Conservatives who say "Now Democrats know what Republicans felt like in 2008"

[Spider Jerusalem]

32. Ha. No. That's just absurd.

If McCain had won in 2008, rather than Obama, I don't think I'd have felt anything close to what I felt on learning Trump had carried the Electoral College. McCain has many faults, but he's relatively decent, for a Republican, seems to have sincere principles, and I believe he's a patriot (who I happen to have some disagreements with, as the man himself said to the woman who called Obama a Muslim on the campaign trail). McCain would've been a credible president; Palin as VP would've been a disaster, but if McCain had won she'd be Dan Quayle 2.0, not the darling of the Tea Party right.

Trump, on the other hand, has no principles, and his highest loyalty is to himself. He only cares about what's good for Trump; what feeds his ego and gives him a sense of his own importance. Had McCain won, I'd have been disappointed, but McCain wasn't someone manifestly unfit for the presidency whose election heralded the incipient death of American democracy as we've known it, and McCain wouldn't have gotten us into a war with China over intemperate words on Twitter (as I half expect Trump probably will).