Few reasons to vote for Trump or Clinton

A wise political pundit said this week that elections are not won by voting against someone but rather by voting for someone.

But that political axiom is being put to the test this year with the increasingly potential contest between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Few of my fellow conservative travelers are wildly giddy about the Trump campaign. His lack of policy depth is frightening, and his ego-driven personality should be enough to torpedo his chances.

But for all the negatives Trump brings to the campaign, Hillary is no better and arguably worse.

With a nation worn thin with the massive failures of the Obama years, Hillary's promise of a third Obama term should be the terminal statement of her campaign.

Yet to vote against Clinton means you may well have to vote for Trump. Therein lies the dilemma for many of us.

With all of the talk concerning the GOP establishment versus the outsiders, like many others, I find myself in a third branch of the Republican Party.

I am most certainly not a Mitch McConnell establishment-type given his disappointing failures. Same can be said for Paul Ryan, John McCain and far too many others.

But I'm also not a clueless Trump outsider who can casually accept his embarrassing statements, his schoolyard-bully approach and his serious void of policy positions.

Ultra-liberal social critic Camille Paglia accurately summed up the prospects for this fall.

"A Trump-Hillary death match will be a national nightmare, a race to the bottom for both parties, as Democratic and Republican operatives compete to dig up the most lurid and salacious dirt on both flawed candidates."

Though she's spot-on in that assessment, her solution is to vote for Bernie Sanders. Supporting Sanders at this point is akin to continuing to support Marco Rubio. Principled, yes. Practical, no.

This election may well test the theory on voting for or against someone.

I see few reasons to support Trump but fewer still to support Hillary.

I said very early in this campaign that we don't need another egotistical, tone-deaf president since we already have one.

In a twist of irony, many were confused on just which candidate I was referencing. Well, take your pick. The profile could fit either.

For those of us who assumed some white knight would surface at the 11th hour and save both the Republican Party and the nation, that train has all but left the station.

We can ill afford another inexperienced leader in the White House. Yet, we can also ill afford a pathological liar who seeks to live by her own rules.

Michael Jensen is the publisher of the Sikeston Standard Democrat.