“Trump is a bigot and a misogynist pig.”

“He might be, but Hillary is a liar and a cheater, so I don’t trust her.”

This election season has become as much about, if not more about, finding the lesser of two evils as it is about finding out which candidate is most agreeable with on policy issues. However, for the sake of time, we will forgo discussing the candidates’ many, many faux pas and focus on their positions on the issues.

Recently, Donald Trump has finally started to align himself with more mainstream conservative viewpoints, pandering to the religious right with anachronistic views on abortion and gay marriage while not really discussing the things that gave rise to his primary success, such as the wall. While conservative view points are all well and good, I believe that they are inherently flawed. Conservatism is inherently backward-looking, and conservatives tend to believe that America’s best days are in the past. This explains the massive use of Trump’s campaign slogan, which interestingly enough, was used by Ronald Reagan in the 1980’s.  The conservative viewpoint is based on the belief that the government that governs best governs least. But, in an attempt to gain votes from a certain group, such as conservative Christians, Republicans have adapted a newer concept that is called social conservatism. This flawed system focuses on legislating social issues while simultaneously claiming to want a smaller government, essentially making government bigger when it appeals to them.

Republican economic policy is based around a concept called supply side economics, or as it is rather tounge-in-cheekly referred to, trickle down economics, because they expect money supplied at the top of the system to eventually “trickle down” to the workers which will then stimulate the economy when the workers buy items, supplying more money to the corporations, thus starting the cycle over again. There’s a major problem here though: supply side economics requires the men and women at the top to put the extra money into the paychecks of the workers instead of into their own pockets; in essence it requires men and women who have spent their entire lives being cutthroat business people to all of a sudden care about the little guy. Highly unlikely.

Hillary’s economic policy is no nonsense. Tax increases on the wealthy and cuts on the middle class will actually stimulate the economy by directly putting extra money into the hands of the working class. Hillary Clinton has true experience in foreign policy whereas Donald Trump has absolutely  none. She has worked her entire life for the little guy, and Donald Trump has spent his entire life beating up the little guy to advance his desires.

All of this might not be enough to convince anyone that Hillary is the best choice, or even to convince anyone to overlook her many faults. But, I would hold that being a liar and having superior policy are not zero-sum. To say that they are would be like suggesting that someone who is an athlete cannot be on the honor roll simply because they are athletically inclined. The two are not mutually exclusive, and that, put as succinctly as possible is, why I’m voting for Hillary Clinton on November 8.