Posted on 10/23/2016 5:32:52 AM PDT by Kaslin
Last time a Clinton was on the ballot, I voted for Ross Perot. My vote didn’t deny Bob Dole the White House, but I confess I felt a smug sense of satisfaction in “refusing to settle.” I sure showed them, didn’t I?
I haven’t been as vocal as other “Never Trump” writers, but neither have I hidden my dislike or tempered my criticism. In a field of 17 Republican candidates, Donald Trump wouldn’t have been my 18th choice. I’m still not a fan. But they didn’t just ask me; they asked everyone. And more of everyone chose Donald Trump.
I couldn’t do it, I just couldn’t. For countless reasons I’ve covered over the last year, I dug in my heels and proudly basked in my self-satisfaction. I still defended Trump in this column and on social media when he was wrongly attacked by the left and the media, but I was steadfast in my opposition to the man.
So what changed?
Not Trump. He still gives rambling speeches with little focus and spends far too much time defending himself against insignificant slights when he should be focusing on policy (though his ethics reform proposal is excellent and will irritate all the people in Washington who need to be irritated)
Hillary hasn’t changed either. At least not in who she is – a corrupt, self-serving liar willing to do or say anything to win and/or sell out to the highest bidder. There isn’t enough Saudi Arabian money in the Clinton Foundation to get me to vote for someone who got rich off “public service” and a “commitment to helping the poor.”
No, what’s changed is me. Not through introspection and reflection, but through watching the sickening display of activism perpetrated by a covert army with press credentials.
Bias has always been a factor in journalism. It’s nearly impossible to remove. Humans have their thoughts, and keeping them out of your work is difficult. But 2016 saw the remaining veneer of credibility, thin as it was, stripped away and set on fire.
More than anything, I can’t sit idly by and allow these perpetrators of fraud to celebrate and leak tears of joy like they did when they helped elect Barack Obama in 2008. I have to know I weighed in not only in writing but in the voting booth.
The media needs to be destroyed. And although voting for Trump won’t do it, it’s something. Essentially, I am voting for Trump because of the people who don’t want me to, and I believe I must register my disgust with Hillary Clinton.
I am not of the mindset that any vote not for Trump is a vote for Hillary, but a vote for Trump is a vote against Hillary. And I need to vote against Hillary. I need to vote against the media.
After the last debate, when no outlet “fact checked” Hillary’s lie that her opposition to the Heller decision had anything to do with children, or her lie that the State Department didn’t lose $6 billion under her leadership, I couldn’t hold out any longer.
A Trump administration at least will include people I trust in positions that matter. I don’t know if they will be able to hold him completely in check, but I know a Clinton administration will include people who have been her co-conspirators in corruption, and there won’t even be a media to hold her accountable.
The Wikileaks emails have exposed an arrogant cabal of misery profiteers who hold everyone, even their fellow travelers deemed not pure enough, in contempt. These bigots who’ve made their fortune from government service should be kept as far away from the levers of power as the car keys should be kept from anyone named Kennedy on a Friday night. My one vote against it will not be enough, but it’s all I can do and I have to do all I can do.
I won’t stop being critical of Trump when he deserves it; I won’t pretend someone is handing out flowers when they’re shoveling BS. But I’d rather have BS shoveled out of a president than our tax dollars shoveled to a president’s friends and political allies.
The Project Vertias videos exposed a corrupt political machine journalists would have been proud to expose in the past. The Wikileaks emails pulled back the curtain on why that didn’t happen – journalists are in on it. I can’t pretend otherwise, and I have no choice but to oppose it.
This isn’t a call to arms for “Never Trumpers” to follow suit; this is a choice I had to make for myself after much reflection. I wouldn’t presume to tell others how to act any more than I would accept the same from someone else. I would encourage them to consider what awaits the country should Hillary win. If they can’t vote against her by voting for him, at least spend these last two weeks of the election directing their ire toward Clinton.
Although most are principled, far too many “Never Trump” conservatives spend more of their time attacking him than pointing out her corruption. I get it – in him, you see the fight you’ve been a part of being betrayed, and that leaves a mark.
I’m not saying you should support him, but you shouldn’t lose sight of the importance of opposing her. If, or when, Hillary Clinton takes the oath of office, she needs to have as little support as possible. Frankly, she needs to be damaged. The mainstream media won’t do it; they’re in on it.
This is my choice, what I must do. Each person has to come to this decision on their own terms. And the fact remains there simply aren’t enough “Never Trump” Republicans to make up Trump’s current deficit, and that’s on him. But I know what I’ve been wrestling with these past few weeks is not unique to me. And I don’t know about you, but I simply cannot sit around knowing there was something else I could have done to oppose Hillary Clinton and I didn’t do it.
