Opinion

Scott Kimmich: Hobson’s choice for POTUS

This artwork by William Brown refers to heated political battles. This artwork by William Brown refers to heated political battles. Photo: / William Brown Photo: / William Brown Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Scott Kimmich: Hobson’s choice for POTUS 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Both major-party candidates in the current presidential campaign present thoughtful voters with the worst choice in recent memory. According to polls, the election could be characterized as an “unpopularity contest.” Trump is widely regarded as a narcissistic, incompetent blowhard, while Clinton has achieved an unparalleled reputation for untrustworthiness.

Having created the Trump monster, the mainstream media — like modern day Frankensteins — are now struggling to deconstruct their nefarious creation; at the same time, pundits battle in vain to present Clinton as a commendable candidate. Alas, neither can be done.

While trying to present herself as someone who talks campaign finance reform, Hillary runs not walks through the vaults of big banks and Wall Street to fund her campaign. Unlike Bernie Sanders, who solicited small donors exclusively, she prefers sell herself to high rollers who expect a quid pro quo.

Hillary’s supporters say she gets things done, and I agree. But some are very bad things. As a senator, she voted for war with Iraq — which spread the poison of Al Qaeda and ISIS throughout the Middle East. As secretary of state, she organized a right-wing coup in the Ukraine — risking war, instead of making Russia a useful trading partner. She engineered another right-wing coup in Honduras and urged military intervention in Libya, which endangered our interests instead of safeguarding them. As a diplomat, she has repeatedly made things far worse, not better.

As a candidate-to-be, Hillary made sure that her 2008 campaign manager became the head of the Democratic National Committee. Once in the cat bird’s seat, Chairwoman Wasserman-Schultz did her best to hobble Bernie Sanders — until she was forced to resign in disgrace.

Now a presidential candidate, Hillary again is spreading her hawkish wings, threatening the doves of the world with her own brand of hubris. She wants us to police the world so as to impose her personal concept of right and wrong, even at the risk of destroying the planet with a nuclear cataclysm. By exchanging government emails on a private unprotected server, she put our national Security at risk.

The Democratic Party was immensely fortunate to have Bernie Sanders revive its moral compass and pull hundreds of thousands of new members into its ranks. But while polls consistently showed that Sanders was far and away the better candidate to beat Trump, the Democratic establishment urged the rank and file to vote for Clinton.

The suggestion that we now must opt for the lesser of two evils is appalling and particularly reprehensible given the unlawful manner in which the establishment handled the primaries.

Hordes of lifelong Democrats are leaving the party, many intending to vote for Jill Stein, the Green Party’s candidate who made her reputation leading The Physicians for a National Health Program and as a candidate for Governor of Massachusetts. They dismiss the lesser of two evils argument, believing that any degree of evil is bad for our country.

Abraham Lincoln won as a third-party candidate in a four-way race, and helped give us a new birth of freedom. It can be done. For the sake our beloved country, it must be done.

Scott Kimmich is a resident of Norwalk.