let me be as clear as i can.

do i really think clinton would have been worse than trump? what i've been trying to say for years now is i don't know.

i know that when people present clear criticisms of trump to me, they're often misinformed about clinton's positions on the matter. the most substantive argument i've heard is about abortion, but most of these people are deeply misinformed about clinton's position on abortion, which is not at all aligned with the pro-choice movement. she wants a constitutional amendment to ban late trimester abortions!

so, you can throw all of this stuff about how terrible trump is at me, but my general response is "ok. i agree with you. but, your argument is rooted in the perception that clinton has a different policy, when the reality is that she actually has basically the same position."

and, there are some counter-arguments, too. i'm still opposed to nafta and still want to eventually get rid of it, but the amendments to it do have some major victories that the left has been trying to accomplish for 35 years. these are foundational victories, that most people probably thought would never happen. clinton would have followed her private position on nafta once elected, not her public one. further, while trump has committed some war crimes like all of his recent predecessors, we haven't started a new war, yet. how long do you think it would have taken clinton to bomb somebody in order to prove that she's "tough"? a week?

do you know what clinton's immigration policy was?

there's not any value in relitigating this, but i don't feel i have any clarity, here, yet.

i did endorse clinton, but it was an exceedingly weak endorsement, and i've stated repeatedly that i'm not convinced i was right to do it - which means that i have this nagging feeling that i should have endorsed jill stein under the argument that clinton was worse, and not given clinton a weak endorsement with the intent to block trump.

but, i don't think i'll be able to answer these questions for years to come, still.

all i can state with clarity is that it is probably the worst set of choices americans have ever had - with the possible exception of the one they're going to have in november.