{"id":6242,"date":"2016-09-07T13:18:41","date_gmt":"2016-09-07T13:18:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2016\/09\/07\/why-conservatives-should-vote-for-trump-ii\/"},"modified":"2016-09-07T13:18:41","modified_gmt":"2016-09-07T13:18:41","slug":"why-conservatives-should-vote-for-trump-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2016\/09\/07\/why-conservatives-should-vote-for-trump-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Conservatives Should Vote for Trump, II"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Cambell, a professor of political science, writes<\/a>,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Thinking Republicans should NOT SUPPORT Donald Trump, but they should reluctantly VOTE for him. On what matters most, and that is public policy, Trump is not nearly as bad as Clinton. Shout that Donald Trump is an idiot from the roof tops and into any microphone thrown in front of you\u2013but then declare a vote for him.<\/span><\/p>\n

The distinction between supporting and voting for a candidate is not a gimmick. There is a real difference. Support implies a positive assessment. A vote is a choice.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is close to the view I have been maintaining over a series of posts.  But I don't think Campbell gets it exactly right.  Here is the way I see it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hillary must be stopped.  She is utterly corrupt as a person, as is becoming increasingly evident with every passing day, and she is in bad health to boot.  And her foreign and domestic policies are disastrous.  I cannot in good conscience abstain thereby aiding her.  So I must vote for Trump.  In doing so, I don't merely mark a ballot; I 'make a statement' and 'issue a recommendation.'  The 'statement' is not that Trump is a good candidate, but that he is better than Hillary, all things considered.  The 'recommendation' is that you ought to do as I do  if you are a conservative.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I have already argued ad nauseam<\/em>, politics is almost always about better and worse, not about Good and Bad.  Vide<\/em> Political Action and the Principle of le mieux est l'ennemi du bien<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

So in one sense of 'support,' I do not support Trump by voting for him:  I do not unreservedly endorse him.  I agree with Campbell that there is a real distinction we need to make.  The words in which we couch the distinction don't matter.  You don't like 'support'?  Fine.  Wise men do not quibble over words. The distinction can be put like this: to vote for a candidate is not unreservedly to endorse said candidate.<\/span><\/p>\n

A vote is of course a choice, asCampbell says, but it is not merely a choice inasmuch as it has a certain 'content' as I have already indicated.  Marking my ballot for Trump, I express my belief that he is better than his opponent, and not merely better for me, but for the country.  I am also tacitly recommending that others do the same.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump's recent speeches have been outstanding. The Phoenix immigration speech was just perfect, exactly what a conservative ought to maintain (and not all that different from what Bill Clinton<\/em> maintained in '95!).  So it not as if "Trump is not nearly as bad as Clinton" on policy.  He is vastly superior.  The trouble with Trump is his self-absorbed and mercurial character.  But as events are showing, it is becoming less and less clear that Trump is as bad as Hillary character-wise. He is shaping up, and she is being exposed for what she is.<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nRelated articles<\/legend>\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>On 'Disenfranchise' and Hillary's Will to Power<\/a><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>Did Rand Paul Really Say That?<\/a><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>Another Reason for Ideological Quarantine<\/a><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>Truth Decay<\/a><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>Hillary the Fabulist<\/a><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>Hillary's Presidential Bid as an Exercise in and Referendum on Cynicism<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/fieldset>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James Cambell, a professor of political science, writes, Thinking Republicans should NOT SUPPORT Donald Trump, but they should reluctantly VOTE for him. On what matters most, and that is public policy, Trump is not nearly as bad as Clinton. Shout that Donald Trump is an idiot from the roof tops and into any microphone thrown … Continue reading “Why Conservatives Should Vote for Trump, II”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64,56,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservatism","category-politics","category-social-and-political-philosophy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6242\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}