LF: Why Donald Trump Is Merely the Lesser of Two Evils

When Trump’s presidential campaign first began, everyone was baffled by how quickly he rose in the polls and left every other contender in the dust. In retrospect, his success makes sense. Trump managed to resonate with voters who were tired of the establishment, and wanted anybody but Bush or Clinton.

They were tired of Ivy League pontificators, and were ready for a candidate who said whatever he wanted without any kind of filter. It was almost as if Trump stumbled upon a secret cheat code for winning elections. Say what you want in simple terms, no matter how brash or un-PC it may sound, and the people will notice you and respect you.

This has allowed him to wriggle out of every controversial statement he’s ever made while still coming out on top. However, he said something over the weekend that has many of his supporters and detractors wondering if he has gone too far.

Over the weekend, Donald Trump, as he is wont to do, made some news. While extolling the loyalty of his supporters, he mused, “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.”
He then blasted the “soft” support for other Republican contenders. “My people stay,” he said.

Try to imagine how narcissistic you would have to be to say something like that. That’s like something a mob boss would say. This is cartoon supervillian territory. Still, despite the fact that he just insulted his own supporters by saying they’re sheepish enough to vote for him even if he murders a stranger in broad daylight, I imagine he’ll walk away from this statement with more support. It’s happened countless times before, and this will be no exception.

And the reason why he’ll get away with it, is because he stands for something that makes it very easy for every day Americans to overlook the things he says. It doesn’t matter that he supports eminent domain, or that he would deliberately target the families of terrorist with military strikes, or that he has conveniently flip-flopped on many of his political stances. At the end of the day, the entrenched elite of the United States and the world have made it clear that they do not like him, and they’ll do everything in their power to keep him from winning.

He is standing against the establishment at a time when the establishment has never been so unpopular, and rightly so. There isn’t any doubt that the people running our society have run it into the ground, and they hold no real loyalties to America.

But Trump supporters need to realize that they’re making a Faustian bargain if they vote for this man. Sure, the establishment hates him and if elected, he may very well put the elites and the globalists in their place. But the guy is a statist through and through, who has consistently shown that his beliefs will change whenever it is convenient for him. Can you really trust him to execute the policies he has promised on the campaign trail? In that sense, he really isn’t that different from any other politician who has made it to the White House.

To me, Trump is looking more and more like a desperation candidate. He certainly has a solid core of loyal supporters, but it seems like the rest of his supporters are just willing to overlook his countless faults because he appears superior to the status quo. He is an “anything but the other guy” candidate. He has become the lesser of two evils, and the greater evil happens to be the elites that have run this country into the ground for generations.

So if you’re a Trump supporter you should ask yourself, when has voting for the lesser of two evils ever done this country any service in the past? Personally, every election I’ve witnessed in my lifetime has been between the lesser of two evils, and it has yet to produce anything fruitful. If anything, it has been devastating every single time. Are you really prepared to pull that same lever again?

Trump is an Ivy Leaguer himself, actually. University of Pennsylvania is Ivy League, is it not? He went to Wharton and did well.

I am a statist through and through also. It is the state's duty to provide an army, to provide courts, to provide social welfare, to keep the peace. Those things are expensive and they require taxation. God recognized that with his tithe, authority of judges, etc. The state is not an apparatus of the Devil. It is a necessity of peaceful human life. When the state exceeds its divine mandate and limitations, it can become quite evil. But the state itself is not evil when it does what God set out for states to do.

As far him changing his beliefs - he has been consistent about trade, about opposition to unprofitable foreign war, about illegal immigration, for decades. The only major issue on which he has changed his mind is abortion.

I am voting for REAL change. This guy is going to shut that Mexican border. He's talked about it for years, and if he gets power, he will. He's been CONSISTENT about something that elites DON'T WANT. So screaming that he's a flip-flopper/lesser of two evils looks to me like the desperate lies of people who don't want the border closed, as he has consistently and without flip- flopping stated.

He's opposed to unregulated and untaxed free trade. ANd has been for years. Me too.

WHAT flip-flopping? WHAT "lesser evil"? I see in Trump a bunch of positions that are positive goods, versus the standard Republican position and philosophy and actions which are all evil.

All I see with these desperate attacks on Trump are the attacks of people who want open borders, unrestricted trade with China, endless wars, and no restrictions on Muslim immigration, but who find that these shitty ideas no longer hold sway with the American people.

So they're going to lose everything, and they're resorting to screaming bald lies that PRETEND (for that's all it is: pretense) that Trump is just another lying Republican politician. If he were THAT, he wouldn't have the country aligning behind him.

No. He really IS different, and he's going to destroy a lot of entrenched interests that are bad for the middle class and working class. So electing him is no deal with the Devil. It's a positive choice of people like me to assert electoral power to elect a man who will use the full power of the executive to destroy our domestic enemies, wipe out 40, 50, 60 years of bad policy, and change things in a direction that will benefit us.

Open borders and "free" trade are a zero sum game. We've been at the losing end for decades. Now the people screaming most shrilly are going to be at the losing end. And that will be great.

You almost convinced me Trumpet has merit but a populist playing to the worst in human nature is a dangerous bet