[Orin Kerr] Comparing Clinton and Trump

When I have written about the dangers of Donald Trump, I often get a response that runs like this:

Yes, Trump sounds like an authoritarian, and he has said some pretty crazy things. That’s not good. But you’re overlooking an obvious problem: Trump only says he would do troubling things, while Clinton has actually been involved with troubling things. With Clinton, it seems like there is an endless stream of new stories of questionable, unethical, or otherwise troubling things she has actually done or been involved with in government. With Trump it’s only words. Shouldn’t we be more worried about what Clinton has actually done instead of what Trump only has said?

I’m unpersuaded, and I thought I would explain why.

First, the most obvious reason why Trump has never done troubling things in government is that Trump has never worked in the government before. He has never served in any government office. He has never made a government decision. He has never been present when things went wrong and he had to figure out the best way forward. So yes, Trump has no record of actually making bad decisions in government. But that’s because he has no record of making decisions in government at all.

Favoring Trump on that basis is like saying that a sports team in preseason must be good because they are undefeated.

Of course, Trump has a record outside government service. In trying to judge a candidate who has never been in office before, but has instead been in business, you might reasonably ask questions about his character to make good guesses about how he would be in elected office. Possible questions might include: Is he an honest businessman? Does he pay his bills? Does he treat people with respect? Does he keep his personal promises? Does he hire honest advisors? Does he make business decisions carefully based on a review of the relevant evidence? Can he take criticism? Has he paid his taxes properly?

The answer to every question for Trump is not only “no,” but “hell no.” Is he an honest businessman? No, he has engaged in major scams. Does he pay his bills? No, he is known for not paying his bills. Does he treat people with respect? No, he belittles and mocks every opponent and he has been accused by many women of sexual assault. Does he keep his personal promises? Not his marriage vows, at least, as it appears he has cheated on all of his wives. Does he hire honest advisors? No, his closest advisors have been famously dirty and unethical. Can he take criticism? No, he is remarkably thin-skinned and feels compelled to attacks all critics. Does he make business decisions carefully based on a review of the relevant evidence? No, he makes his big decisions based on gut instinct. Has he paid his taxes properly? Well, he doesn’t want you to know: He has steadfastly refused to release his tax records.

So Trump has no government record to criticize, but the signs point to him being just about the worst kind of person to exercise government power.

In contrast, Clinton has a very long record in government service to scrutinize. As Trump likes to point out, Clinton has been in and around government for 30 years. That means that she has a long government record to scrutinize that has been thoroughly mined for problems over the decades. Her long record, and her long being a political target, means that there is a vast body of records to scrutinize and problems to try to associate with her.

And even then, a surprising amount of the criticism of Clinton is about things that happened when she was in government service when there is no obvious case that she was at fault for them. And how much of the constant drip of new stories over the last few months about Clinton’s record are from Wikileaks releases, which th