Why this disgusted voter will choose Trump.

Every one of the leading candidates is seriously flawed, but not in the same ways, or to the same degree.   There being no good, much less "ideal", candidate, here's my thinking and I won't be insulted if you disagree or reach a different conclusion.

1.  I don't automatically eliminate someone who has been part of the "Washington establishment" as long as they haven't FAILED in that role.  This would eliminate Clinton, Sanders and Cruz.  Every one of them has, in one way or another, been a crashing failure during their period of government service, or proven themselves unworthy by reason of their (a) character or (b) effectiveness while in office.

2.  National security is the bedrock upon which everything else (such as the economy) depends.  In turn, illegal immigration and the indiscriminate acceptance of refugees from certain parts of the world impinges immediately upon national security.  I cannot accept anyone who is weak or perhaps even "permissive" in this regard.  Clinton and Sanders are immediately eliminated.  Cruz has talked big but voted otherwise, so he is also eliminated.

3.  I will not vote for anyone based on whether they happen to possess a penis or a vagina.  If I did so, I could offer no rebuttal if you suggested that my intelligence was on the order of a Homer Simpson or Bullwinkle the Moose.  Gender has no role whatsoever in this decision.  Clinton gets the back of my hand for believing that women are such idiots that they will vote for her because she's a woman.  I don't care what plumbing she carries around - or does she plan to sign executive orders with pee-pee leaks?

4.  The trade and other international agreements that the US has entered into over the past two decades have been a disaster.  These must, and can, be rolled back to terms that put our nation on a more even footing and that promote our national interests.  There is only ONE candidate who even seems to believe that these agreements can and should be reevaluated, and either canceled or renegotiated, or who I believe might have the ability to do so, and that is Trump. 

5.  The military must be restored to a position of supremacy.  There's a lot of cloth-headed thinking about the cold, hard realities of the world in this regard.  Spend five minutes in a history book if you doubt me.  Clinton and Sanders are out in this respect, Cruz gets a pass.  Trump wins the kewpie doll.

6.  Diplomacy matters.  Trump loses here, as does Clinton - whose period of service as Secretary of State proves unequivocally that she is utterly ineffectual in this regard.  She made good speeches...and traveled a lot.  This is NOT diplomacy.  Cruz and Sanders get a pass as I have no way to judge their diplomatic abilities.

Added up, it's Trump 4 to 5 out of 6 and the rest can only cough up 2 or 3 points each.  It's a bad year, with bad choices, but some of them are distinctly worse than others.

Oh - and by the way, I should say this: 

First, I know that Trump says outrageous things, and that's one reason he loses out in the "diplomacy" category, but I also don't give his gaffes that much weight either.  He's still learning how to play the political game, so I don't quite expect the glib slick snot that we get from the other three "professional politicians."  They all had to learn the Poli-Speak language.

Second, I know that Trump is unabashedly pro-American and that this supposedly "frightens" certain parties around the world - and I'm actually just fine with that.  We've had 8 years of a President who at every opportunity has kicked America to the curb and apologized for the nation that has freed more people around the world than any other and has sacrificed enormous sums of blood and treasure to do so. 

It's time and past time that we had a President who is unafraid to declare unequivocally that the United States is the greatest nation in the history of the world, who means it - and who doesn't want to "change the country" into something else.  We've slid far enough toward becoming a third-world nation, and it's time to claw our way back, or lose it forever.