Ok my lines in the sand will be (I will not support any leader - even if that means spoiling my vote)
- Intentionally, knowingly, criminally manipulation of the of the facts in order to create division, anger and hatred.
- A reliance on Fear as a means to motivate.
- Hypocrisy i.e. promoting Values while intentionally not trying to live up to them.
First all, kudos on trying to have a line in the sand. I'd suggest you rethink it though. We live in a two party system, if you fit within the great mass on the political spectrum one of the two candidates will almost certainly better align with your goals than the other. Unless you're to the point where you reject the legitimacy of the system itself and no longer wish to record your support of it by voting at all.
But in particular, the 3 items listed above eliminate virtually every candidate possible. Though the first is far more common in a non-criminal contest, it's not clear if you meant that reference to by hyperbolic or literal.
- Racism
Agreed, virtually no one would vote for David Duke.
I do draw a big distinction between racism, and
accusations of racism.
- Murder
- Treason
Hard to imagine a politician recovering from these, though it's pretty easy to show that they can recover from accusations if they can throw enough doubt on the matter.
- Intentional cheating, stealing - level of criminal action
We've had more than one Congressman caught doing this and remaining in office or even being reelected.
- Allowing lobbyist to overly control them - To such a point its obviously they are puppets
Tough to be sure on something like that. Seems more an accusation you can throw at the other side's politicians (ie, "He's controlled by the NRA") than say (I won't vote for him cause he's a pawn of the teacher's union).
Putin, Trump, Hillary would not get my vote
Putin wouldn't get my vote. I have a real problem supporting autocrats in any context.
Hilary is autocratic, but could certainly be the lesser of two evils in some circumstances.
Trump, was definitely a tough one to vote for, the last election had two horrible candidates. That said, he's actually been better than I expected. I even think, objectively, he's been better from the left point of view than another traditional Republican would have been (though there's zero chance anyone on the left is going to acknowledge it).