Hillary is too dangerous to be concerned about Trump’s flaws

Thanks and hats off to Jim Ruth for his column, “I Hate Donald Trump, but I might vote for him,” giving voice to many of us would-be, or wannabe, or maybe, Trump supporters. And also for pointing out the key question - yet to be decided – which is just how long can we stomach Trump’s personal and political foibles in order to stop Hillary Clinton and her Leninist roadies from sinking the country with their brand of narcissistic, self-dealing incompetence?

Now, many of the most effective leaders I’ve worked with and for in my lifetime – political, military, professional – were people I wouldn’t want to take home to dinner. But they got the job done, which was what they were there for, not to be models of decorum and couth.

That I get. But as Ruth clearly articulates, this guy, Trump, is something else. In more than 50 years of being involved in state, local, and national political campaigns, including working two large precincts for Trump in the Feb. 20 South Carolina Republican presidential primary, as well as helping mobilize veterans for him, I’ve never seen a candidate at that level, after running the board and winning, then set about to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

nd it goes on and on. He’s like a teenager who can’t control his impulses and, worse, who apparently doesn’t understand why the terrain he’s on absolutely requires him to do it. How else to explain Trump’s stooping to artless putdowns of transparent ninnies like Megan Kelly and Elizabeth Warren?

Hey Donald. We know who and what they are. You don’t have to draw fire on yourself to tell us.

In the same vein, Trump’s public baiting of U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel comes off as mindless and self-defeating, if not wholly self-indulgent and immature.

Where will it end? Again, Ruth is dead on – not until election day.

Finally, thanks to Ruth for his lucid, powerful account of what’s at stake in keeping the Clintons from reoccupying the White House.

I’m sure that he – like me and many others looking at Trump – are and will continue to be branded as selfish reactionaries who just don’t get it. Whatever.

But along with him, if putting up with a deeply-flawed Trump is the price for keeping Hillary’s crowd of revanchist political opportunists away from tearing down the 250 years of struggle and sacrifice which has made us the Americans we are, as problematic and incomplete as that may be, I too will probably step up and pay that price with my vote.

The writer lives in Myrtle Beach.

This story was originally published July 24, 2016 at 9:12 AM with the headline "Hillary is too dangerous to be concerned about Trump’s flaws."