#mcmullin2016

In opposing Clinton, I have to deal with a deep ideological divide between myself and what Clinton supporters stand for. It is difficult to appeal to them when we do not care about the same things and when we essentially speak different languages. In opposing Trump, though, I have to deal with something even more banal and frustrating: the blatant disregard for facts. Trump supporters give us reasons for not supporting Clinton, Johnson, McMullin, etc., and sometimes their arguments are legitimate, but too often, they utterly fail when it comes to recognizing how those same arguments are even more relevant for their own candidate. My brother just drew my attention to a real whopper of a blog post in which the writer is guilty of just this. Since I know many other Trump supporters out there probably feel the same way, I could not help but write a rebuttal of the writer’s logical fallacies and ignorance of facts.

These Republicans are terrified that if Donald Trump is elected president there will be major shakeups in Washington. He will shine a light on the dark backroom deals that have resulted in policies like Obamacare, The failed war in Syria, and 20 trillion dollars in debt. The livelihoods of their wealthy corporate backers are on the line and with that their own power and perks in Washington. For that reason they would rather see Hillary Clinton become president than Donald Trump. They feel like they can work with Hillary.

Trump supporters talk about how Trump is going to bring corruption to light, but it is just wishful thinking. He has an extensive history of political corruption. Even if he does bring some corruption to light, it will only be because the people involved are rivals. Meanwhile, he will continue to bribe and threaten his way into getting what he wants and using public powers for private benefit. Because that is what he has always done. He has openly admitted that he makes a practice of buying politicians, and one example of his use of these corrupting influences would be his history of eminent domain abuse. Then, of course, there are the recent allegations that Trump bribed Pam Bondi and Greg Abbott. In what universe does it make sense for a man with this kind of record to be lifted up as an anti-corruption candidate? Trump is being billed as anti-establishment, but his donations helped create the establishment. He has attended the establishment’s sex parties, and he still golfs with the establishment. Trump does not want to destroy the establishment: he just wants to hijack it.

So enter Evan McMullin, Crony Capitalist Spoiler. No one in the world including Evan McMullin believes Evan McMullin is going to be elected President. What the corrupted Republican establishment and the Clinton campaign hope is that he will keep Donald Trump from getting to 270 electoral votes and thus guarantee a Hillary presidency.

If Evan McMullin wins Utah – which, at this point, seems likely – this will not help Hillary Clinton in the slightest. It is mathematically impossible for McMullin’s six electoral points in Utah to help Clinton. If Clinton hits 270 (which she probably will), the question of whether or not McMullin takes Utah from Trump will be irrelevant. If Clinton does not hit 270, the decision will go to the House, and the House is not going to elect Clinton. The only way McMullin could help Clinton would be by splitting the conservative vote in Utah such that Clinton wins the state, and current polls are showing that to be highly unlikely.

It is highly ironic that McMullin is being dismissed here as a “Crony Capitalist Spoiler” when Donald Trump openly sought Wall Street donors – and, by his own standard, is owned by Wall Street. And note that Trump’s claim of his campaign being “self-funded” has always been an outright lie. Trump supporters have created this vision of Donald Trump as some sort of purist who is incorruptible and would never use government powers improperly, but it is pure fiction. In addition to Trump’s history of corruption as noted above, he has shown a blatant disregard for constitutionality and division of powers. As usually happens with Trump supporters, they are comparing rivals to a fictitious version of Donald Trump that is obviously – and laughably – inaccurate.

When the GOP Establishment Never Trumpers and their Clinton allies went looking for a 3rd party spoiler they needed someone with a constituency of sheeple who would follow him regardless of the obvious logical outcome (President Hillary.)

Again, it is highly unlikely that McMullin’s campaign will contribute to a Clinton victory. That could only happen if he causes Clinton to win Utah. And right now, he seems to be the leader rather than a spoiler, and that momentum continues to build.

