Trump is the problem?

I can sum up nearly any political editorial from talking heads to day: "Hillary is bad, but Trump is worse." 

The latest to roll out this flawed logic: Roll Call's Walter Shapiro, who wrote, "Republicans Couldn't Muster the Honor to Fight Trump". Here is some of his mental pablum:

This is the saddest week for American democracy since Richard Nixon left the White House in disgrace in August 1974. But this time around, no one should be crowing, "The system worked."

...The Republicans couldn't even muster the honor and the dignity to fight until the party convention in Cleveland. Instead, they handed over their party to a potty-mouthed, pathological liar whose ignorance is only exceeded by his arrogance. The GOP's idea of a suitable commander-in-chief is a former reality-show host who supports committing war crimes by targeting the children and families of terrorists.

Ok Walter, let's play out this scenario. Here are several possibilities for what happens if the Republicans did what you suggest:

1. Trump gets enough delegates to win anyway. Then the whole fight is moot, not to mention all the bad blood you now have with your nominee.

2. Trump doesn't get enough delegates to win, but he is close enough that he ends up winning the contested convention anyway. See number 1 above. On top of that, you look really dumb.

3. Trump doesn't get enough delegates to win, and you manage to get him replaced with anyone else at the contested convention. This is the worst possibility of all, yet exactly what Walter wants. You are likely to get a Trump third party run, which will tear the entire party apart.

Even if Trump doesn't run as an independent, who would you replace him with? Proven loser Mitt Romney? CINO Paul Ryan or John Kasich? Lying Ted Cruz?

To be fair, I don't like Trump any more than Walter does. But if you want to blame Republicans for Trump, then blame them for not being true to their conservative ideals for at least the past 28 years, and probably longer. But expecting them to commit suicide as a party to stop Trump is just absurd.

On top of that, there is this from Walter:

In a nation of 323 million, Hillary Clinton is now the only person standing between Donald Trump and nuclear weapons. Just thinking about Trump with the nuclear codes brings to mind the anti-Goldwater "Daisy" television ad that ended with a thermonuclear explosion. 

With the stakes this high, there are many reasons to wish that Hillary were a better candidate. It wasn't the "vast right-wing conspiracy" that convinced Clinton to take $675,000 from Goldman Sachs for paid speeches. It wasn't a conservative hit man who arranged for her to install a home-brew email server as secretary of state. 

But now the electoral choice in 2016 has become stark: Hillary or the abyss?

...Every time Trump denounces his opponent as "Crooked Hillary," I recall the 1991 Louisiana governor's race between KKK-veteran David Duke and the colorful but often-indicted, Edwin Edwards. Anti-Duke activists distributed bumper stickers that read: "Vote for the Crook. It's Important."

Unwritten in Walter's thoughts is the old mantra encouraged by the Dempublicans and Republicrats: "You are wasting your vote if you vote third party." So we HAVE to vote for either of the major parties. We HAVE to accept "the crook or the abyss".

Sorry Walter, but I refuse to make another "lesser of two evils" choice, which is still choosing evil.

Remember the Kobayashi Maru scenario from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan?




Here is the description of it from the Memory Alpha wiki:

The Kobayashi Maru scenario was an infamous no-win scenario that was part of the curriculum for command-track cadets at Starfleet Academy in the 23rd century. It was primarily used to assess a cadet's discipline, character and command capabilities when facing an impossible situation, as there is no (legitimate) strategy that will result in a successful outcome.

The American political system is like a Kobayashi Maru scenario, where anything you do, you lose.

However, Captain Kirk infamously beat the scenario by reprogramming it:



Americans need to reprogram their thinking this year. Accepting the no-win scenario we have been presented just means we all lose in November. Vote third party. Kirk would approve.