Better the Devil You Don't Know?

The sum of things hoped for.?   What are the odds?

Really? You have to give it to he who must not be elected. The man knows how to twist a meme to his own benefit.  There used to be a saying that everyone knew that went like this:

"Better the devil you know than the devil you don't know."

The point of this old saw was that with the devil you know, at least you have some experience with defending yourself against him. With the devil you don't know, you have no idea what fresh hell is coming your way. Most old sayings are based on generations of collective wisdom. It takes an adept hand at the old tiller o' propaganda to teach everyone to believe exactly the opposite of what they once believed and to simultaneously not really notice that they've done a 180.

We conservatives who are, we are told, not needed by Trump to win are being told that we must hold our collective noses and vote "Not Hillary". The reasons given range from "Hillary is worse" to "He will build a wall.".  If we counter, "We don't know that Trump really will build a wall or that Hillary is worse," they confidently tell us, "Well, we KNOW how bad Hillary is. With Trump there's a chance he could be better."  This is the mirror opposite of the old "devil you know" adage.

                            "Better the devil you don't know than the devil you do."

That, of course, flies counter to logic, reason and "The Art of War" by Sun Tsu. It is much harder to defend our nation against an unknown threat than to prepare to fend off a known threat. With Donald Trump, it's even more so. He comes as an angel of light, all set to defend the rights and privileges of every angry American who is willing to simply ignore his myriad flaws and "eccentricities". Trump is the political equivalent of a scratch-off lottery ticket or a quarter in a Vegas slot machine. You're pretty sure you are going to lose, but, hey, you might not. I don't find the difference between a certain loser and an almost certainly worse loser to present significantly better odds. At least not enough for me to spend the one coin I have (my vote) on either. I prefer to spend my vote on someone I can feel good about supporting, even if he doesn't win.

I don't gamble. That's probably why it's easier for me to resist scratching either box on my ballot. I don't like crap shoots. With crap shoots, most of us never win. The house generally cleans up and walks away with all your money. What's disturbing about this analogy is that Trump has managed to bankrupt several casinos.

But better the devil you don't know? Who knows? You might win?

Yeah, right!

© 2016 by Tom King