Voters may not go to the polls in response to who they like in the presidential election, but rather by who they hate in the presidential election.

Courtesy of Reuters:

Nearly half of American voters who support either Democrat Hillary Clinton or Republican Donald Trump for the White House said they will mainly be trying to block the other side from winning, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Thursday. 

The results reflect a deepening ideological divide in the United States, where people are becoming increasingly fearful of the opposing party, a feeling worsened by the likely matchup between the New York real estate tycoon and the former first lady, said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. 

"This phenomenon is called negative partisanship," Sabato said. "If we were trying to maximize the effect, we couldn't have found better nominees than Trump and Clinton."

I think we are learning virtually every day why people dislike Donald Trump, many even in his own party, but is this deep dislike of Hillary really deserved?

Actually no.



Courtesy of HuffPo: 

The obvious start is the very open, well honed and relentless GOP attack plan to nail her. It was scripted by the Republican National Committee long before she announced her 2016 presidential run. The plan was to put teams on the ground in Arkansas and anywhere else Hillary and Bill had put their political and personal footprints, then dig up every scintilla of old and new dirt it could dredge up to try and render her candidacy — stillborn before it even became an official candidacy. The RNC planned to churn out inflammatory and defamatory videos reminding voters of the old scandals the GOP worked over endlessly to hammer Hillary on — from Whitewater to the Lewinsky scandal, and her tout of health care reform, which was the prelude to the much harangued Affordable Care Act. 

That is the past. The GOP now with the leadership of numerous House Committees could reel off and spend millions of dollars and hours on trumped up investigation after trumped up investigation to hit Clinton on her alleged coverup in the Benghazi debacle and her alleged misuse of emails as Secretary of State. The aim is to embarrass and discredit her not because of her alleged missteps as Secretary of State, but as a 2016 presidential candidate. 

At the very least, with much of the press obsessively sniffing around and then headlining every spiff of rumor, including gossip and dirt about the emails and Benghazi, helped to paint the picture in the minds of many of Clinton as a liar, cheat and generally untrustworthy candidate. It was a short step from that to Trump to pouncing and minting Clinton as “Crooked Hillary” on the campaign stump. This took a toll. Clinton started out with relatively high favorability ratings in the months just before she announced that she was a 2016 candidate. However, the steady drumbeat of attacks has driven her unpopularity numbers steadily on an upward trajectory. When the GOP and Trump turn the smear guns on her in the run-up to November, the negatives could continue to march higher. It will take every ounce of Democratic Party unity, money, time, and energy, and a massive turnout from core Democrats and centrist independents, to offset the gutter attacks that will be tossed at Clinton.

I have said it before, but it bears repeating, NOBODY spends this much time and resources going after somebody who they are not flat terrified of.

The simple fact is that the Republicans are well aware of what Hillary Clinton can accomplish as President, and have been working to keep her out of the job for almost thirty years.

The troubling part is that apparently Democrats do not have that same confidence in her abilities.

But you have to ask yourself, is that based on what you KNOW about her, or what they have TOLD you about her?

Yesterday I called my mom because, you know, Mother's Day.

After exchanging pleasantries and listening to her complain about my brother we eventually got around to politics.

My mother said that though she really did not like Donald Trump she simply could not bring herself to vote for Hillary based on what she had heard about her.

It took me a bit but I finally learned that Mom had watched a video on Facebook labeling Hillary a liar, and then showing numerous out of context incidences of her "lying."

It took me a good twenty minutes to correct the untruths, which also involved explaining what a  "third trimester abortion" was and why women might want and even need one.

In the end my mother still seemed somewhat unconvinced, disenfranchised if you will, and of course that is exactly the goal behind this relentless assault on Hillary.

And it is also why the conservatives have been helping Sanders behind the scenes all along.

Like I said if you are planning to sit this election out because of your dislike for Hillary Clinton, you need to have a long talk with yourself and determine if that is really how you feel, or if that is the result of thirty years of GOP indoctrination.