Watching the #PresidentialDebate – When Both Candidates Are So Bad

I was talking to a supporter of one of the two presidential candidates the other day, and I said that I thought I would watch the presidential debate tonight because I don’t really have a rooting interest this time.  The point is, when you really care, sometimes it is harder to watch these kinds of things because you are worried about how it may turn out for your candidate or because you may get overly irritated by the other candidate’s answers.  But I figured this time I could watch because, as I said, I don’t have much of a rooting interest.

You could tell my answer bothered this person a little.  They said that you have to decide who is the better candidate.  There are, effectively, only two choices.  It’s an important election, and you need to pick.

I understand the argument, and I have probably made it myself in years past.  But it is hard this time.  In August, Susan Collins, Republican Senator from Maine, wrote an Op-Ed in The Washington Post explaining why she isn’t supporting Donald Trump.  She said that deciding not to support the Republican nominee was hard because being a Republican is part of her identity.  I know the feeling.  Republican politics is where I met my wife.  It was my main extra-curricular activity in law school.  I was a precinct captain for thirty years.  Being a Republican is part of who I am.

But then along came Donald Trump, and he is no part of who I am.  The list is almost endless.  Free speech.  NATO.  International trade.  Constitutional government.  Respecting the rights of private property.  Following the rules.  Being nice to people.  Supporting him is not something I can do.

But being a Republican is too much a part of me for me to able to really get into emotionally supporting somebody like Hillary Clinton.  She doesn’t believe in much of what I mentioned in the prior paragraph, either.  And her relationship with honesty and truth is more distant than the relationship between the Chicago Cubs and World Series championships (though I am hoping that one may be changing soon).

And so, my rooting interest tonight isn’t there.  Which means I can watch without worrying all that much – except for my country.
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UPDATE (9/26/16 10:40 pm): Added a word I left out in the first sentence of the fifth paragraph.