Today's Political Developments Demand Rational Response, Not Knee-Jerk Rancor (UPDATED)

First, a little legal-talk to stave off the salivating lawyers..  Faithful Catholics of MD/DC Inc is not - repeat, NOT - a "c3" corporation,  In fact, we're not a "501c" anything!  That means we can make all the political statements we want!  Now that this is out of the way, let's continue.

As most of you know, I was hoping that Ted Cruz would be the GOP nominee for US President.  I voted for him in the MD primary.  However, I just got the news that after the Indiana primary, Cruz has decided to drop out of the race.  That means that Donald Trump is the nominee, assuming that all RINO attempts to submarine his campaign come to naught.  On the Democrat side, we see that Hillary is beating Bernie quite handily.  So barring very unusual occurrences, we'll be seeing a Trump vs Clinton race this coming November.

Quite honestly, I find Trump to be an enigma.  Some of his policy statements have been rather contradictory.  Some of his conduct has, in my opinion, not been worthy of one aspiring to be the Chief Executive Officer of the United States of America.

Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, has not been enigmatic in the least.  Her pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage stances are out there for everyone to see.  We know for a fact what kind of Supreme Court justices she'll nominate if she wins the White House.  We know what kind of mess her foreign policy will be, just by the debacle that was her performance as Secretary of State.  Need I remind one and all of the four Americans that she knowingly let die in Benghazi on her watch?  Need we reminders of the security breaches posed by her reckless handing of servers and emails?

I recite all this because I'm seeing signs of irrational rage and anger against Trump's nomination from good Christians and pro-life activists.  Their common mantra seems to be "anyone but Trump", as they threaten to stay home on election day or to write in some other person on their presidential ballot.  That is the kind of thinking and acting that garnered for this country eight years of the worst presidency to date; disdaining both McCain and Romney, good Christians (acting on emotion versus reason) simply abdicated their civic duties and let Obama waltz into the White House.

One meme captured the lack of logic perfectly.  I wished I saved it; if I see it again, I'll post it. (UPDATE - See below!)  Anyway, it said (paraphrased), "if Trump wins the nomination, Hillary wins the White House so I won't vote in November".  This statement is an example of a logical fallacy known as a self-fulfilling prophesy, for if good people do indeed not effectively vote against Hillary, she will indeed win the White House.  Note carefully.  In that case, she'd win not because Trump was the nominee but because otherwise-rational people used that as an excuse not to vote for the one candidate who could deny her the White House.

If we're serious about at least slowing down the oncoming train wreck of our cultural degradation, we will have to vote for Trump, for that is the only effective way to vote against Hillary.  And please - none of this write-in crap.  You might feel better while you're doing it, but elections are not about how we feel.  We need to turn our emotions off and force our intellect and reason to have dominance over our feelings and "gut reactions".

I've written before quite extensively on voting and the Catholic Principle of Double Effect; I need not rehash it here, but instead link to the anthology of posts.  Yes, the act of voting for Trump needs to be subject to this scrutiny, but so do the acts of: not voting at all, or, the act of voting "third-party" or "write-in" must be subject to the same scrutiny.

Let us ask Our Lord's blessing and direction for us.

UPDATE - I knew it would crop up like kudzu!

I'm sure the creator of that can't - or won't - see their own logical fallacy!  LOL, they can't even figure out the proper spelling for "principles"!