Why I Voted For Trump

So, I've been reading a whole lot of stuff on the internet for the past couple of weeks, telling me what a horrible person I am.  I'm either a racist and a sexist and a homophobe and a xenophobe, or I'm enabling a man who is, and emboldening the bad people in our country to treat blacks and hispanics and muslims and women, etc. ... poorly.

But most of you posting these things have not asked me.  Which would be nice.  Because it seems like you're making assumptions which are incorrect, while ignoring a lot of pertinent info about your own candidate.

For the record, I don't like Trump.  I voted for him, but I would not call myself a Trump supporter or defender.  Got that?

When I look at a politician, I break them into three categories: the personal, the practical and the policies.

Personal.  Do I think they're basically a decent human being?  Obama?  Yes.  Bush?  Yes.  Either Clinton?  No.  Trump?  No.

Practical.  Do I think they are good/would be good at the job?  Reagan?  Yes.  Bill Clinton?  Yes.  Obama?  No.  Hillary Clinton?  No.  Trump?  Not sure.

Policies.  I'm a libertarian leaning Republican.  I believe that government is best which governs least.  So while I don't agree with all of Trump's policies, his line up more with mine than Hillary Clinton's.

One thing I’d like to note at this point.  It seems like a lot of people confuse policies with the personal.  But just because you dislike someone’s policies, doesn’t mean they are bigoted.  If someone wants to build a wall on the Mexican border, that doesn’t mean they automatically hate Mexicans.  It may simply mean they favor enforcing the existing laws of this country.  If someone favors lowering corporate taxes, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they want to oppress the poor.  Many believe lowering taxes lures businesses back to the U.S. and spurs the engine of economic growth, which helps everyone.

Look, I think both parties picked the worst possible candidate.  But to me, Hillary Clinton is worse.  It seems clear to me that she and her husband sold out the country for their own personal interests.  So my basic metric in this election was: Trump has said horrible things, but Hillary has done horrible things.

It's fascinating to me that once Hillary Clinton was the candidate, the Democrats circled the wagons and it seemed like all you heard, from CNN to the late night talk shows, was how horrible Trump is.  Alternatively, on right-wing talk radio, the Republicans were constantly discussing Trump's flaws.  It makes me want to say to the Democrats, ‘Really?  You find nothing wrong there?  From deleting emails and destroying laptops that the FBI had requested to the appearance of pay-for-play using the Clinton Foundation to Bengazi, and going all the way back to Whitewater and Hillary-care?  We can debate these issues, but really?  Nothing to see here?’

I made what I thought was the best choice possible, given the choices available.  I flirted with not voting for either one.  If some decent Democrat had run, I might have been tempted.  But that wasn't the case.

So I voted for Trump.