I have decided it is time to declare my support for Hillary Clinton for President. There is no longer any doubt in my mind about how I will vote.

This election season is harder than usual. We are faced with a choice between significantly flawed candidates in both major political parties. Gary Johnson and Bill Weld of the Libertarian Party could be a rational alternative but they have no hope of winning! And it is not clear to me whether Trump or Clinton would be hurt most by a vote for them. So I am going to directly support the better of the two candidates, knowing that one of them will be elected.

My thinking on the subject:

Hillary Clinton certainly has the best resume for the job. She knows the Presidency from the inside in a way no other candidate can until as an incumbent he/she is running for re-election. She is acquainted with and well regarded by most other world leaders. She has a track record of being able to reach out and “work across the isle” as well as having a history of caring about and supporting the poorer and less fortunate members of our society. Those are traits we need in more politicians.

On the other hand she may be, probably is, a liar. I think she is lying right now about her claim to be against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) treaty. At least I hope she is lying! But ask yourself:  Do you know a single politician who does not lie, twist, manipulate, spin, or deny the facts to cast himself/herself in a more favorable light, or play to the whims of some part of the electorate?

The latest “Clinton scandal” seems to be the issue of the relationship between the State Department and the Clinton Foundation while she was Secretary. I don’t know if that represents a real conflict of interest or a political witch hunt, and we won’t know by election day. We just have to guess and weigh that against what we do know about her as well as her opponent.

My personal biggest frustration with Clinton is her obsession with secrecy and privacy. The private email server is a perfect example of that obsession. It sometimes leads to bad decisions. She needs to get over that and be much more open. It is not serving her well. Her behavior makes me as well as other Americans suspicious even if it turns out that she is not guilty of anything.

And then there is the other candidate, Donald Trump!! People say they like him because he is not afraid to say what he thinks. Well, what he thinks sounds un-American to me and scares the daylights out of me! Early on I thought his behavior was all an act for the primaries and that he was not dangerous. I was sure that once he won the nomination he would dramatically shift to look and behave like a real presidential candidate. I even put that view in my literature while my friends were wringing their hands over his behavior. Boy, was I wrong!!

It has now literally been months since he secured the nomination and he has only gotten worse. He is still going to deport 11 million illegal aliens, build a wall on our southern border, and make Mexico pay for it; he plans a “temporary” moratorium on Muslims entering this country and proposes we monitor mosques for illegal activity; he attacks the Muslim family of a heroic US military officer killed defending our country because they dared to criticize him; he claims a judge cannot be impartial because he is of Mexican heritage; he is going to start a trade war with China (not his words but that will be the result of his declared approach); and he intends not to necessarily honor our NATO obligations. He thinks South Korea and Japan may need their own nuclear programs to counter North Korea and not depend on us!

Everyday he says or does something else utterly irresponsible for a presidential candidate. Just a couple of days ago Trump suggested that if Clinton were elected she could appoint undesirable judges and said: “there will be nothing we can do about it,      but maybe the second amendment people can”. That statement sounds to me like a threat of assassination.

Frankly I don’t think he actually meant to propose assassination, but I don’t believe his explanation of what he meant either. I think it was probably a sick joke. But a serious candidate for President can’t make those kinds of statements, joke or not. Words matter! With 30 million assault rifles in private hands in this country there are bound to be 15 or 20 mentally unbalanced people out there with such weapons who hear those words and think he is authorizing a hit on Clinton or a judge.

And then there are the 50 senior Republican appointed national security professionals who say Trump is dangerous and unfit to be Commander in Chief. Combine that with multiple other current and past Republican office holders saying he is unfit and they won’t support him with Trump’s own words claiming “I know more about ISIS than the Generals do”. Given the other crude, vulgar, and narcissistic behavior and outrageous statements I have actually seen and heard from him for myself I have to go with their assessment.

And I have not even touched on his insane economic plans and the lack of even any idea about how he would pay for the massive tax cuts he plans to give himself and other wealthy business owners through the “Trump loophole” as Clinton calls it. That is a subject that rational people who pay attention to that sort of thing just have to shake their heads at in amazement and hope the media asks hard questions and holds him accountable.

Bottom line is that I have decided the choice is between a fairly well prepared but flawed politician, possibly even mildly corrupt, and a self-centered totally unprepared, probably untrainable, and maybe mentally unbalanced non-politician. I’ll take my chances with the former rather than the later. I still have grandchildren that I hope can grow up in a free society. I can’t afford to risk their future by helping put the nuclear codes in the hands of a potentially dangerous psychopath! The world already has at least one of those with nuclear weapons!

As a side note:

I actually doubt that Clinton intentionally lied publicly to the American people about not sending or receiving classified documents via her private email server. I suspect at the time she said that she believed it. Even the FBI Director said she did not lie to his agency.  He also said that the classified documents she did send and receive were not marked as such in the normal way and that she probably did not know they were classified. Of course hindsight is always 20/20!!