I hear what you are saying, but I disagree. What you write is very similar to what my Trump-voting friend replied when I asked him if he’s still voting for him:
“We shall see, but my present inclination is to vote for Trump unless it is no contest by election day, in which event I might vote Libertarian or write in somebody.
Every regular Republican voter I know disliked Trump during the primaries, for many reasons. Me too. I dislike him intensely, and I disagree with his positions on several issues. But if the election were held today and if I were a swing state voter, I would vote for him.
I don’t think he would be a good president. I think he would be better than Hillary. Trump would appoint better judges to the Supreme Court, and would reduce some of the tax and regulatory burden on the economy, which would be good for economic growth and jobs. I disagree with both of them on trade and would not trust either of them to do a good job on foreign policy. Trump is boorish and repugnant. Hillary is a cold, calculating and very corrupt person, and is part of a very corrupt crony system. She truly thinks she is above the law, and that is not what I want in a President. She and her party also intend to do what they can to restrain the exercise of free speech.
What is most important to me is to stop the slide of this country into an authoritarian presidency. Hillary and Trump are both authoritarian. If Hillary is President she will continue Obama’s practice of refusing to enforce laws she disagrees with, although the President is sworn to uphold the law, and she will issue her own executive edicts to create laws which she cannot get Congress to pass, and the Democrats will go along with this, and so will most of the news media, the entertainment industry and academia. Much of the “news” media in this country functions as the propaganda ministry for the Democrat party. They will not be a check on a Hillary presidency but they will be a vigilant watchdog during a Trump administration. If Trump is President there will be a broader interest in restraining the exercise of executive power. The Democrats will perhaps rethink whether Congress should be delegating so much rule-making authority to agencies under the control of the executive branch, where the President gets to pick the people who staff the agencies. The Congressional Republicans are not going to cede Congressional prerogatives or Republican principles to Trump — they are at odds with him already. Trump’s running mate Pence will also be somewhat of a check on Trump. The conservative constitutional wing of the party despises Trump, and so do many prominent Republican legislators and governors. If he wins Trump will be the Trump Party, a centrist populist coalition that will not survive him, and four years from now the Republicans will run a Rubio/Haley ticket or some other ticket in line with Republican values.
Do you think women will be at any greater or lesser risk of being groped depending on whether Hillary or Trump is president? I don’t. That’s a cultural problem, and it is probably a bigger problem in the entertainment industry, which is run by liberals, than it is in most workplaces. I personally don’t know any men who would tolerate that behavior or engage in that kind of talk. I am sure it goes on, but I doubt it is widespread. Seems like NBC was tolerating whatever Trump was doing or talking about doing back in 2005 when he was part of their talent pool. By the way, have you seen the video of Bill Clinton groping the stewardess on his airplane? Are you familiar with Mimi Alford’s story of her internship in the Kennedy Whitehouse? Clinton and Kennedy were both pigs or worse, but most of the liberal press thinks they were well qualified to be President.”
