A friend recently voiced their doubts and fears about a Hillary Clinton presidency and it made me think.
In a few weeks’ time Americans will go to the polls. Over the last year I have posted harsh words about Donald Trump, and people have got on my case for it. “Oh Father, why are you being so political?” I find people only object to a priest being “political” when he is criticizing the candidate they like–but that’s another matter.
I have been critical of Trump’s character because character matters. I have attempted to be equally critical of Clinton’s character because I think she is equally (or more) duplicitous, scheming, manipulative and dishonest.
There is another distinction between the two candidates, however, that ought to be considered. Trump may be an egotist, but Hillary is an ideologue.
An egotist is out for himself and nobody else. He is likely to be a greedy, lustful, dishonest bully. An egotist can ride roughshod over others to get his own way and will always believe himself to be superior and to deserve everything he grabs for himself.
However, an egotist might just, maybe, if we’re lucky, realize what a stinker he is. He’s not in it for anything other than himself, and he might just wake up one day and realize that its empty, he’s empty and doing everything for himself is not getting him anywhere.
In other words, the egotist is reformable. The egotist might realize what an idiotic, immature person he is being and want to be better.
An ideologue, on the other hand, is irreformable. An ideologue is driven by a high minded belief that they are right, their philosophy is right, their political judgement is right and their cause is right. The ideologue will do anything to promote their cause and reach their objective, and they will do so believing all the time that they are doing good.
The egotist might just figure out that what he has done is bad. The ideologue never will.
Secular ideologues believe in a brave new world. They believe in making the world a better place. They really do, and they really believe that their economic philosophies, their political plans and their Machiavellian manipulations are the way to make the world a better place.
Secular ideologues are also utilitarians. They believe that works is good and what does not work is bad. If abortion reduces the number of poor people or black people or Hispanic people, then abortion is good because it helps to eliminate poverty. If euthanasia helps reduce the number of infirm, expensive and helpless old people, and getting rid of them helps the economy, then euthanasia is good.
If supporting same sex marriage wins votes and brings in political donations, then supporting same sex marriage is good because the great plan to “fundamentally change America” must move on and the great plan needs money.
If “equality for all” is an ideological dream then anyone who seems to stand in the way must be eliminated.
Anyone who has picked up on my thoughts over the last year will know that I think Trump is a bad man and will be a bad president, but at least he might one day realize he is a bad person.
Hillary Clinton will never come to that realization about herself.
So I guess people will have to choose: the Ideologue or the Egotist.
