The sad reason that the United States has Donald Trump as its president is that American voters were presented with what they viewed as an even worse alternative when they went to the polls in 2016.  The choices were the two worst presented to American voters in living memory.  I have already discussed Trump and some of his issues, many of which we continue to have to deal with.  As we do so, we have to remember what the alternative was.

Personally, I think that most people voted not for Trump, but AGAINST his opponent, Hillary Clinton.  As flawed as Trump is, Hillary was viewed as even worse, and rightly so.  So let’s briefly review what she had done that was so bad.

Since her earliest days on the public stage, Hillary Clinton has been accused of political corruption.  This is the process of taking money from “donors” or “supporters” in order to influence political decisions.  The most flagrant example of this is still going on.  After Bill Clinton’s presidency ended in 2001, he set up the “Clinton Foundation”.  This foundation has to date taken in over $2 Billion in “donations”.  Much of this was taken in while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State under President Obama, or while she was running for President herself (and had a very good chance of winning).

Most of the “donors” wanted particular contracts or other government decisions made in their favor.  As Secretary of State or potentially as President, she had or would have immense power to influence such decisions.  On top of this, the “Foundation” can pay its employees anything it wants to.  Heads of similar “charities” commonly pay their executives a million or so dollars a year.

Hillary purports herself to be a champion of women.  Yet she defended her sexual predator husband against multiple charges of rape and sexual assault.  She denigrated and attacked the accusers at every turn.  You cannot say that you are a “champion of women” and then treat a slew of them with legitimate claims differently.  And you certainly can’t defend and justify a long term, multiple account sexual predator because it benefits your political career.

Then there was the email mess.  Hillary certainly had her communication system set up outside of the government’s security systems.  This enabled foreign entities to uncover secret information that was her duty as the most senior cabinet official to protect.  This is in fact criminal.  The motive behind doing this appears to be that she didn’t want communication uncovered that may have been related to Foundation donor deals.  When this might have happened anyway, all of the communication was mysteriously deleted and permanently erased.

Hillary never has, and probably never will, admit to any failures or poor judgment.  To her party’s great dismay, she continues to stay in the limelight, blaming others for her electoral loss.

What to Do

Recognize that both Parties have put forward candidates of lower and lower quality over the years.  Both are failing to find and promote individuals for high office that we need.  As a result, we have a leadership beholden to cronies, influence peddlers, and outright crooks.

We desperately need to wipe the slate clean.  We need to find honest people with a history of service to others who are willing to make the difficult decisions that are needed and will be needed.

This means that each of us MUST become informed, and we MUST become more involved in our political processes.  Those with self serving motives have been in power for far too long.