I'm trying to explain to my conservative friends that this really isn't about politics with an analogy:

Imagine it's 2008 and Colin Powell was the Republican nominee. He's obviously experienced and knowledgeable about all the issues at hand but in the past he's made some mistakes with emails as SoS and let's say that had caused a scandal in light of him running for president. And he even made some bigger mistakes as SoS like supporting the War in Iraq.

So imagine Colin Powell was nominated on the republican side but on the democratic side they had decided to nominate Charlie Sheen for president. Yes, Charlie Sheen formerly of Two and Half Men. And imagine Charlie Sheen never really read anything about any of the issues or formed any meaningful ideas- he just campaigned at wacky rallies and sent out tweets about 9/11 conspiracies and 9/11 being an inside job and talked about how Bush was the worst president ever. And how a vote for Powell is a vote for GWB.

In this scenario I would support Colin Powell just as fervently as I support Hillary. It doesn't make me a conservative; it doesn't mean he's perfect and never had a problem with his emails or that he never made a bad decision with Iraq. It just means I'd rather have a serious person as president over a clown.