American politics has a certain "wicker man" aspect to it. We elect a representative of that which is to be destroyed. We do the same with celebrities, raising them up only to symbolically sacrifice them with scandal.

Note the explosion of vocal atheism and decline of the political power of the evangelical movement during Bush II, the rise of the alt-right during Obama, and now an explosion of social justice and #metoo type stuff during Trump.

Maybe the best strategy is to vote for your least favorite candidate?