Essay:Why I'm voting for Trump (in my state's primary)
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The weird thing about US presidential politics is that it lends itself to playing various games, and lends itself to strategic and systemic thinking.
If my vote will make a difference in November, I probably will vote for Hillary Clinton over whoever the Republican nominee is. But that's a big 'if', and the truth is that I hate her guts.
Hillary Clinton sponsored an unconstitutional bill for video game censorship. She wrote that marijuana is eevil because it might lead to sex. She endorsed abstinence as sex education, and "school choice". Yes, there's a gender specific word for a woman who espouses that kind of drivel. Several, in fact; one in particular. This is Kyle's Mom territory.
So, in the likely situation that Indiana will not play a role in the November election, I will feel perfectly free to vote for a protest candidate. If Indiana is in play, I will hold my nose and vote for the bitch, and hope she is confined to one term.
In the primary, though, it looks like there is no point voting with the Democrats at this stage. Sanders needs around 80% of the votes in all the remaining contests to actually win, and that isn't happening. A vote in the Republican primary will actually make a difference. Also, there are more local races I'd like to weigh in on.
And Ted Cruz is the epitome of what's gone wrong with the Republicans. Kasich has no chance at this stage. So I'm voting for Donald Trump for maximum disruption of the Republican establishment.
Once he secures the nomination, Trump has some leeway to move left, even if he is hardly guaranteed to do so. Trump's nomination, after all, represents the rejection of Republican Party establishment orthodoxy. The Republicans have painted themselves into a corner with their litmus tests and RINO hunts. Trump can reject that in ways that neither of the other candidates can. And every other day, Trump sounds saner and more perceptive than the other Republicans in the race. Don't think he isn't the most reasonable man in the Republican room? Take it from Ted Cruz.
Trump has consistently stood for the renegotiation of Clinton-era trade deals. He's talked about getting money out of politics. He's even made some statements that suggest that he sees income inequality as a problem. Trump is all the hope you have left.
I rather liked his foreign policy speech, and it is actually a bit less hawkish than Hillary's record. It's good to hear the phrase "America first" used in that context.
I'm as tired of choosing the lesser of two evils as you are. But that's all the Democratic Party has to offer. The entire hierarchy of the Democratic Party has already shown they aren't listening to you. So rather than casting a principled vote for the candidate who can't win, I'm casting a strategic vote for systematic change in one of the two parties.
I hope we are in the middle of a political party replacement cycle, like when we lost the Federalists, and later, the Whigs. The established parties are going to offer us a choice between a Bourbon Street titty bar barker and Dolores Umbridge. Given that choice, I'm voting for the titty bars.