Saturday, May 25, 2024

Why Will People Vote for Trump Even Though They Consider Him Unfit?

(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. 

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