A simple protest vote for a third party or a write-in of my favorite comic book character might feel good for a moment. It might even give me a sense of moral superiority that lasts until her first executive order damaging something I hold dear – or her first Supreme Court nominee. But the sting that will follow will far outlive that temporary satisfaction.
I oppose much of what Donald Trump has said, but I oppose everything Hillary Clinton has done and wants to do. And what someone says, no matter how objectionable, is less important than what someone does, especially when it’s so objectionable. A personal moral victory won’t suffice when the stakes are so high. As such, I am compelled to vote against Hillary by voting for the only candidate with any chance whatsoever of beating her – Donald Trump.
“Anyone “undecided” when they walk into th voting booth is going to vote Trump 3 or 4 to 1 easily.’
I agree.
To the media elites, “Reagan Democrats”, aka normal working people, aka Trump voters, are an exotic species about which they know little.
They always underestimate the deplorable minions of flyover country!
Last chance, America. Donald Trump for President!
The rats forced Old Man Bush to lie??? They forced him to break his promise???
Utter nonsense. He chose to break his promise and Republicans gave him enough support to do so.
I had two kids, 3,1, in 1996. It is a big black memory hole.
I honestly did not remember that.
Derek Hunter'a wisdom is 'too little too late'... and reeks of fear. Fear 'the base' is leaving GOPe elites to twist in the wind. And if this is Derek's fear - he's right.
Nothings going to go back to the way it was... I will never - and many are like me - will NEVER 'hold my nose' and vote for a Republican 'elite' again. I don't even want to be in the same party with them.
It's over.
I'll never subscribe to a daily newspaper or trust the words of 'journalists' again. Trusting or respecting corrupt elites is not going to happen either...
Whatever innocence most of us had has been washed away by Clinton thuggery, Republican insensitivity, Press lies, and IRS and FBI corruption... The scales have dropped from our eyes - we'll never see the world the same again. Go away Derek - stand with the elites... you're not welcome with the depolorables.
I forgot Perot ran in 1996. I voted Libertarian that year. If Kemp was on the top I’d have voted for Kemp.
I forgot Perot ran in 1996. I voted Libertarian that year. If Kemp was on the top I’d have voted for Kemp.
Bush Sr. said they will come to me asking to raise taxes. They will come again and again and I will say “read my lips, no new taxes!”
But he didn’t even wait for them to come. He went to them!
He never believed in “voodoo economics”.
I’m still bitter about that moment. It paved the way for Bush Jr. to adopt “stimulus” to “jump start the economy”, and his econ know nothing followers in both parties adopted that paradigm.
Now we have a stagnant economy, trillions in new debt, and an unimaginable crisis when rates start to tick up.
No one even remembers what works: economic growth.
Trump has the great Stephen Moore on board, maybe he will save us.
Love your screen name!
I’ll take a deplorable pooch over a statist Dem any day.
Great point Butterdezillion! Everyone needs to be welcomed back into the fold, rather than denigrating them for being late to the party.
Whatever it takes to vote for Trump.
What took so long... some are slower than others..
It’s not even that it’s simple human nature. Hillary is known entity. There is nothing to decide about her. If you are going to support her you already have decide to. If you are undecided at the end you aren’t going to break for the known entity.
Hillary is Strutting around like Obama 2008 where everyone knew McCain wasn’t going to win. The annectdotal evidence matched the polling... But they want folks to believe a woman who can’t draw a crowd is on the verge of a landslide win against a guy who fills every venue he shows up at???
It’s garbage and anyone paying attention knows it
Bias has always been a factor in journalism. It’s nearly impossible to remove. Humans have their thoughts, and keeping them out of your work is difficult. But 2016 saw the remaining veneer of credibility, thin as it was, stripped away and set on fire.
More than anything, I can’t sit idly by and allow these perpetrators of fraud to celebrate and leak tears of joy like they did when they helped elect Barack Obama in 2008. I have to know I weighed in not only in writing but in the voting booth.
The media needs to be destroyed. And although voting for Trump won’t do it, it’s something. Essentially, I am voting for Trump because of the people who don’t want me to, and I believe I must register my disgust with Hillary Clinton.
One of the biggest purposes of Free Republic has always been to uncover and spotlight Media Bias, and expose the perpetrators.
Our work here is done, thanks to Donald Trump.
Now, it's time to take it right to the Enemy, in their teeth
The revulsion I feel toward this snake Derek Hunter is not printable. Whether Trump wins or loses the blood of our injured country is on his hands.
Thanks, since we were called a basket of Deplorables, my son (ConservaTeen) kidded that we were DeplorableAmericans, so I decided to use it as my FR handle after I got zotted. Been an FR member since 2000.
Sorry for the snark.
I’m trying to not attack other FReepers anymore.
That wasn’t snark. No worries.
Great points. They give me some hope, too.
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