I would have voted for Kasich, perhaps even Rubio, over Hillary... not because she wasn't imminently qualified; she was quite likely one of the most qualified candidates ever... but because she was so universally despised that as president, we would have had Obama Derangement Syndrome on steroids and the country would have been irreparably divided.
I had this naive notion that a contrast between the policies of both the Bush and Obama administration would tip the country a bit more to the left. Problem is, is that for whatever reason, obstructionism, milquetoast, overly compromised governance, or whichever your poison is, there didn't seem to be quite the contrast that I was expecting or hoping for. A lot of the criticism coming at him from the right was pretty insane, but perhaps, for that very reason, he should not have been so eager to compromise.
Clinton would have been a divisive president, for sure, and I would have spent the next eight years reading a bunch of absurd Alex Jones-esque bull**** via FaceBook, but I was mostly concerned with the prospect of a much-despised, brazenly corporatist, politically tone-deaf president as the figurehead of the left.
However, once Trump was the GOP nominee, that ship had sailed. It was a no-brainer; I voted for Hillary without a qualm at that point; and I'd do it again.
I can definitely empathize with those who feel this way, but this is not what I ended up doing. I wafted back and forth, and then ended up voting for Stein. In the end, I was not convinced that that a Trump presidency would be dramatically different from a George W. presidency, or what we can expect from today's Republican party. As of right now, I am still not convinced that this isn't the case.
The optics of the administration is mainly a circus ****-show, with the revolving-door appointments, scandals, and literally almost everything that Donald Trump tweets, but if we are to compare some of Trump's policy decisions that are criticized the most to the last Republican administration, I would have to say that I think Bush actually comes out worse.
What's really and truly different about this administration is the way he behaves in regards to the press, and how brazenly he panders to the resurging racist/xenophobic crowd. It's frustrating that so many people are either unaware of, or don't care that undermining free press is one of the first things that dictator typically does when coming into power, but on the other side of things, the media has not done a great job of instilling confidence, and has arguably been a huge mess at least ever since twenty-four-hour news channels were a thing. I don't think another GOP president would have ever played the 'fake news' card, but people would have still been listening to Fox News, Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh, and getting people to agree on what is and is not a valid source of information would still have been like pulling teeth.
It's a little harder to ague that Trump hasn't had a significant impact on discourse in this country, but he's also merely harnessing what was already building up. Perhaps another Republican wouldn't fan the flames quite as much, but I still see that problem existing without Trump. The 'alt-right' predates his campaign, and probably exists primarily because of the Internet, because of lazy pro-PC arguments, and as a rebound against the cultural revolution.
Lastly, I look at the Republicans that are coming out against Donald Trump, and I am
not impressed with legislatures that largely support him on policy, but draw the line on how abrasive he is. That leads me to believe that what we are seeing is simply the face under the mask of the GOP.
