This political post will be different than its predecessors. In my previous three political blogs, I’ve mainly spoken in principle, of the principles that guide me in my political decision-making process. If you’ve read them, you no doubt already have some sense of which way the political winds are blowing for me.

But this blog is me going on the record. I’m naming names, and leaving no room for doubt. And the winner is…drum roll, please…Trump! There, I said it, and I’ll say it again for emphasis: I’m voting for Donald Trump.

Pardon me now while I go take a shower.

I’m only halfway joking. I feel a bit sullied having to vote for Trump. I am not a Trump fan. Back during the Republican primaries in Texas, it’s not that Trump wasn’t on or near the top of my list of candidates for the nomination. Trump wasn’t on my list at all.

When he won the Republican nomination, my initial reaction was to not vote for him. I wondered if his candidacy would prompt a grassroots movement to vote for a third party candidate. No doubt hundreds of thousands of American voters (if not more) are going to do just that on November 8th. I can totally respect voting for the candidate that you can support wholeheartedly and with conviction.

But history teaches us that any time you split the vote of one major party, the other major party frequently wins. Bear with me while I cite some examples.

In the 1860 presidential election, Southern Democrat John Breckinridge competed against Northern Democrat Stephen A. Douglas. John Bell also ran as the Constitutional Union Party candidate, garnering just 12.6% of the popular vote. Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln won only 39.8% of the popular vote. The two Democrats Douglas and Breckinridge’s combined percentages of the popular vote (29.5% and 18.1%, respectively) would have been sufficient to elect a Democratic president that year, had the Democratic Party had been united behind one candidate.

In the 1912 presidential election, Teddy Roosevelt had of course previously been president (though not the incumbent in 1912), and he sought the nomination of his Republican Party to run again. When he failed to win the Republican nomination, TR decided to run as a Progressive Party candidate. And he ran the most successful third party candidacy in US history, garnering 27.4% of the popular vote. But splitting the Republican party vote between incumbent Taft (Republican) and Roosevelt (Progressive) meant that Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson won the election with just 41.8% of the popular vote.

In 1924, the incumbent Republican president Calvin Coolidge ran for re-election. The Democratic Party nominated conservative John W. Davis, with the result that many liberal Democrats backed Progressive Party candidate Robert M. La Follette, Sr. With the Democratic Party split, Republican Calvin Coolidge won decisively, garnering 54% of the popular vote, whereas Davis and La Follette combined had 45.4%.

On March 31, 1968, Democratic president Johnson announced that he would neither seek nor accept the nomination of the Democratic Party. The presidential election was a turbulent one. In fact, the year itself was turbulent and violent. Both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy (a candidate for the Democratic nomination) had been assassinated earlier that year. Kennedy was in second place behind Hubert Humphrey in the primaries before his assassination. At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, riots and violence broke out. Amidst all of this turmoil, erstwhile Democrat George Wallace, the governor of Alabama, chose to run as an independent. In the end, he garnered 13.5% of the popular vote. Republican Richard Nixon won 43.4% of the vote, Democrat Humphrey, 42.7%. Had Wallace not split the Democratic Party, Humphrey likely would have won.

In the 1992 presidential election, incumbent Republican president George H. W. Bush, who at one time had a high approval rating, lost favor over budget compromise with Congress, which raised taxes. This reversal of his “read my lips” policy no doubt cost him voters. Independent candidate Ross Perot played up on the public’s fears regarding the federal budget deficit, and on election day he won 18.9% of the popular vote. Bush got just 37.4%, and so Clinton won with just 43%. If Bush had gotten just 6% more votes, he would have won the popular vote.

Whew! Historical political analysis is over. I hesitated to include this analysis, since it is somewhat lengthy for a blog post. But I’ve decided to leave it in because it thoroughly makes my point. If you split voters off of one of the major political parties, the other major party candidate can win, and frequently does.

And I for one am not willing to take that risk in this election year. Yes, Trump has been rude and crude, and maybe he still is. He seems to be somewhat of a changed man, but that could be just political image and campaign promises. We all know that when the good Lord was handing out ego, Donald Trump got in line at least twice. He has had a temper and has been mean-spirited, and again, maybe he still is. Did I mention before that I’m not a fan?

So I feel a bit sullied having to vote for Trump. But that’s just the point: I have to vote for Trump. I have doubts in my mind as to how true to his word Trump will be, how effective he would be as president. Trump is saying a lot of the right things on the campaign trail, but he may not keep all of his campaign promises.

But the greater fear is, Hitlary Clinton will keep hers. I have NO doubts about Clinton. She will do exactly as she wants, and that will be nothing but bad for America as we know it. The Obamanation that causes desolation has spent eight years putting policies in place that she will build upon. She will appoint justices to the supreme court that go along with the Democratic agenda of favoring perversion and murdering babies, of undermining free enterprise in favor of socialism, robbing citizens of their constitutional rights, weakening our borders and bringing in Isis shills under the guise of Mohammedan refugees, ad nauseam.

So, though I’m not overjoyed at the prospect, I have to vote for Trump. I have to hope that he will be good for the country. I know that Hitlary won’t be. Splitting off my vote to a third party candidate with no real chance of winning would most likely be a de facto vote for Hitlary. And I just can’t do that.

Oh, and one more thing. Hypocritical Democrats are fools to say anything against Trump. There is not one single accusation or allegation they bring against him that is not applicable to Billary and Hitlary ten times over.

Okay, thus endeth the political rant. This series has been exhausting. I think I’m through with political blogs for some time to come. I may in future months write about the Constitution Party, but for now, stick a fork in me…I’m done.