[Ilya Somin] A preelection Trumpalooza
The Volokh Conspiracy 2016-11-13
Summary:
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally, Saturday, Oct. 15, 2016, in Portsmouth, N.H. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
Like some other Volokh Conspiracy bloggers, I am going to be voting for the Democratic candidate for president for the first time in my life (for some it may be “only” the first time in decades). In my case, it’s not because I’m With Her, but because I am Against Him. Despite her flaws, Hillary Clinton offers the only realistic chance of forestalling a vastly worse outcome. I don’t think every marginal voter should necessarily support Clinton, particularly if you live in a state likely to be overwhelmingly Red or Blue. But I do believe that voting for the least bad of the major party candidates is the best course of action for those who live in swing states, including my own home state of Virginia.
The main reasons for that conclusion are that Trump has a much worse policy agenda than Hillary Clinton, his victory threatens to turn the GOP into a big-government xenophobic nationalist party, his authoritarian personality and gratuitous cruelty make him manifestly unfit for the presidency, and that Hillary Clinton is likely to be constrained by divided government, whereas Trump (if he wins) might well be empowered by GOP control of Congress.
In this post, I am not going to try to recapitulate these points in detail. Instead, I offer interested readers a collection of links to what I think are the more significant posts on Trump and the election, written by my co-bloggers and myself. I don’t agree with every single point made by my co-bloggers and they likely differ with some of mine. But I think you will see lots of commonality nonetheless. Collectively, the posts amount to a Volokh Conspiracy case against Trump.
Here goes (links organized by author):
David Bernstein
How Trump strengthens the case for limiting executive power.
Why Trump is the “simian alpha male” anticonstitutional candidate.
How Utah could potentially save the nation from Trump.
Orin Kerr
Why Orin is With Her, despite not voting for any other Democratic nominee in decades.
Imagining a Trump Justice Department.
Orin on the Clinton e-mail investigation (this post was written before FBI Director James Comey’s recent announcement indicating that the newly discovered e-mails do not justify a criminal prosecution of Clinton).
Trump and the politics of deligitimatization.
David Post