hillary eludes prosecution for things for which she is known to be guilty, Trump loses support from the entire RNC over a personal phone conversation. I am not downplaying the wickedness of his words or behaviors; that is not my point. My point is simply to illustrate that his own base easily gives up support (I would say rightfully so), and that Hillary’s doesn’t. Hillary would be more effective in the White House than Trump would be.

Donnie, is not qualified to be POTUS in any personal or professional way.  He is a disgrace morally, and does not represent compassion, justice, or integrity. He is a half-ass conservative, nor does he have the heart of a liberal whose aim, ideally, is for social justice. He is an opportunist. Opportunists are particularly dangerous when they are also petulant, petty, and vindictive.  The office of the POTUS is not supposed to be inhabited by a spoiled, misogynistic emperor-at-heart who models his managerial endeavors after movieland caricatures of the mob.

Gary Johnson is not intelligent enough to be the most powerful man in the world. He is in over his head.  He is not a libertarian; he is libertine-light in the thinly veiled disguise of Libertarianism. He is worthy of no more of my words.

Why a Johnson vote then?  Simply put: because none of the above should be in the White House.  I don’t care what Johnson’s positions are. I don’t care about his morality.  I care that it is all but impossible for him to win.  What is possible however, is that enough electoral votes for him has real, actual, possibilities of drawing enough electoral votes from both Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump so as to keep all three from the magic 270 votes necessary to prevail in the election. Should none of the candidates obtain 270 electoral votes, congress would have to step in and appoint the next POTUS.

From there things become unclear.  It would be unchartered territory. Congress would have pressure and incentive to not appoint one of the three (Johnson would not be taken seriously by them, and Clinton & Trump are currently mired in too much scandal for congress to take sides with either of them). Theoretically, there would be sufficient pressure for them to have to appoint a bipartisan, free-from-scandal, respected moderate. Such a person has to be better than the above options.  My vote, therefore, while technically for Johnson, is really a vote for the possibility of a much needed, and desired reset button.