There were plenty of Republican politicians who had lost to Trump in the primary or who had foregone a run in 2016 and didn’t like Trump much or were outright hostile to him, but not a one of them would put their name on the line and be the fall guy who put Hillary in office. So plan B – find a weak-minded demographic and create a leader for them.

The support for McMullin actually shows that Utahns are significantly less “weak-minded” than Republicans across the country. A weak-minded person simply accepts the options he is given, no matter how terrible they may be, and similarly accepts oft-repeated falsehoods such as “a vote for McMullin is a vote for Clinton” even when they are demonstrably untrue. A weak-minded person trusts that Donald Trump will champion conservative social issues and appoint conservative Supreme Court justices when he is fine with men entering women’s restrooms and dressing rooms (and, in fact, does so himself), when he took five different positions on abortion in three days, and when he thinks government should be able to forcibly close places of worship when no crimes have even been committed. If Christian conservatives think their religious liberty is safe from Trump’s “suggestions” because they are not Muslims, they should think again, as such action would create a far-reaching precedent that would absolutely endanger them as soon as the governing administration similarly deems their church’s teachings to be “hateful” and “dangerous”.

In 2016 that good person is Evan McMullin. The Never Trumpers couldn't talk Romney into another run, or Huntsman or any Mormon politician you had ever heard of.  So they created Evan McMullin from thin air and Goldman Sachs receipts.

In this paragraph, the writer of this article is trying to convince us of a blatant lie. He is suggesting that Evan McMullin is being funded by Goldman Sachs. I challenge him – or anyone – to provide evidence that McMullin’s campaign is funded by Goldman Sachs. It is not. He has, however, received $1,000 from employees at Morgan Stanley. If that is all you can dig up to implicate him as a Wall Street crony…you are failing miserably. He received more money than that from donors at the Alaska Cancer Institute. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has received donations totaling over $15 million from the folks at Renaissance Technologies. The company’s Wikipedia page describes it as “a New York based American investment management firm”. Yeah.

In building on our sense of fear for a Clinton presidency, the writer continues:

Her tried and failed economic policies of higher taxes and more spending will eventually bankrupt our nation. Her support for wars and conflicts not in our interest will bleed the best of our youth.

Do you know what will bankrupt us even faster than “higher taxes and more spending”? Lower taxes and more spending. According to the Tax Foundation (which has been frequently criticized for unfairly favoring conservatives), even after accounting for the increased economic activity resulting from lower taxes, Donald Trump’s tax plan will result in a decrease in tax revenues of between $2.6 trillion and $3.9 trillion. Meanwhile, Trump tells us that he is going to increase military spending even though we already account for about 40% of all global defense spending. On top of that, Trump promises that he will eliminate the entire $19 trillion national debt in eight years. How will he do this, exactly? Where will the money come from? He did suggest one way: he said that he would not default on the debt because “you print the money”. So Trump is going to eliminate our national debt by printing $19 trillion in new currency. This would basically destroy the world as we know it.

Trump zombies keep telling us things like this: “Don’t vote for someone who can’t win! You will make Clinton win!” But the thing is that we were telling that to them during the primaries, and they didn’t listen. Now that they have nominated someone who can’t win - and have thereby pretty much sealed the deal for Clinton - they expect the rest of us to throw away our principles to help them save face. If beating Clinton is as important as they say, they should not have given us the worst Republican candidate in a century. Trump’s weakness as a general-election candidate became painfully apparent when WikiLeaks revealed that the DNC’s preferred Republican rival was Trump all along.

To recap, the writer at the blog cited suggests that Mormons are being fooled into supporting Evan McMullin because it will result in a Clinton win and because McMullin has been bought and paid for by Goldman Sachs. In truth, though, it is impossible for a McMullin win in Utah to contribute to a Clinton victory, and McMullin has not received a dime from Goldman Sachs: Donald Trump’s Wall Street ties are actually much stronger than McMullin’s.