An argument I commonly hear online by Vox Day and others, is something along the lines of:
“Trump is better than the alternative”
“…at least he’s not Hillary…”
“Hillary would have been worse…”
“Hillary is even more pro-Israel than Trump…”
“Hillary would have caused X,Y, and Z wars…”
With the possible exception of the last two, all of these are true. The last two, not so sure. However, I am not so sure that Hillary would have engendered additional wars. We cannot just assume that. Some say that Hillary would have lead the US into war with Russia or North Korea, yet under 8 years of Clinton and then 8 years of Obama, the US did not go to war with either country, so it’s hardly a foregone conclusion.
However, the social media censorship issue seems to have gotten worse under Trump, although this is possibly because the left is working extra hard to ensure he does not get reelected. James Allsup recently got banned. But fear not, Trump held a social media summit and is ‘looking into it.’ The immigration situation has not gotten much better either. To invoke elementary physics, for every action, there is an equal but opposite reaction. So when Trump pushed-back against immigration, so did the left, but possibly even harder, and they have gotten more mileage for their efforts. From the post Update on Trump Wall:
Moreover, the left, in a form of political judo, was able to redirect Trump’s momentum in their factor. During Obama’s tenure, for example, there was much less talk about detention camp conditions, ICE, and family separations, but now those are bigger issues than ever. So this means the right is forced to play defense yet again. The right must go out of their way to show that don’t want to separate families and are blaming the democrats for bad detention center conditions.
This seems to be a persistent trend. The left is able to re-frame and hijack issues to their advantage. White supremacism and nationalism are bigger issues than ever, more so than under Obama. Businesses is booming for the ADL and the Southern Poverty Center. Liberals and mainstream conservatives alike are united stopping supposed racism and hate speech, in case of the latter to prove how not racist they are.
This presents a problem for the dissident-right because if they push, the left will push back harder, making the situation worse, and mainstream conservatives are of no help.
Hillary would have been worse, yes, that is true. But that line of thinking is a reason why politics is so bad and why politicians are not only ineffectual but habitually betray their voters. If politicians know that can defect on issues of importance to their voters yet still retain support knowing that they are “better than the alternative,” then what is holding them accountable? The only way to break this cycle is to not show up. If politicians know that being better than the alternative is a necessary but still insufficient condition for being elected, then maybe things will change.