I Can't Vote For Hillary (But I Might Have To)

Hillary Clinton is an opportunistic hack who thinks being a former First Lady entitles her to be President herself, as if this were Argentina.  Also, she has long espoused moderate, pro-business domestic policies and a militaristic, interventionist foreign policy.  Now she's masquerading as a progressive in her second bid for the Presidency, and she's getting away with it, positioning herself as the Democratic presidential nominee-in-waiting.  I decided long ago that I would not and could not vote for her for President under any circumstances.  When Martin O'Malley, my first choice for the Presidency, had to quit his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, I cast my lot with Bernie Sanders.  Though Sanders is unlikely at the moment to win the nomination, I still hope to vote for him in the New Jersey primary in June.  Were Hillary to be the Democratic nominee, I had planned to vote for a third-party candidate in November.  I figured that New Jersey is a reliably Democratic state in presidential elections these days,  and so Hillary would likely win New Jersey if she were to be the nominee; thus, it wouldn't be like I would help cost her the state by voting for a third-party spoiler.  Though recent polls have suggested that New Jersey could be competitive if Donald Trump is the Republican presidential nominee, I didn't really expect Trump to be that much of a factor in New Jersey, where his name is associated with failed casinos.  

Then the insufferable governor of New Jersey confounded everything for me.

This past Friday, Chris Christie endorsed Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, calling him an effective and experienced leader in a thinly veiled attempt at discombobulating GOP presidential hopeful Marco Rubio, whom Christie despises.  What Christie did, though, was put his considerable capital within the Republican Party behind Trump in New Jersey, thus making it possible if not probable to get out the vote in our mutual state for a guy (Trump) who already does a good job getting out the vote for himself.

In other words, thanks to Christie, Trump is now a player in New Jersey.  And, if Trump is the Republican presidential nominee (which looks likely right now), he has an increasingly excellent chance to be the first Republican presidential nominee to carry the Garden State since the senior George Bush did so in 1988.  And if we anti-Trump voters in New Jersey want to stop that, and if Hillary happens to be the Democratic presidential nominee, those of us who can't stand her but who dislike Trump even more can't waste our votes on a third-party candidate.  We - that is, I - have to vote for Hillary.

Bastards! 

Did I happen to mention that this endorsement means that Christie, who neglected his duties as governor of New Jersey while he was a presidential candidate, will be campaigning for Trump all over the country now and will thus continue to be absent from New Jersey?

I'm getting more disgusted about this election by the minute . . . I wonder if I'll be able to step out of the voting booth this November without vomiting.