If We Want to Stop Trump We Should Consider Voting for Him

Looking at the upcoming election, for me at least, it looks like another decision between the least of three evils. None of the remaining candidates are really anywhere close to having views that relate to mine. In fact, I'd say that all of them are more than 50% away from aligning with my views. When deciding who I will endorse, I try to look at the candidates from different perspectives, because seeing who I agree with the most is fruitless.

It seems that voters are good at expressing distaste with the system, but poor at choosing a candidate who will solve it. An article that discusses this, and the one that got me thinking about this sort of stuff in the first place, can be found here. A good example of this phenomenon is Mr. Trump, who draws mostly angry voters who are upset with the system. His policies, however, are sure to cause a number of issues and will be counter-productive, on top of just being racist. In fact, that article discusses this as well. He also isn't very presidential, using ad hominem attacks in excess and being generally rude. He has no filter.

All of these seem like reasons to vote against Trump. Why would we want a rude, obscene, obnoxious businessman whose policies will fail and whose mouth will evoke hatred from other countries as our president? Obviously we wouldn't. Perhaps a better question is why would current Trump supporters want a rude, obscene, obnoxious businessman whose policies will fail and whose mouth will evoke hatred from other countries as our president? It seems that, given enough time in office, Trump's policies will fail and likely be shot down by the supreme court. He will probably make enemies with every other head of state (he may have already done so in some cases) and thus decrease US hegemony and make America look bad in even Americans' eyes. It's hard to believe that the establishment Republicans in Congress will be too happy with this, and I don't think an impeachment is unreasonable. If this is true, it seems that current Trump supporters will think poorly of their decision once they actually see Trump as our president.

Why  is this eventuality preferable to one where Trump isn't elected in the first place? Without his failure as President, Trumpists won't have any reason to believe that Trumpism doesn't work. This means we are likely to see Trump again in future elections or people like him. The harm caused by a wave of disenfranchised voters supporting someone like Trump every four years outweighs the harm caused by Trump's temporary success.

If Trump becomes president, we will see a surge of politically disengaged people begin to identify as liberal, just as we have seen as Trump gains traction. This means a weaker Republican party and a stronger Democratic party, which I'm sure most of those reading this will be happy about even if I'm not.

Furthermore, in a situation where Trump creates global tensions with the U.S. we would see an increased overall dissatisfaction with the way the system is run. This means more different approaches to politics, and hopefully some positive change. It seems the only way to take down Trumpism is to endorse it and thus put it through trial by fire.