Here's how it goes every time. It's always the same:
"I will not compromise my principles and vote for that man! And if you had any principles, neither would you! I REFUSE TO COMPROMISE!"
"I'm not compromising anything. My principles say Hillary must not be allowed to become president. Like it or not, electing Trump is the only way to stop her."
"You're assuming I think Hillary is worse than Trump! What makes you think that? There is no difference between the two!"
"What about Trump's tax plan, his health care plan, his position on domestic energy . . . "
"LIES! ALL LIES! HILLARY AND TRUMP ARE ONE AND THE SAME!"
And just like that, the discussion has ended, which is the whole idea. No two people are exactly the same, and while there's no denying that Trump and Hillary share some similar characteristics, a look at the two total packages reveals two people who are worlds different from each other.
But the #NeverTrumpers don't want to have that conversation because it makes it uncomfortable for them to admit they're unwilling to do the only thing that could actually prevent a Hillary presidency, which is to vote for Trump. Voting for some third-party pretender might be a salve for your moral vanity, but Trump is the only candidate who actually has a chance to beat her, so only a vote for Trump actually damages her chances of winning. If the election is about you feeling good about yourself, then vote for Ron LaPaul Lyndon Perot Anderson Stassen Rouche all you want. If it's about results, vote Trump.
How can a conservative justify not using their vote to stop Hillary? By pretending to believe that there is no difference between Trump and Hillary, and by refusing to engage any conversation that challenges that assertion.
So what's behind this assertion? Inevitably it comes down to a few flimsy notions:
Trump and Hillary are both liberals! Hillary is and has always been a liberal. Trump has made public statements in support of liberal policies at various times in his life, but he's also made statements in support of conservative policies. The truth is Trump has no history as a political officeholder or as a candidate until now, so it's impossible to say how he would have governed or voted in 1990, or 1999, or 2003, or whenever. His policy proposals now are quite conservative. Liberals don't seem to think that if Trump got in office he would do their bidding. They're quite confident Hillary would.
Either way, there's no way you can say that on basic political philosophy their paths or their thinking are similar.
Trump and Hillary are both liars! I will not attempt to defend everything Trump has said, but his entire history looks saintly compared to Hillary's. Cattle futures? Sniper fire in Bosnia? Lost billing records? Travel office firings? No classified information on the shlock homebrew e-mail server? Never traded influence for Clinton Foundation cash? Getting fired from the Watergate investigative staff for trying to deny legal counsel to the president of the United States? All those women who accused Bill were liars? This is way beyond being a liar. Hillary wouldn't know the truth if it smacked her in the face. Trump has some character flaws (as do we all), but nothing on the same planet as Hillary's.
They're both creatures of the same system! No. Trump makes no bones about the fact that he has greased the palms of politicians from both parties over the years to get what he wanted. That is not admirable but it's the same thing every corporation, every business group, every union and every activist group in America does all the time. Trump's entire career has been in the private sector, and whatever you may think of his business methods or the mixed results he's had, Trump has spent his life having to earn his money by making good business decisions. And when he made bad business decisions, it cost him. Literally. Hillary has never had a real job in her life, and when she held a position, it was because of who she was married to. She has not accomplishments or results to show for anything, mainly because she was only interested in holding those positions so she could position herself for the presidency. She never had any intention of doing anything worthwhile while she held them.
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To whatever extent they both have anything to do with the same system, it's people like Trump who earn the money that people like Hillary confiscate so as not to have to work herself.
They're both immoral! Name me any two people and I could show you that they both have some character flaw. That in no way makes them exactly alike or equally flawed. There are some thing I don't like about Trump's personal character - the admitted adultery in his past, the way he insults people sometimes . . . I don't like that.
There is nothing I like about Hillary's character. It's all bad. Rotten to the core, inside and out. She has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. That is not true about Donald Trump, no matter how badly you want to pretend it is.
I don't even agree that we're talking about choosing the "lesser of two evils" here. I would not ascribe "evil" to Donald Trump. Some pretty serious flaws, you bet. But not evil. Hillary is the only evil one here. Trump is not my ideal vehicle for stopping her, but stopping her is important enough that I'm more than willing to hit the accelerator on the vehicle he represents.
Now stop making that stupid argument. Because the rest of us aren't going to stop nuking it just because you try to end all discussion by absurdly insisting it's true.
Here's how it goes every time. It's always the same:
"I will not compromise my principles and vote for that man! And if you had any principles, neither would you! I REFUSE TO COMPROMISE!"
"I'm not compromising anything. My principles say Hillary must not be allowed to become president. Like it or not, electing Trump is the only way to stop her."
