This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

I get it. Donald Trump is a vulgar, devious, swine. However, we live under a two-party system. If a viable alternative candidate were to emerge (Mitt Romney?) with a plausible chance of simply drawing enough votes away from the other candidates so that no one had a majority of the electoral votes so that the House would choose the president, I would vote for that person.

But no other candidate has emerged. Therefore, under the current circumstances, either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump will be president next year. You can choose to support one or the other. At this point, if you vote for a third-party candidate, or you do not vote, you are still making a choice that will allow Clinton to become president. So unless another candidate can prevent Trump and Clinton from getting a majority of the electoral votes, #nevertrump = #hillary2016.

And say what you want about Trump. A second Clinton administration is not likely to be preferable, from a conservative standpoint. The next president will hire 8,045 new people to run the federal government. Perhaps most importantly, the next president will be able to shape the Supreme Court for many years to come. From court appointments to cabinet appointments to department heads to the kinds of special interest groups that will have access to the White House, a Trump administration would be preferable to conservatives to a Clinton administration. To give just one example, it seems likely that Ben Carson will be part of a Trump administration. There is no chance that he would be part of Clinton's team.

According to the most recent poll on the subject, Hillary Clinton would beat Donald Trump in Utah. Again, the Democrat is currently besting the Republican ... in Utah! The more conservatives persist in listing reasons Trump is unacceptable, without making even a stronger case against Hillary Clinton, the more likely it is that Clinton will be elected. We conservatives find ourselves in a terrible situation at this point. The best we can do is oppose Clinton and, barring some electoral-vote-plurality miracle, should Trump be our next president, fight him every time he does not act like a conservative.

Of course, I am not confident that Trump will act like a conservative very often. However, I am confident that Hillary Clinton will act like a liberal.

Steve Densley Jr. is a Utah-based attorney who practices law in five states.