The king is dead, long live the king.

 

The tensest political handshake in modern times.
The tensest political handshake in modern times.

What I’m reading a lot on social media is a very determined effort to falsely equivocate either Obama or Hillary Clinton with Trump (whether their characters, their campaigns, or their future presidencies).  In my view, this is particularly disingenuous.  To put Obama’s presence and stature or Clinton’s experience and dignity up against Trump’s impulsiveness and braggadocio and call them basically the same thing just isn’t being honest with one’s self.

This, I think, is probably the most insidious choice that voters made because it assumes a “pick your poison” baseline, that both are bad.  Further, a vote for what is “lesser of two evils” excuses all the other bad traits about Trump.  It essentially doesn’t matter how bad Trump was, is, or will be: at least he’s not as evil as “that nasty woman.”

But the Hillary-evil narrative painted so well during the campaign got more and more thin as it wore on.  What evil are we really talking about?  That she and staffers made the tragic misstep of putting a private email server in use?  This was a decision that I’m sure Clinton will rue for a long time, but as the FBI has repeatedly cleared her of treasonous intent, it’s hardly evil.  That the Benghazi attacks were bungled?  Absolutely.  It was tragic and security lapses were made.  Mistakes happen, even at the highest level.  Is she evil in her mishandling?  I don’t think so.  She’s worked hard to establish stability in the area since and her tone has been proved to be one of calm in the face of calamity.

The Trump image we’ve all seen during the campaign itself (forget 10-15 years prior) has shown itself to be frightening.  What I can’t wrap my brain around is why so many Christians, children of the Reagan GOP, would turn a blind eye to his enabling of very bad behavior.  Here’s a man that can’t lose gracefully.  He sues the press when he doesn’t like how they cover him in the headlines.  He lashes out publicly at women and minorities.  He has no sense of decorum befitting of the office.

And yet still I hear how basically they’re all the same.  That one choice is just as bad as another.  That’s just not true, and you know it, no matter how badly you want that square peg to fit.

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