Your memory seems to lack critical information. Let's begin with the primaries where the Republican field was wide & varied with 17 different candidates that included:
Jeb Bush - Former Gov. Of Florida
Scott Walker - Former Gov. Of Wisc.
John Kasich - Former Gov. of Ohio
Mike Huckabee - Former Gov Arkansas
Jim Gilmore - Former Gov of Virginia
George Pataki - Former Gov of New York
Bobby Jindal - Former Gov. of Louisiana
Rick Perry - Former Gov of Texas
Chris Christi - Former Gov. of New Jersey
Ted Cruz - Sitting Senator Texas
Rand Paul - Sitting Senator Texas
Marco Rubio - Sitting Senator Florida
Lindsey Graham - Sitting Senator from South Carolina
Rick Santorum - Former Senator from Pennsylvania
Carley Florina - Former CEO of HP
Ben Carson - Renowned neurosurgeon
Donald John Trump - Real Estate Developer
That's 9 former Governors, 4 sitting Senators, 1 former Senator, & 3 successful people with no prior political experience at all, making 17 choices from which to choose. The winner was a successful Real Estate Developer with no prior political experience.
Now let's move on to the General Election.
For The Democrat Party your choice was:
Hillary Clinton Pred. & Tim Kaine Vice Pres.
For The Republican Party your choice was:
Donald Trump Pres. & Mike Pence Vice Pres.
For the Libertarian Party your choice was:
Gary Johnson Pres. & Bill Weld. Vice Pres.
For the Green Party your choice was:
Jill Stein Pres. & Ajamu Baraka Vice Pres.
For the Constitution Party your choice was:
Darrell Castle for Pres. & Scott Bradley Vice Pres.
For the Independent Ticket your choice was:
Evan McMullin for Pres. & Mindy Finn for Vice Pres.
Thus in neither the primary of the general election was your choice a binary one, but in reality every presidential race is a binary choice. Because third parties historically only take from one of the two dominate political parties. With a successfully stacked deck, the only winner is the Uni-party.
Which is the party that not only supports evil, it promotes evil. Since the Uni-party is the conglomeration of the two dominate parties.
John McCain was a member of the Uni-party. I condemned that man, not the John McCain who served his nation in war. I respected his service to this nation, but he was still never a hero in my eyes either.
I was not a peacenik who attended anti-war rallies. I was a supporter of the Vietnam War. My attitude as modified over the years as I gained a better understanding & more knowledge of what war really means, which has left me with the reasoning that war should be avoided at all costs, and should absolutely be the sole remaining option available.
I wasn’t for Trump during the nomination process. I was when the election became a dichotomous choice. Gary Johnson was, obviously, the best of the candidates in the fall, but he didn’t have a chance of winning.
The election dynamic of 2016 was that Gary Johnson started out with something like 10 percent of the vote. But, this was less than the 15 percent required for the debates. Following this peak, Johnson steadily fell, and Trump steadily narrowed the gap. By the evening of the election, Johnson was at 5 percent in the polls, and Trump was only 3 points behind Hillary in the polls.
When the votes were tallied, Johnson fell yet again, no doubt due to last minute changes; and, Trump lost the nationwide popular vote by only 2 points. Crucially, Trump won the key battleground state of MI, PA and WI (also AZ and GA thinking of the key states of 2020), and was elected President.
It was one of the most exciting elections in U.S. history. Sorry you missed it.
I’ll comment, here, on what you say about war: regarding who is and who isn’t a hero, Donald 4F Trump is simply not qualified to say. That you express a opinion, you should share your qualifications, given that you did not serve in the military. I respect that every man has a right to an opinion, just as much as I respect than every man has a right to an asshole.
As for Vietnam, we won the Cold War, but we didn’t win every part of it. I am inclined to agree with you that getting sucked in a shooting war involves some kind of mistake at some level of decision-making. But, let’s be real, some mistakes will be made. As to whether it’s better that these mistake be made in Godforsaken places far from our shores, or in places of vital interest, I would say the former places.
I will now turn to the difference between us and Russia. Russia has never lost a war from being invaded. Obviously, Hitler and Napoleon failed, but also King Charles of Sweden before them. Russia’s enormous size is its defense.
But, Russia has lost a serious of border wars that have been followed by internal collapse or partial collapse. The Russo-Japanese War of 1904, Russia’s defeat at its borders with Germany and Austria during WWI, and Russia’s defeat in Afghanistan while it occupied that country.
We, like Russia, have strategic depth. In our case, the great oceans of the world. It is an interesting question as to whether we might collapse following defeat in a border war. It depends on whether we remain or maybe I should say return to a free enterprise system. With a vibrant free enterprise system, we have a robust surplus which enables us to absorb the cost of border wars.
For centuries, this was the “secret” of the British Empire (they didn’t win all their border wars either). (Then, we replaced them as the world’s foremost global power.)
For centuries, this was the “secret” of Rome. But, then, there followed a period of decline associated with corruption at the top, and bread and circuses among the masses. My fear for the countries is that we are following the precedent of Rome.