I am writing this out of love for America, and for all who share it — of whatever party.
Voters say their top concern is the economy. Many think it’s bad, and trust Trump more on it. But The Economist’s October 19 analysis of our economy shows its actually going gangbusters, racing ahead of Europe, Japan, and now even China. Our prosperity growth is faster, and has recovered better from problems like the financial crisis and Covid. An inflation spurt, now pretty much over, doesn’t negate this picture.
Under Trump America actually lost millions of jobs. All serious economists agree his economic policies (if you can call them that) would be ruinous. His promised tariffs, a huge tax on U.S. consumers, will cost each thousands annually with turbocharged inflation. A global trade war would wreck the entire world’s economy. He seems to understand none of this. His extreme tax cuts for the rich would send deficits sky high. And his pledge to deport millions would not only be a cruel humanitarian nightmare, but also economically catastrophic as their consumer spending and tax payments are lost, and businesses scramble to somehow fill all the now vacant jobs.
Another big voter concern is the border. We actually had more unauthorized entries under Trump — despite his inhumane family destruction policy — than Biden. Who negotiated a very strong bipartisan border control plan, which Trump made Republicans kill, so he could continue demagoguing the issue. Whipping up ugly hatred toward migrants.
America is deeply divided, we’re at each other’s throats. Most people say they hate this, it’s poisoning our politics and governance. Yet it can only get worse under Trump, the most divisive force imaginable, who instigates partisan, xenophobic, and ethnic hatreds for his own political gain. He’s almost wholly responsible for the threat of violence darkening our civic landscape. And he’s also toxic for our racial divide, which he’s exploited and aggravated.
The idea of him being “strong” globally is laughable. He’s proven a patsy for the world’s Putins. Actually idolizing that murderer, he’d hand Ukraine to him, a reward for aggression making the whole world more dangerous by encouraging all its bad guys. Our allies are horrified by the prospect of Trump’s return. Indeed, he would move America from leading the free world to aligning us with the dark side.
Strong U.S. leadership is also vital for heading off severe global climate effects. On that Trump would doom us.
His entire political project is a tower of lies. Not just pet eating Haitians. The biggest lie being his continuing false insistence that his 2020 election loss was a fraud — so corrosive to our civic culture. This incited the January 6 attempt to overthrow that election, attacking democracy itself. He even plotted fake electors. Now he denies there was any violence, calling January 6 a patriotic “day of love” and promising to pardon the convicted perpetrators.
Speaking of crime, it’s not increasing. Another big lie. Crime did rise during Trump’s term, but has since been falling sharply. And immigrants do way less crime than the native-born.
Trump himself has been convicted of crimes as well as being adjudicated liable for fraud and sexual assault. Rule of law has been a pillar of American society. Trump’s false claims of politically “weaponized” justice undermine that. (Exacerbated by what has actually been his ability to evade accountability for his transgressions.) He tells us his next administration will be a vendettafest unconstrained by legal niceties — he’ll be the weaponizer. All the more frightening after the Supreme Court’s ruled him immune for almost anything.
So democracy truly is at stake. We’d repudiate it simply by electing a man who tried to overthrow it. That time, our systems of law and checks and balances held — by the skin of our teeth. Can they withstand the more powerful assault Trump now promises?
He’s a failing, mentally sick, depraved moral reprobate whom legions of top people from his own previous administration have warned should never be given power again. He cannot be trusted on anything (except serving his own deranged ego). His would be a chaos presidency — like before.*
Yet many voters will choose based on huge lies, and what are really petty reasons. Focusing on the mice, blind to the elephant in the room. In fact, a recent study showed little kids only pictures of competing election candidates, and they picked the winners with remarkable accuracy. Indicating that physical appearances alone are big subliminal factors in voting. To many, Trump may simply look more like their idea of a leader. Looks are deceiving. The report’s point was that we too often hand power to the wrong people.
I’ve been a conservative Republican. Trumpism is a sick perversion of that. Crass and no class.
America has been the greatest nation ever. Electing Trump would throw away the high noble ideals and aspirations that shaped and guided it from its founding — our cultural collapse into an asshole nation.
Let’s keep America great.
* I’ve itemized it here: https://rationaloptimist.wordpress.com/2020/10/25/lest-we-forget-the-full-trump-record/