Rocklin, CA…Congressman Tom McClintock shares his feelings on the upcoming elections; Donald Trump wasn’t my first or even second choice for President, but I can certainly tell the difference between a fire and a fireman. And when a fireman is trying to save my house from burning down, the fact he uses lewd and vulgar language in private conversations with other guys doesn’t change the nature of the emergency.

Ironically, Trump’s words spoken many years ago precisely describe Bill Clinton’s behavior over many years, which Hillary Clinton has actively excused, enabled and abetted. How odd that the same Democratic mouthpieces who defended Clinton’s disgraceful deeds are incensed at Trump’s disgraceful words.

We will soon see if this grand diversion succeeds. If it does, it will have obscured several self-evident truths that will decide the future of our families and our nation for decades to come.

Although this election will determine the President for the next four years, it will determine the Supreme Court for the next generation. The average length of service on the Supreme Court is 16 years. If every justice lives to his or her actuarial age, the next President will appoint four Supreme Court justices, starting with the Scalia vacancy.

The Citizens United case protects the First Amendment right of any group of Americans to pool its resources to participate in the public policy debate. The Heller case protects the Second Amendment right of individual Americans to defend themselves with firearms. Clinton and Justice Ginsberg have both made clear that these freedoms will be the first to go once a lock-step leftist majority is installed.

Millions of illegal immigrants have been allowed to enter our country in defiance of our laws, making a mockery of the many legal immigrants who have done everything our country has asked. Is there any doubt by any voter anywhere on the political spectrum that if Donald Trump is elected President, illegal immigration will come to a screeching halt? And is there any doubt that if Hillary Clinton is elected, it will continue?

Does anyone doubt that Hillary Clinton will preside over a massive round of tax increases and that Donald Trump will cut taxes dramatically? Both have said so repeatedly.

Ronald Reagan took office at a time of double-digit unemployment, inflation and interest rates. He rolled back the tax and regulatory burdens that were crushing the economy and produced one of the most prosperous eras in American history. So did John F. Kennedy, whose locker-room conversations we can only imagine. Donald Trump, surrounded by many of Reagan’s economic advisors, is determined to follow Reagan’s prescription for prosperity; Hillary Clinton is pledged to do just the opposite.

And that’s the great question: not whether Trump is a choirboy – he’s never claimed to be. The question is whether our nation can afford to go another four years down the road it has been on. Does anyone doubt that Hillary Clinton will continue the policies that have brought us to this moment? Or that Donald Trump will change them?

Every American has had an up-close and personal experience with the Obama economy and no politician or pundit is going to convince them it is otherwise. They know the condition of the job market and whether their standard of living or quality of life has improved under these policies.

There is no ducking these questions. In parliamentary practice, to abstain from voting is the same as voting with the prevailing side. Ogden Nash put it this way: “They have such delicate palates, they can find no one worthy of their ballots. Then when someone terrible gets elected, they say, ‘There, that’s just what I expected.’”

I can fully understand why the Clinton campaign and the leftist media (but I repeat myself) are making every attempt to divert attention away from these self-evident truths. But I cannot understand why so many hand-wringing Republican leaders can’t bear to stand up in the most important presidential election in our lifetimes.

Centuries ago, Thomas Paine wrote words to rally our nation in its first crisis – words Republican leaders should bear in mind today: “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country. But he who stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”