It’s going to be Trump or Clinton—the lesser of two evils

By SJ Otto

Now that Ted Cruz and John Kasich have dropped out of the Republican Primary race, Donald Trump is on the way to being the official candidate of his party. There are no obstacles to his way, so there is no reason to believe he won’t get the nomination at the Republican Party Convention this summer.

Even though Bernie Sanders has not thrown in the towel for the Democrats, it is looking like it will be Hillary Clinton vs. Donald Trump next fall. As can be expected, this site will support Clinton over Trump. This blog has never been supportive of Republicans so our  readers know what to expect. Some obvious issues will be immigration. Clinton is likely to have a more favorable policy on immigrants, especially dealing with Hispanics. Then there are women’s issues. Hillary will support abortion rights. Clinton will be the first women president in the entire history of the US. That will be a big step forward for this country, even if it is only symbolic. One really important issue will be health care. Clinton will save Obama Care (Affordable Care Act) while Trump has threatened to get rid of it all together.

However this is not the slam dunk it might appear to be to some people. Clinton is not a leftist or liberal. She is close to Wall Street, just as Bernie has said. Worst of all is that Clinton’s foreign policy might actually be worse than Trump’s. She has been a real hawk on foreign policy. Trump has hinted that he may actually scale back some of the worst of this country’s imperialist foreign policies.

"America first will be the overriding theme of my administration," Trump was quoted by CNN for his remarks at Washington's Mayflower hotel, delivered from a prepared text.

"Under a Trump administration, no American citizen will ever again feel that their needs come second to the citizens of foreign countries….

…..My foreign policy will always put the interests of the American people and American security first."

The phrase “America First” came originally from the isolationist organizations of the 1930s and 1940s by those who opposed getting involved in World War II. If that is what he is proposing it will mean scaling back the imperialist policy of “nation building” that has been the general foreign policy direction since the George W. Bush Regime.  

"I will never send our finest into battle unless necessary and I mean absolutely necessary, and will only do so if we have a plan for victory with a capital V," Trump emphasized, according to CNN.

He also referred to the "legacy of the Obama-Clinton interventions" as one of "weakness, confusion and disarray."

And with all his anti-Muslim comments throughout his campaign:  

"We're going to be working very closely with our friends in the Muslim world, which are all at risk for violent attacks," he said.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who supports Clinton, described his comments as a "simplistic" mixture of slogans and contradictions.

"He just underscored the fact that he is running the most reckless and dangerous presidential campaign in modern history," Albright said on a Clinton campaign conference call (reported by CNN).

However Clinton’s policies are well known by all of us by now and she has embrace nation building and has backed President Barack Obama’s hawkish attempts to interfere with such nations as Syria and Saudi Arabia’s reckless meddling in such countries as Yemen.

Another problem for Clinton is that a lot of the young people who came out to vote for Bernie Sanders may not come out at all for Clinton. Between polls and conversations I’ve had with local people, there is a reluctance to vote for Clinton by young people who are clearly attracted to Sanders left-leaning anti-political establishment policies. That is going to be a real struggle for her. Sanders and Clinton are miles apart on the most basic domestic policies.

And yet Clinton is still the better candidate than Trump, despite her terrible imperialist foreign policies. The need for Obama Care alone makes this election important. There are people who may literally die without the medical coverage they now get from Obama Care. We don’t need American citizens dying from neglect.

However we must acknowledge that foreign affairs will be a major struggle if Clinton is elected president. Even if Trump wins the election his foreign policy is not going to be an actual break with imperialism. His policies may be better, but he is not going to end the struggle against US imperialism.

We are once again left with the choice between the lesser of two evils. That doesn’t mean the election is meaningless. We still need to take part and prevent the Republicans from wrecking America.