Stop "nose holding" for Hillary

Come on those of you avid Bernie supporters who will now vote for her, Hillary really isn’t an odoriferous candidate.

File this under Hal’s Diary of Prickly Semantics, aka known as the circular file.

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I am tired of hearing the phase from pundits about how Republican voters and a few strong Bernie supporters may have to “hold their noses” and vote for Hillary Clinton because they can’t abide the prospect of a President Donald Trump. 

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I blame the pundits and the interviewers for interjecting this phrase. Granted, it is in common usage and everybody knows what it means in the vernacular. In fact, I thought of this when either Mark Thompson or our very own Markos Moulitsis used it on “Make It Plain” on Sirius Radio yesterday referring to what Bernie supporters will do when voting for Hillary.

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It was a good show and both Mark and Markos made excellent points as they discussed the need for Bernie supporters to support Hillary (i.e., I agree with everything they said). 

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Back to my prickly semantics. Nose holding is something you literally do when something has a foul aroma. Said with enough disgust about someone, it implies that there is a stench, metaphorical or real, emanating from that person. I understand why Republicans use this phrase about voting for Hillary, but it bothers me when Democrats do. 

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There is a better way to say you are voting for Hillary when you’d rather vote for Bernie. I have to admit I had to clear my mind of the nose holding images to think of them, even though they are in everyone’s vocabulary. Can you think of what they are? 

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How about: begrudgingly, reluctantly, hesitantly, or ambivalently?