The Radical Moderate 5: “Choose! Choose the form of the Destructor!”


“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”  (H. L. Mencken)

I promised myself I was going to let this election season go by without putting my political opinion out there. Because it really doesn’t matter what I think. Alas, I find it irresistible, rather like an impending sneeze or some less polite bodily exclamation; the internal pressure is too great. So, here’s my opinion.

November 8th is going to be a sad day.

Why? Because whoever wins everyone is going to be disappointed. The close to 50% of the country who voted for the loser will be disappointed immediately, while the 51%+ who voted for the winner will spend the next four years being disappointed.
I honestly don’t know if the political party whose candidate wins will be better off than the party of the candidate who loses. If the Democrats win, they will elevate one of the Left’s most morally and intellectually unfit politicians in modern history to be the figurehead of their party. If the Republicans win, they will elevate one of the most morally and intellectually unfit public figures in modern history to be the figurehead of their party. I’m not sure either party can survive that, and I’m reasonably certain that political leaders and thinkers on both sides are now wishing for a do-over on their respective party primaries. Alas, too late!
This might actually be a good time to go back and reread my previous post on The Worst Form of Government. At the end of that post, I wrote “In this election cycle, vote for the candidate most likely to sustain and strengthen the worst form of government.” I’m honestly not sure that it’s possible to make that choice this time around; when your choice is between deep and blatant corruption and potentially frightening incompetence, it’s hard to decide who to pull the lever for. If you vote for the lesser of two evils, you’re still voting for an evil; there’s a strong moral argument to be made for picking a third-party candidate or None Of The Above.
Would it cheer anyone if I remind you that we are not voting for a king or dictator on November 8th? We are voting for a president, and, whichever candidate wins, our next President will be hobbled by constitutional restrictions and deep unpopularity and public distrust. We have made the worst of all possible choices in our primaries this year, and must now choose a destructor, but we can survive him or her. If necessary, impeachment is as much a part of the Constitution as elections and either of their VP-picks would run the Executive Branch and represent America better.
So go vote. Then have a drink. Or get a hug. But vote; the worst form of government needs to hear your voice.

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6 Responses to The Radical Moderate 5: “Choose! Choose the form of the Destructor!”

  1. PhilippeO says:


    Really ? we didn’t know anything about that. There is barely any media investigation or opposition research to either VP, they could have dozens scandals hidden under closet.

    As liberal, my view with the problem with ‘Hillary corruption’ is entirely overblown, she perfectly normal pol : lazyness to deal with technology security (Powell also use private e-mail), accepting money and meeting and giving speech to lobbyist/big money, have questionable relation with campaign donor, etc. This, sadly, extremely normal in modern day politic, my guess is many congress-critter could be accused of the same, or possibly more. Considering how many ex-congressmen become lobbyist, many would actually morally worse than Hillary. Since Both VP is also professional pol, same scandal Hillary had could easily appear if they investigated.

    and about Trump, his VP is a religious fanatic who might perform worse than he is. Its extremely unlikely, but possible, Scwarznegger and Ventura, other ‘media star’ candidate didn’t do that badly as governor. While Pence is hardline evangelical view could push law that disastrously damaged minority. .

    • Louis Launer says:

      Jesse Ventura was the best thing Minnesota had as a governor. When he left office, the state was in the best financial shape it has been in years. The “establishment” returned and now Minnesota is a mess again. As far as California, it is like Illinois, rotten to the core. Yes, Illinois is in terrible condition. I live just across the river in Missouri and we are no better.

  2. Michael D'Auben says:

    Thanks for injecting a bit of humor and a small ray of hope into without a doubt the worst presidential election of my life.

  3. Louis Launer says:

    I am totally turned off by this election. I won’t even watch the results. I am disappointed with the news media and their horrible professionalism. I am also disappointed with the disgracefulness of the election ads, both national and local. They tell me nothing. If I had my choice, I would elect Touches Clouds as President. I am going to spend Tuesday night writing my fourth novel in the YA series and I will spend the rest of the year working on my books and other writing, with one last show of the year in Mid-November for local authors.

  4. Elizabeth Creegan says:

    As a constitutionalist and a conservative, my attitude towards this election has been perfectly summed up by the cartoon “American Roulette”, with a six-shooter labelled “Trump” with three loaded cylinders and a six-shooter labelled “Clinton” with six loaded cylinders. I have a very strong preference in this election, but the lesser of two evils is still very bad indeed.

  5. Loren says:

    On Saturday, NPR did a piece on this that was even zanier than anything else I have heard: Clinton is something like a techno-phobe. Didn’t know how to use a desk-top computer, still stuck on an obsolete version of the Blackberry cell phone. When the old phone died, staff was going online to places like E-bay to buy the same obsolete model that was the only tech she was willing/able to use. Disturbing, ’cause someone frozen in the past isn’t likely to be able to rise to new challenges. Oh, they also said that the technical limitations of antique Blackberry had staff workers doing things like Fed-Exing thumbdrives with confidential e-mails on them. The staff apparently didn’t have any access to anyone with real IT knowledge. Pretty much comedy material here. I would like this to be vaerified before I buy into it, but I did hear stories some years ago about high level executives in private industry that did even weirder things for similar reasons.

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