Jesus never told us that when faced with two evil choices, we should take the one that is less evil
Darrell, I just plugged the “Safe Clinton, Likely Clinton, and Lean Clinton” states into the calculator, and those states give her 281 votes. Why are we even discussing this then? The current projections have her winning 347 to 191. I am hopeful that the delegates in Cleveland in two weeks develop some guts and decide they don’t want to nominate someone who can’t beat Clinton (i.e. Trump).
“In every lesser of two (three, or four) evils, there is always one other choice. There is the choice to support none of the evils. Now if one of those choices is not really evil, but rather it is just not preferable by someone, or is not convenient, or is too costly, or is less favorable to the public good, those motivations for not voting must be judged against whether one’s reason is simply prejudicial or whether it is hurtful to one’s neighbor.
To oppose a candidate for possessing a more flagrant sinful nature than another candidate may not be sufficient reason unless one believes none of the candidates meets the minimum bar for office as established by the Constitution. Both are sinners, and both may have failed in some measure in their personal lives, but one candidate’s ideas may be more beneficial for the public good than the other’s. The choice may thus be made on the basis of which of two sinful candidates supports the ideas and programs that benefit the greatest good or are prejudicial to the most evil. One may lament the choice that is required, but one can with good conscience support the one that advances the greatest good and resists the greatest evil.
Does any of this make sense to anyone?
Whenever He says to do good, He is telling us to choose the lesser of evils when that is actually what we are presented with. This is the case because less evil is always more good, by the laws of coherent language. It’s tautology.
But a choice between Trump and Hillary is not a choice where the lesser evil can be clearly identified — if one looks beyond the short term results of a single election.
… but honestly, one need only exercise the imagination the tiniest bit to see how Trump could be as bad or worse even within a few months.
Oh yes, I’ve heard the logic that says “We know what Hillary will do and Trump might do better.” I am not personally able to give that might anything like a high degree of probably given how much damage he will certainly do to the ethos of conservatism for decades to come.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
I updated the list moving VA and PA:
Safe Trump: AL, ID, LA, MS, OK, WV, WY
Likely Trump: AR, UT, NE, ND, SC, SD, TN
Lean Trump: GA, IN, MO, MT, TX
Tossup Trump: AK, AZ, KS, KY, NC
Tossup Clinton: OH
Lean Clinton: FL, IA, OR, VA
Likely Clinton: CO, NV, NH, PA, WI
Safe Clinton: CA, CT, DE, DC, HI, IL, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, NJ, NM, NY, RI, VT, WA
D 332 / R 206
You seem to be saying that, when comparing Hillary and Trump, it may be difficult or perhaps impossible to determine which one is the lesser of two evils. So the choice then boils down to a pragmatic one, and the premise is changed. If both may be equally evil, each in his/her own way, then the decision is which one will produce the best result. Here again, there is no room for agreement. It resorts to a being a matter of personal choice.
For my take, I have trouble getting beyond the fact that Trump has been good friends with the Clintons for decades, and until recently, his positions were hard to distinguish from theirs. Add to that the fact that Trump talked with Bubba before filing, and I smell a rat.
But that said, there is a huge advantage in pulling the lever for Trump; a large portion of Republicans hate his guts and would not hesitate to impeach and remove him from office if he gets too out of line, an endeavor in which the Democrats would gleefully join. On the flip side, we know from recent events that Democrats won’t pull the eject lever for one of their own even if it includes perjury, obstruction of justice, lying to investigators, and deliberate exposure of confidential information—and that in a woman who pretty clearly obstructed justice in the Whitewater case by hiding her billing files, was shown the door during Watergate for ethics violations, and who has covered for her philanderer/rapist husband for decades.
In other words, there is at least a chance that Republicans would deal with Trump. No such chance for the Democrats and Mrs. Clinton. What I can do now is pray, as it seems that the left is “worshipping a god of fortresses” as is described in Daniel 11:38.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
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