A good friend of mine who teaches philosophy in California asked me in an email what I thought of Trump. This was out of the blue. We had never talked politics before and were discussing technical stuff at the time.

I replied to the effect that Plato says somewhere that people who want power should not be given it. Trump doesn’t need or crave the Presidency. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, is power mad to a degree way beyond what is normal in a politician.

Then I did an online search to see if I had the Plato reference right. What I turned up was the following quote from John C. Maxwell’s book Becoming a Person of Influence: How to Positively Impact the Lives of Others:

In most cases, those who want power probably shouldn't have it, those who enjoy it probably do so for the wrong reasons, and those who want most to hold on to it don't understand that it's only temporary.

Did Maxwell get this from Plato? I have no idea and it doesn’t matter. The point is that Maxwell hit the nail on the head. His comment on power describes in a nutshell the fundamental difference between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton and is the best reason why Clinton should not, absolutely not be given the power of the Presidency.

Look at it this way. We’ve had quite enough of the abuse of power under the two terms of Obama’s Presidency. The list of abuses is long and well known.

There is every reason to believe Hillary Clinton will outdo Obama. Books describing what she was like when Bill Clinton was in the White House provide adequate inductive evidence. She was hell to deal with then. Are we supposed to believe that the Presidency will have a moderating influence on Hillary Clinton? What a silly idea.

It’s beginning to look like the Clinton camp has given up on issues as a way of framing the campaign against Trump and will stick to personality. Trump allegedly “is not fit” or “is not suitable” to serve as this country’s chief executive.

Okay, turnabout is fair play. “Power-mad Hillary” seems to me a more effective label than “Crooked Hillary.” Why? Because Americans distrust people who crave power.