Why This Republican is Voting for Hillary Clinton

I will vote for Hillary Clinton in November. I will do this knowing full well that Hillary Clinton has more baggage than United Airlines and that she would nominate Supreme Court justices that would do violence to the First, Second and Fifth Amendments to the United States Constitution. She flat out lied about her home brew server and was careless with the classified information on it; thereby imperiling national security.  I recognize that she is owned in fee-simple by one of the most reactionary groups in America, the public employee unions. Further I assume that the SVR, the foreign intelligence service of the Russian Federation, will cause to be released documents showing a very unsavory connection between Hillary Clinton’s actions as Secretary of State and the Clinton Foundation.

Had Trump not been nominated, I would have proudly voted for Marco Rubio, John Kasich or Jeb Bush and would have supported Scott Walker, Chris Christie and yes, Mike Pence. But compared to these candidates Donald Trump lives on another planet. Simply put he is not a Republican or a conservative as we have known those terms to be defined.

So you might rightly ask, why will I vote for her? The reason is simple. Hillary Clinton, as cynical as she sometimes can be, believes in America and its values. Trump does not by wanting to establish religious tests for immigration and ethnic tests for judges. She is open to the world; Trump is not. Donald Trump believes in only himself. As Khizr Kahn, the Muslim father of a slain U.S. Army captain noted at the Democratic Convention of Trump: “You have sacrificed nothing.”   And hopefully we will soon know the contents of Trump’s tax returns which will demonstrate that he is not as rich as he says he is, has given only pittance to charity and has played the tax code like an aria by paying a minimal amount of taxes. The media should think about not covering him until he releases his tax returns, like every modern candidate for the presidency. Why do they let him get away with it?

Trump represents a steak of authoritarianism that goes back to the proto-fascist America First movement of the early 1940s championed by Charles Lindbergh. He doesn’t have a clue about foreign policy and has no advisers of stature, military or diplomatic. This is evidenced by his “bromance” with Putin and his playing fast and loose with our commitments to NATO. In contrast Hillary Clinton is a tough minded foreign policy realist who understands the dangers we face with Putinism and ISIS.

As I wrote in two prior blog posts (http://shulmaven.blogspot.com/2014/05/reliving-1930s.html and http://shulmaven.blogspot.com/2014/08/reliving-1930s-part-2.html )  we are in the process of reliving the 1930s where Russian expansionism in the Ukraine is analogous to Hitler’s moves in central Europe and the rise of antisemitism in Europe today has a parallel to that dark era. Similar to the 1930s, Trump wants to close America off from the rest of the world. He doesn’t realize that we benefit from trade and immigration. To be sure there are losers in the process and we as a society have to do much better for them going forward.

Further, if you think Hillary has a problem with the truth, she doesn’t hold a candle to The Donald’s prevarications. Simply put, as the old adage goes, “How can you tell when Trump is lying? Answer: When he is moving his lips.”  You really can’t tell from one day to the next what he will say and whether or not he will say the same thing again the following day. He is an unstable egomaniac who is unfit for public office, any office. That is why I will be voting for Hillary.

Now I will close with some internal Republican Party dynamics. We brought Trump on ourselves. The Congressional leadership, K-Street lobbyists and public policy intellectuals (save a few) only talked to themselves. They had no clue as to what was going on out in the country and became completely out of touch with the working class base of the Republican Party. Instead of the toney restaurants of D.C., I suggest they visit the fast food joints and bars of the Midwest and South. Simply put a whole lot of soul searching is ahead of us.

The French Lion and the American Poodle

It has been five days since the horrific terrorist attacks in Paris. During that interval we have learned much about the character of the President of France and the President of the United States. It is clear that French President Hollande is a decisive leader ready and willing to act to defend his country. In contrast President Obama, of the squishy red-line, appears to be more hostile towards his domestic opponents than ISIS. With his typical debating style he argues he doesn't allow for a middle ground between an all-out intervention and doing nothing. 

Perhaps he should talk to his former Secretary of State who is now advocating a no-fly zone and committing considerably more special operations forces. Mrs. Clinton is obviously way more clear eyed than her former boss. For whatever reason President Obama has become the American poodle to the French lion. 

Reliving the 1930s - Part 2

On May 7 I blogged that we were reliving the 1930s with the Great Recession being the analog to the Great Depression and the appeasement of Vladimir Putin in the Ukraine being an analog to the appeasement of Hitler. Unfortunately we also are reliving the virulent anti-Semitism the 1930s as well.

There is no question that if Hamas had the power there wouldn't be a Jew alive in Israel today. If you are skeptical all you have to do is to read Hamas’ charter and listen to the statements of their leadership. The Gaza War was not about a two state solution for Palestine, but rather it was an attempt to kill as many Jews as possible and to make martyrs out of innocent Palestinian children. The killers of those children do not reside in Tel Aviv, but rather they sit comfortably in Hamas headquarters in Gaza and places far away from the battlefield.

Of course to much of the European Left and to some extent the American Left along with a few on the far Right, the right of Israel to defend itself from rocket attack and an invasion from underground tunnels metastasized itself into a most virulent anti-Semitism. There is a straight line from the Hamas killers to the street demonstrators in Paris to the anti-Israel marches in the United States. For those who argue that the marchers and demonstrators were concerned about human rights rather than bashing Israel in particular and Jews in general, all I have to say is where are the protests against the carnage in Syria, ISIS terror in Iraq and Libya? I guess for them it is OK for Arabs to kill other Arabs.