The Lessor of Evils: We've Made This Mistake Before

US History is littered with examples of our government working with the lessor of the evils to get rid of the greater of the evils.  The thought being that in order to dismantle the perceived largest threat, you may need to create allies with those you normally wouldn't.  A 22 year old Saddam Hussein was a paid by the CIA to kill the then President of Iraq.  Osama Bin Laden was part of the Mujahideen where he and other militant leaders were trained by US funded through Pakistani armed forces, all in an attempt to help Afghanistan defeat the Soviet Union in their long-standing war.  The US supported the Batista Dictatorship which ultimately led to the Cuban Revolution and the rise of Fidel Castro.  And so on and so on.  Whether it was the Contras in Nicaragua, Pinochet in Chile, or Chiang Kai-Shek in China, the US has routinely used the "lessor of two evils" tactic.

I realize all of the examples above show the bad thing that can happen when the lessor of the evils turns out to be a greater evil.  I'm sure there are many examples where the lessor evil did what we needed and then faded into the background.  However, our success record should be suspect enough to at least give you pause.

So what you ask?  Why does this matter at all?  Now enter the 2016 Presidential Election.  It's not hard to see how wrong Trump is as a candidate, world leader, or even human being.  Even those who will vote for him will tell you they don't support him as a person (I used to be one of them).  On a daily basis the media is showing new examples of his wrong-doings and providing ample examples of why "Anyone But Trump" is a logical conclusion.  And a great deal of the American public has accepted that argument and turned it's cheek to what could be the greater evil thinly disguised.  In an effort to completely destroy Trump, the media and much of America, has chosen to give Clinton a complete pass.  They have essentially wiped clean her suspect judgment around Benghazi.  They have taken at face value a sham of a process by the FBI around her potentially illegal use of a private email server (a use that would have landed virtually anyone else in the US in jail).  They have chosen to completely ignore a daily barrage of email releases from Wikileaks where it's been proven she manipulates the media and makes bigoted and elitist comments about virtually every social class and race.  HRC supporters turn a blind eye to how the DNC essentially undermined Bernie Sanders in an effort to ensure Clinton was the Democratic Nominee.  Clinton's comments about the women involved with her husband are totally ignored.  And believe it or not, something like 46 Clinton associates have been found dead under suspicious circumstances in their 3 decades of political power, yet that never seems to make the nightly news.

So many are so completely infatuated with the immorality of Trump that they've stopped noticing the potential evil in Clinton.  Now lest anyone think I'm encouraging you to vote for  Trump because I am not.  What I'm asking you to do is open your eyes.  Trump supporters have been forced to do so; they have no choice but to see him for who he is and make their decision accordingly.  In my case, I went from voting for Trump to deciding not to based on what I've seen recently.  But I fear Clinton supporters are so wrapped up in the Never Trump movement that they long ago stopped paying attention to who they have thrown their support behind.  Now maybe everything I mention above is just smoke and mirrors.  Maybe Clinton is no different than any other politician (by the way that alone should give you pause).  But what if she isn't?  If this were any other election where she was running against any other candidate, would any of what I mention above be relevant to you?

We tend to deal with the things directly in front of us because those are the things we perceive can do us the most harm.  Donald Trump is right in front of us and it's not hard to see the risk in him as the leader of the free world.  And the typical logic would state Hillary Clinton is not Donald Trump, therefore she must be the right choice in opposition.  But if the US had to do it all over again, would they have backed Saddam Hussein?  Would they have funded and trained Bin Laden and the Contras?  Would they have supported Batista and Pinochet?  In those cases the true evil was also right in front of them but were ignored because the known evil was more evident.  I would argue the very same risk is upon us in 2016.  In an effort not to elect the bad candidate we might just elect the evil one.