The atheist Christopher Hitchens used to argue that religion was useful for getting good and conscientious people to do wicked things. Politics can be used in the same way. Those two candidates could only have advanced so far because American politics is so tightly wired to our fears and hatreds. Why would anyone decent support either of them — unless on some level you feared and hated the other side?
.. Asked if he could unequivocally state that he never dated a teenager when he was in his thirties, Moore replied: “It would be out of my customary behavior.”
.. I’d like to advance the political case against letting fear and hatred lead us to consistently lower our standards and lend our support to the ambitions of less and less worthy people.
.. First, there is is the argument from credibility. Every social conservative who supports Moore is increasing the cynicism of American society and justifying widespread skepticism about the sincerity of Christian belief among conservatives. People are reminded frequently that Christian conservatives once demanded that Bill Clinton resign in shame for carrying on an affair with a White House intern. Now some of those supposedly godly men, or their sons, defend Moore’s predation of teenaged girls on the grounds that even a child predator is better than a Democrat. This instrumentalism will eventually make it impossible for social conservatives to defend any of their preferred policies.
.. The country won’t give consent to pro-life laws if they have good reason to suspect their advocates are insincere. And the public will shrug at the abrogation of religious liberties if it thinks these amount to privileges for hypocrites.
.. You cannot be a good citizen of your country if your immediate political interests outrank every other good in the commonweal. And You cannot be a good citizen of your country if your immediate political interests outrank every other good in the commonweal. And citizenship requires some self-abnegnation, even some risk. Advancing a man of Roy Moore’s character to the Senate worsens public life in obvious ways.
- He’s unethical.
- He flouts the law.
- And he is peculiarly holier than thou.
Telling yourself that “this is war, and in war you have to make less than ideal choices” is a great way to excuse the destruction of your charity and the lifting of restraint, with collateral damage to your integrity.
.. Choosing the lesser of two evils is a fantastic way to prepare yourself to do worse and worse evils. And following it to the end is a bitter fate indeed. The worst tragedies of recent history were driven by masses of people giving in to existential fear and hatred. There are many alive today in Central and Eastern Europe who made themselves into Fascists or Communists in order to resist or avenge the Communists and the Fascists. But the names we remember and revere are often those who carefully and bravely stood apart.
How Hillary’s Very Bad September Could Be Very Good for Her in November Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/hillary-clinton-2016-september-214265#ixzz4KqkIh5ef Follow us: @politico on Twitter | Politico on Facebook
The greatest threat to her was soft turnout. Now Trump’s proximity in the polls could light a fire under wavering Clinton supporters.
constituencies most critical to her campaign seem to have no sense of urgency about keeping the Donald Trump out of the White House. While Hispanics, who backed Obama in 2012 by a more than 2-1 margin, support Clinton by a similar margin, they seem far less inclined to vote than they did four years ago.
.. That is what could change now that Trump threatens to actually take the White House.
.. But what may be their most powerful weapon is the clear possibility that Trump could win, which is why Clinton’s very bad few weeks could, in the end, be very good for her.
.. see what a similar vote—for Ralph Nader—did. His 94,000 voters in Florida would have wound up giving Gore a net of about 20,000 votes—more than enough to make butterfly ballots and hanging chads irrelevant. Now, between launching the Iraq War and the two Supreme Court justices Bush appointed, did it really make no difference?”
.. If you vote for Jill Stein as a progressive, you are helping to put in power a president whose tax plan makes the rich richer, who thinks climate chance is a hoax, who wants to abolish whole swaths of environmental protection laws. So voting for Johnson or Stein means you’re voting for a label—a ’libertarian,’ or a ‘progressive’—without realizing that the consequence of that vote could lead to a president who rejects everything you claim to hold dear.”
Why the Republican Convention Is So Mean
Both parties are trying to convince undecided voters that their candidate is the lesser of two evils.
- .. Both campaigns think their path to victory is to win almost by default—to make their rival the most feared alternative.
.. When asked to choose between the two, 26 percent chose Trump, 19 percent chose Clinton, and 44 percent were undecided.
.. Accusing Clinton of murder, comparing her to the devil, and dredging up the Monica Lewinsky scandal represents the type and tone of politics that has pushed these voters out of the two major parties and into the “undecided” category. Yet Trump and his surrogates can’t seem to help themselves.
Chris Christie Becomes Powerful Figure in Donald Trump Campaign
Four months after endorsing Mr. Trump, Mr. Christie remains one of the few major figures in the Republican establishment to align himself entirely with Mr. Trump’s candidacy. In public, he has defended Mr. Trump’s freewheeling and sometimes offensive pronouncements, vouching for him even after Mr. Trump attacked a federal judge for his Mexican heritage. (Mr. Christie said he knew from personal experience that Mr. Trump was not a racist.)
.. Behind the scenes, Mr. Christie has prodded his fellow governors and Republican political donors to line up behind a candidate many view with distaste. He has made only modest headway in the last few months: Mr. Trump has struggled badly with fund-raising, and Mr. Christie has pleaded with donors in personal phone calls and at fund-raising events to give him a second look.
.. At a breakfast fund-raiser in Manhattan last week, Mr. Christie cajoled reluctant donors to back Mr. Trump, arguing that giving anything less than enthusiastic support would be a de facto vote for Hillary Clinton.
.. Mr. Christie’s new role is a stark transformation from a boastfully independent blue-state politician determined to win over female, Hispanic and Asian voters, to the right-hand man of the most culturally polarizing presidential candidate in a generation.
.. Mr. Christie has also acknowledged to friends that Mr. Trump seized much of the political space Mr. Christie had hoped to occupy in his own presidential run — that of a blunt leader with an expansive media profile and a forceful message on terrorism.
.. Mr. Trump thanked Mr. Christie for his political advice and his sophisticated grasp of government — and, perhaps most of all, for his part in demolishing Senator Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign.