Doug Smith: Author, historian and lead contributor to Free State Patriot
But the choice is very, very real
”God save thee Ancient Mariner, from fiends that plague thee thus! Why lookst thou so?
With my crossbow I shot the albatross.”
I’ve always loved that bit of verse, especially now that I am both ancient, and once a mariner. But if I may put it in modern English:
What’s wrong with you, buddy?
I really screwed up.
So, in an effort to avert an albatross around the necks of many people permit me a bit of common sense reasoning.
There are 2 choices before America right now for the direction of the next 4 years, and the vibrations for the next 20.
Only 2
Those who suddenly discover, after years of caving in to Obama that Principle matters more than winning, are living in Poe s Opium induced Xanadu. In politics, if you don’t win, you don’t get to “principle”. But the “Feel the Johnson” crowd, the Never Trump crowd, the plague on both your houses crowd, is living the Never Utopia reality. We can say both of them are awful people, and we don’t want any of them. Therefore, we will
Never vote for Trump, even though Hillary is awful.
Vote for Hillary, even though Hillary is awful. After all, she has lots of experience at being awful.
Vote for Johnson, because This could finally be the year of the 3rd party. (Einstein had something to say about doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result.)
All of them still ignore the most basic realities of the situation. Hillary IS truly awful. And no matter what you all think or dream, grab onto this:
Either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump WILL be the next President.
Now, my assessment of Trump has not changed. He is an ass. He is arrogant, brash, crude, and slow to change. I would not care to have a beer with him. I don’t particularly like him, and I am sorry the GOP, (my party since Reagan,) created him, and nominated him. We had better choices available, but the GOP leadership helped create the conditions, and their Keystone Cops primary season antics did not help.
So, we have Trump.
Hillary Clinton has a 30 year track record of paranoid secrecy, disdain, shady or criminal avarice, and an easily demonstrated adherence to the most radical Leftist ideologies; the same ones which have ruined or murdered millions in misery in the 20th Century. But she is hard invested in the Left which loves Castro, Che, and the Soviet Union. She is, and has been comfortable with terrorists and despots. The image of her hugging Yasser Arafat is hard to ignore.
Harry Truman once said “There is no way to get rich in politics unless you are a crook. “
Hillary went from “broke leaving the White House” to being worth $300 million dollars. There is nothing not for sale with her, from access, to deals, to bills, to arms, to national security. Her words paint her an advocate of the little guy. Her actions paint her as available to the highest bidder.
She will push hard to the Left; ignore Law and Constitution, because she thinks she is above the law, and immune to penalties. She will seek to rule, not govern.
Will she bring on the end of the Republic? The Oracle at Delphi has not revealed that one to me.
Will she continue us in a dangerous and damaging direction, on the way to 40 trillion in debt?
Well. One need not be Einstein or the Oracle to see that coming.
If you are a voter in America, you ARE going to make a choice between now and my birthday, Nov 8.
You are going to hold your nose, along with me, and vote for Trump, for all the reasons you already know, that he will not do what Hillary does, to the extent she does, or sell the White House furniture and rent the Lincoln Bedroom. Will he be a great President? Probably not. Will he be better than Hillary? Without a doubt.
Or, you are going to do anything else at all, vote for Hillary, stay home, vote for a 3rd party, write me in because you are just overcome with my wisdom, and you will be contributing to the awfulness that is Hillary. We are very close to a lost decade. Hillary will ensure it, and perhaps stretch it out to 2.
So don’t fool yourself. You ARE going to vote for Trump, or you ARE going to vote for Hillary. One way or another. Put down the opium pipe. Hillary has a plan. She won’t let you in on it, but peer over her shoulder at her leaked emails and you ll see it. It is not a pretty picture for you.
If you are a conservative and sit home in a self-righteous snit because Trump is not pure, you are helping Hillary.
And if they are both that bad, well impeach Hillary and you get Kaine, who is no prize either. Impeach Trump; you get Pence, who is a fairly decent guy and a successful Governor. We might just stumble into a good solution.
But brother, Hillary isn’t it!
Free State Patriot 
Well argued again, Doug.
A month ago you wouldn’t have been able to budge me from voting for Gary Johnson. Well, Gary knocked me off of that track and that very effectively. Today, I was listening to Glen Beck and the caller said that he had voted early and admitted that he had voted for “the Pothead”. Huh.
I’ve been voting Republican and telling my union brothers that if we ever got a Republican trifecta: House, Senate and Presidency; we would see a BIG improvement. Well we finally got it.
Remember how well that went?
It was such a disappointment that it gave rise to the Tea Party movement and the reaction from the old boy republicans told me all I needed to know about that party. The difference between the two power structures is the speed that they are going to kill us. Quickly with the Democans. With the Republicrats; I’m reminded of the old routine: “We’re gonna kill ya but we wanna watch ya suffer for a bit first.”
It is time and past time for both parties to be replaced, voting Libertarian will accomplish a couple of good things. Enough votes will get them on all ballots automatically and it becomes eligible for matching funds next cycle if it gets 5% of the votes this cycle. That would really raise their visibility and make people aware of and willing to consider the other options.
My wife has come to the conclusion that HRC is so terrible that voting for The Donald has become acceptable and even necessary. I see her point clearly and I am less sure than I was but really now, isn’t time to put both of those parties out of our misery?
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