(links
in this article point to some of my earlier blogs)
Bill
Barr, Nikki Haley, Chris Sununu and others who consider Trump unfit to be president
have all stated that they will vote for Trump.
Indeed, that is alarming!! Why will
they vote for Trump?
In
his interview with Kaitlan Collins, Barr stated “I think Trump would do less damage than Biden, and I think
all this stuff about a threat to democracy—I think the real threat to democracy
is the progressive movement and the Biden administration.”
Ms. Collins was not seeking to understand why
Barr would vote for Trump. She eschewed
her role as a journalist, which is to uncover information for her audience. Rather, she twisted Barr’s wording to advance
her blind partisan view that Barr was putting party over country.
Collins and others label people hypocrites if
they vote for Trump despite thinking him unfit for office. However, clearly it is NOT hypocritical if
they think the other candidate is worse.
When Haley made her announcement, a Democrat who
I greatly respect wrote to me “Shame
on me for believing she was made of different cloth. I really thought she
had much more integrity.”
Bill
Barr, Nikki Haley and Chris Sununu, as well as a huge number of other “Trump”
voters, hate voting for Trump. We can
disagree with their position that he is the lesser of two evils, but we should
respect their integrity and consider their position. The lack of integrity is displayed by those
who, like Kaitlan Collins, twist their wording.
Those who opt for the easy road of denigrating them, rather than the
more rigorous effort of considering their argument, should challenge themselves
as to whether they are living up to their integrity.
Unfortunately, there is a strong case to be
made for Barr’s statement. Indeed, a strong case can be made that President
Biden is the worst President in U. S. history.
And, yes, quite possibly a bigger threat to democracy than ex-President
Trump. In my opinion, 2024 presents by
far the worst Presidential election choices in USA history.
1)
The
world is on fire worse than any time in my lifetime. This is not an accident; it sadly can be attributed
directly to President Biden (Ukraine, Afghanistan). Neville
Chamberlain is widely disparaged for his 1938 agreement allowing Germany to
annex the Sudetenland in return for a promise to make no further land
demands. President Biden, in contrast,
has made numerous decisions that have exacerbated the situation.
In
President Biden’s fantasy world, he is the second coming of FDR. But FDR strengthened the military tremendously
in the years before we entered WWII. One
of President Biden’s many failures is four straight military budgets increased by
less than the inflation rate. Wake up! China, Russia, Iran et. al. are serious
threats to democracy, including in the USA.
This issue alone could justify concluding that Biden is the worst USA president
in history.
2)
The
inflation during a President’s first term is generally not related to their
policies; it is the result of prior administrations. We needed deficit spending to counter the
impact of COVID. However, in good times,
we must save money so we can operate at a deficit when crises such as COVID or
war occur (10 Lessons from the Pandemic). Instead, President Biden President has gone
on an unprecedented spending spree that will burden future generations with intolerable
and unnecessary debt levels.
3)
Election
reform: President Biden continues to lie about election laws in GA, etc. Meanwhile, Democrats continue to try to
outlaw photo voter ID and to require that ballot harvesting be allowed. In my view,
the Democrats’ (fortunately unpassed) bills to accomplish these goals are a
significant threat to democracy. Do you really
believe that a return to Tammany Hall/Richard Daley/Pendergast politics is good
for democracy? (Voting Laws and Voter Suppression; Election Fraud)
4)
One
reason our national elections have become so contentious is that we have ceded
so much power to the national government, increasing the stakes in elections
for the House, Senate and, especially, President. Of course, that increases the number of
issues, making it extraordinarily difficult to have a democratic resolution of an
issue. Elected Presidents presume they
have a multitude of mandates no matter why they got elected. The Democrats are intent in further undermining
the separation of powers that is critical to our success (Separation of Powers).
5)
Within our Federal government, Presidents are
grabbing increased power, with President Biden and his administration continuing
to take executive power to new limits, spewing rules at an unprecedented pace
without due process. They cancel student
loans, assume control over energy production, try to put industries out of
business, invalidate contracts on a widescale basis, set aside huge acreage by
executive fiat, create internet and labor law, etc. (Whether I support the policies or not, I do
NOT support the Executive Branch unilaterally making such decrees.) Agencies act as prosecutor and judge. Congress abdicates authority, passing laws
such as the Inflation Reduction Act which authorizes the President to pick
winners and losers. What could possibly
go wrong?
6)
Free
Speech has suffered, as the left cows people into acquiescence. This is my biggest fear in terms of loss of
democracy (Risks To Which Trump Exposed Us). “Trust the Science” is being used as a facade
for “accept orthodoxy”. Although I supported
the steps we took to control COVID, it certainly was NOT scientific to suppress
research and alternative theories. The
hypocrisy of many who claim to trust science is exposed when they argue that gender
is “assigned” at birth, ignoring the science of X and Y chromosomes.
7)
I
strongly support what has traditionally been called “liberal education”. Unfortunately, slanted education has undermined
democracy (Blueprint to Fix Our Educational System; The Hamas-Israeli War has Exposed the Rot in the USA Education System). The Progressive movement is illiberal. (For a broader discussion of education, see Education.)
The
case against voting for President Biden is increasing because of the raft of
legislative decisions that he and his agencies are taking in the Executive branch. Furthermore, it is tragically reasonable to
question whether our legal system is being abused politically to harm ex-President
Trump.
Fani
Willis has a large responsibility, in this regard, because she screwed up the most
important case against Trump. Due to her
poor judgement, it has been delayed until after the 2024 election.
Thus,
all we’re seeing is:
·
The
current Stormy Daniels case takes a clear misdemeanor which is beyond the
statute of limitations and tries to package it as a felony, an intentional
effort to hide an illegal campaign contribution. At best, this is a novel stretch in terms of
interpretation.
·
Earlier,
a NY court ordered Trump and associates to pay $450 million to the state of
NY. Much as I consider Trump to be a
terrible scoundrel, this decision was scary.
o
I
had a situation (my details might not be exact, but the principle is correct)
in which a reinsurer promised repeatedly to renew a reinsurance contract, but I
did not receive the signed contract. Each
time I told them I needed to know whether I should seek other reinsurance, they
told me not to worry, the signed contract would come. Eventually, they refused to renew. I had to scramble to get a new reinsurance
contract and had to convince the new reinsurer to make it effective
retroactively! Because I succeeded in getting
a new reinsurance contract, I was told that I had no basis to challenge the
reinsurer. This Trump case seems
similar. He misrepresented his assets in
applying for loans (no surprise; he is disgusting), but the banks incurred no
loss and testified so. Therefore, my
understanding is that there was no case here.
Admittedly, I am not a legal scholar.
I might be wrong, but my point here is that the public has cause to be
concerned.
o
The
$450 million was awarded to the state of NY!
This gives the state of NY an incentive to go on witch hunts to secure
income. Here, again, I may be missing legal
considerations, but it raises concern. (And the Federal Executive branch does this
without a judge or jury!)
After
writing this blog, I noticed that four years ago I wrote a blog called “Why people vote for Trump (2020)”. That blog takes a significantly different
approach because it was written before Biden became president. At that time, I, and many others, believed
Biden’s promise that he would bring us together and bring us back to
normalcy. Re-reading that blog today, I
am very comfortable with it.
The
tragedy of our situation is that I could easily re-write this article to explain
why electing ex-President Trump would be the worst election result ever (past
blogs are relevant here: Why I’m voting for Biden (2020) and Donald Trump’s profile (2016)).
This is a terrible situation. We do NOT make it better by making disparaging
statements about those with whom we disagree.
