The morning after the Nevada caucus, I considered not voting in the 2016 presidential election for the first time. This realization came after seeing this image posted on the front page of The Drudge Report:
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Donald Trump sailed to an easy victory in the Nevada caucus, receiving 46 percent of the vote. This is Trump’s third straight victory following South Carolina and New Hampshire. At this point, political strategists are calling the Cruz campaign DOA. Republican congressional members, local state leaders and national establishment figureheads are desperately throwing their support behind Marco Rubio.
As both campaigns flounder in the fight for second place, they continue to attack each other. Meanwhile, Trump calls them all liars and establishment cronies. Once Trump is done throwing political attacks at his opponents, he goes on to drone about himself, his greatness and his ability to win at everything.
Let me say, I’m really sick of talking about Trump. Back in August I said he couldn’t be trusted. Following National Review’s Conservatives Against Trump series, I expressed my own concerns and doubts as the voice of a young conservative. It’s hard representing that opinion on a college campus, where many are so vehemently progressive that it’s almost impossible for them to listen to a dissenting opinion.
The typical, young liberal can’t stand Trump because “he’s a racist, a misogynist and a hate-monger.” But surprise! What if I told you Trump had more in common with Hillary Clinton, than he did Ted Cruz? Most wouldn’t believe me. If you put aside most of Trump’s so-called “proposals” from this election cycle, Trump and Clinton have been strong allies for the majority of their careers. An image trending on Facebook in conservative circles shows the frustration felt by many in the conservative movement, or least by those who haven’t been blinded by Trump mania:
Let’s just accept for the time being that Trump will go on to win the Republican nomination. Most analysts predict that Clinton will go on to win the Democratic nomination, but consider this: Bernie Sanders, an avowed socialist, still leads Clinton in several national polls. Clinton, Sanders and Trump all have one, major thing in common: they are all proponents of big government. For Clinton, it’s 20th-century progressivism. For Sanders, it’s failed European, Democratic socialism. For Trump, its progressive Nationalism, and whatever else is convenient with the biggest return-on-investment.
A number of people I’ve spoken to says that if it comes to it, they’ll vote for Trump in the general election. A few, including Republicans and Independents, say they would rather vote for Clinton than even consider Trump.
Is that my choice? A big government progressive with no integrity and dangerous political connections versus a big government progressive that boasts about making deals and getting things done by whatever means necessary?
It’s a trick question: there is no choice.
A true progressive bullies their dissenters because they know better, for which both Clinton and Trump are guilty of.
But the American people are desperate. They’re angry. They’re frustrated. They want change. However, this didn’t start eight years ago with the election of Barack Obama. The record-breaking turnout in the 2008 election was desperate for change too.
Sadly, the founders and framers didn’t design a system of government that operated on anger and desperation. The greatest political document in human history did not decree that our problems would be fixed by an executive or commander-in-chief. It is the rise of the socio-political bureaucratic class in the past century (which has no party or principles) that has made us forget that.
If that’s true, if it really is forgotten, then in the words of a millennial- I’m over it. Ignore the campaigns that are DOA; our country, our system, our Constitution might as well be. To all the Trump supporters out there: if this is what winning is, then I want no part of it.
Too many Trump supporters preach that “they don’t care what he says.” If we can’t see the danger in that statement, then nothing else can be done. To all the logical, intellectual liberal voters out there, you are guilty of doing the same for Clinton and Sanders. That’s not saying any candidate is perfect. No one is.
At this point, I’m flying the white flag. This may be the time for desperate measures, but it still might be too late. I learned at a young age that the only person I have control of is myself. The only thing I can control is how I treat people, how I care for my family and how I care for myself. My life will go on past this election. Maybe not for the better, but I guess I’ll just learn to accept that.
