By Kaydee Donohoo
Staff Writer

I am friends on Facebook with a few of my conservative high school classmates. A few days ago, on my wall, a blog post appeared that one of those friends liked. Nothing was posted for my feed directly—this post might not have been meant for any liberal to see and have their mind changed. The blog had a usual clickbait title, something along the lines of a laundry list of identity, “I’m a white female, Republican, Christian, sexual assault survivor.” But the clickbait punch line was: “And I’m voting for Trump.”

Okay, clickbait worked. Why is this? Is she a bigot? So I click and read.

First, I am a little annoyed by how much I agreed with this blogger in the first few paragraphs. Everything was well thought out, and even for points I mildly disagreed on. I could see her reasoning. But then the arguments that led me to write this article began.
One point was that Trump is a “smart business man,” in that he used tactics (avoiding taxes, for instance) that benefitted himself, and that he would do the same for America. He would surely use tactics to benefit the country as if it were a business, right?

This definitely sat with me the wrong way. If anything, Trump would use his “tactics” to benefit the rich. (Don’t worry, she had the conservative response that the rich earned their money, and trickle- down economics works. Argument made, just not one that I agreed with.)

The main factor for the blogger to vote for Trump, and the main reason many give to vote for Hillary, is the empty seat on the Supreme Court.

The argument was that the next president will likely appoint a handful of new justices, and that will have a larger and more long-term effect on the country than eight years of a disagreeable presidency ever could.

Conservatives want to keep a conservative court. Newly legal marriage could be overturned, and immigration policies and health-care concerns could be ruled with a more traditional mind-set. Ted Cruz in a Facebook post explained that the court is one reason he was voting for Trump as well.

While all the arguments for voting third party are valid, to step out of line enough to make a real change, to stop the lesser of two evils, of voting one’s conscience, or voting to give the smaller parties funding, these arguments have to be weighed with other views. The arguments used to support Hillary are being applied in their opposite form for others who plan to vote for Trump.

We are not outvoting one group of bigots who hate Mexicans and want marriage to only exists between a man and a woman. We are going to need to be outvoting other Republicans, Conservatives, and rational people who want the opposite policies that we do.

This blog may have been the scariest thing I have read during this election. It didn’t make sense for my views, but there is a serious rational argument to vote for Trump if you have conservative values.

If they can justify voting for Donald Trump, the human pile of trash just for being a Republican, then we can certainly justify voting for Hillary Clinton even though some of her policies and background are problematic, because she is a Democrat. We are selecting a president, but we are also indirectly selecting a lasting Supreme Court.