It's funny how the presidential election pre-"game" seems to start earlier and earlier. But the problem is that, like the "March Madness" in college Basketball, the march to the World Series and the Super Bowl, it all comes down to two candidates.
I live in a state that has a pretty decent size population, but our primaries are late. So I rarely get to express my preferences in the polls (it's all a fait-accompli by the time I get to vote). But lately I have the same issues every election. I have to decide between "my ideals when it comes to women's rights, gay rights, governmental support of the poor, animal rights, the environment, all those high-minded liberal causes that I care so much about" AND "Israel and its right to survive and my rights to support Israel as a Jew".
I listen to all the "stuff" about Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. I really love what they both stand for domestically. I support all the same issues they both support when it comes to women's rights and gay marriage and social and economic programs and tax breaks for the poor while the rich help, and job programs and free (or low cost) education and job training etc etc etc. BUT (and this is a HUGE but) Hillary Clinton, in her guise as the Secretary of State for the Obama-nation, has time and time again thrown Israel "under the bus" -- time and time again, she blamed Israel for the "situation" in the Middle East, blamed Israel for the failed peace talks, came down on Netanyahu while giving Abbas (Arafat in a suit) and Hamas a "hall pass", never asking them for concessions. And as bad as Hillary Clinton is, Bernie Sanders is even worse. Bernie dissed AIPAC (American Israel Public Action Committee) -- none of the other candidates, EVEN Hillary, did that. Bernie buddies up to "J Street" and organizations that are funded by the world-wide hydra-headed terror monster.
But then I hear Cruz and, on occasion, Trump, talk about Israel and how Israel is our ally and Israel deserves our support (as I've heard Rubio say over the past several years). But I also hear how they think rape is a woman's fault and transexuals can't use public bathrooms of the gender they identify with and how it makes sense to give tax breaks to people who are already obscenely rich and how global warming is a myth and pesticides are a necessity (even when they are killing bees which support us by pollinating our fruits and vegetables).
So what can I do? Either I condemn the world to a Sharia nightmare by supporting the Democrats or I condemn the US to a trip down the reactionary rabbit hole where women are blamed for sexual harassment they receive, where gays are denied simple marriage rights, where the poor are looked down on and blamed for their "laziness", where mental illness is ignored or blamed on the victim. I don't like either picture but unfortunately, as bad as the latter is, the former, the world Bernie and Hillary would give to us, is far worse.
