I’ll list these in no significant order, with the final section of the list following soon.
1. A commenter on this Althouse post (itself a motivation to vote for the President) wrote, “Althouse: ‘I could never lower myself to vote for someone like that. He’s icky. Eew!’” It made me realize that my long-held argument that voting for the President while maintaining my professional standards and integrity was impossible could be fairly accused of having the same motivation.
The election is for the benefit of the nation, not about how my vote makes me feel.
2. Four years ago, on the November 9, the day after Donald Trump’s shocking upset victory over Hillary Clinton, I wrote,
Give Trump a chance, and take note of those who will not. He is now in the most difficult job in the nation at the age of 70, with less relevant experience and preparation than any previous occupant of the office. For once, it’s a good thing that he’s an egomaniac and a narcissist, because otherwise he might be perseverating in terror right now. One cannot say that he begins with the most daunting set of problems any POTUS has ever faced, but it’s close. Give him a chance. Nobody becomes President wanting to fail, and not wanting to do a good job for his country and his fellow citizens. Begin with that, and let’s see what happens.
I took note. Neither the resistance, nor the Democratic Party, nor the news media, nor most of the members of the public that were inclined to believe, trust and believe these voices, gave President Trump any chance at all. No previous elected President had been treated like that, and for good reason: our system does not and cannot work if the nation does not begin each new Presidential administration with the acceptance of its elected leader. The Democrats knew this, indeed they lectured Donald Trump on the subject when they were certain that Hillary Clinton would win.
The Axis of Unethical Conduct, knowing we had elected a President who would need more than the usual amount of support, burdened him further by according him less, hoping for a war, a depression, or a Presidential breakdown.
If this party strategy succeeds in achieving gaining power, it will become the norm. I have no illusions that the Republican Party is motivated by any stronger ethical ideals than Democrats, so if it becomes the norm, the nation is doomed to perpetual division, hate and conflict.
It is not enough to abstain in an election that will decide whether that will the fate of the United States of America. Responsible citizens must vote to reject it.
3. Applying the John Adams (above) test that he once said he applied to his own choices in determining whether they were ethical or not (I mentioned this just two days ago, on the occasion of Adams’ birthday), I find that my voting decision passes. The choice to vote for this President, made public (even in this relatively obscure corner of the web), can certainly have negative consequences for me socially, financially and professionally.
Well, as my tragic Vietnam vet roommate in college used to say as his post-war mantra and life philosophy—when he wasn’t stoned out of his mind— because he had permanently shrugged off all fear and anxiety in the nihilism that engulfed the rest of his life, which ended shortly after we graduated, “Fuck it, right?”
I hear you, Andy.
4. This reminds me of another factor that pointed me to this decision. The Democrats and progressives, using the diminished integrity and reasoning power of the Trump Deranged in the approximate equivalent of the bad guys in “The Walking Dead” weaponizing an army of the zombies they created by killing others, have tried to bully, intimidate, punish and extort anyone who supports the President, defends him, or, for that matter, advocates any position the Left favors. There is such a threat of violence should Biden lose next week that city police departments (like here in D.C.) are preparing for it, and anxious citizens are stocking up on supplies. No equivalent threat is coming from conservatives or Trump supporters.
Joe Biden, meanwhile, has taken no action and made no statements to stop this or mitigate it—after all, those bullies are likely Biden voters.
Moreover, the threat of violence and actual violence are not just a campaign phenomenon, but a pattern of “the resistance” and its allies, the antifa and Black Lives Matter, since November 9, 2016. I’m not going to wear a MAGA cap because a) I don’t wear any clothing with messages on it, and never have and 2) “Attack me and punch me in the face” wouldn’t be my choice of a message if I did. But I have spent the better part of my life, inspired by my habitually contrarian father, to react to coercion by doing exactly what the tiny totalitarians demanded that I not do. This is an ideal opportunity to reassert that philosophy, as well as honor Major Marshall in doing so.
5. A President who has a successful first term deserves to be re-elected. For the most part, President Trump has had as successful a term as a national leader laboring under the handicaps and hate unjustly imposed on him can have, and remarkably so. Even his critics have been hard-pressed to articulate a good faith and objective argument against his Presidency, which is why they have fallen back on a barrage of ad hominem attacks and Big Lies, the latest of which being that he is responsible for the US deaths during the pandemic, AND the economic consequences of taking measures to minimize those deaths.
Despite the (not entirely unfair) talking point that President Trump is a perpetually lying con artist, his record regarding good faith efforts to achieve the policy goals he promised in his campaign is excellent (One judges the success of a President’s term based on his stated goals and achievements, not the goals of those who oppose him.) He did not start new wars, he ended them. He said he would make effective trade deals, and he has. He said he would aggressively constrain illegal immigration, and he did. The President did open up energy markets, and under his leadership the US has virtually achieved the energy independence from the Middle East that once was considered a key Democratic agenda item because it would, we are told, keep the U.S. out of foreign wars.
Candidate Trump said that he would eliminate regulations harming the nation’s economic growth and job creation, and President Trump did. (I know there are various degrees of intellectually honest arguments holding the these were neither as wise nor as successful initiatives as their adherents claim.) We all know that he appointed conservative judges as he promised, and to a remarkable degree. He opposes abortion, an ethical position despite what abortion advocates say, and has used the Presidency to act on that.
The President opposes the ascendant “one world” philosophy and embraces nationalism and American exceptionalism. Never mind that the Left has become increasingly opposed to the idea of the United States as an autonomous, independent and unique force for good in the world: that doesn’t change the verdict that the President has been true to his word. He derided the climate change hysterics, and pulled out of the Paris Accords, while the U.S. continued to reduce its “carbon footprint” more successfully than many of the remaining signatories.
The President promised to abandon the deceitful and dangerous Iran deal, though not before that sinister nation had used the billions it received to spread terrorism and kill innocent people. He promised to take down Obamacare, and has worked diligently to that end.
My personal favorite among his first term achievements may be his emphatic rejection of the Obama Administration Education Departments “Dear Colleague” letter, which pushed colleges and universities to reject basic due process in favor of the “believe all women” approach to sexual harassment accusations that was a Democratic Party’s credo until it decided that only a proven sexual harasser has a chance of defeating Trump.
He promised to make the economy boom, and it did.
There is more, but the point is that it was a successful first term despite a daunting number of obstacles, not the least of which was Trump’s own self-destructive tendencies. The President diminished perception of his administration’s achievements by childishly boasting about it in wildly exaggerated terms: no, it was not the most successful first term any President ever had—that’s ridiculous. For the most part, the unethical and biased mainstream media refused to give him credit when credit was due, while praise would have been lavished on, just to pick a random President out of the air, Barack Obama for less.
But by the standard of first term success, President Trump deserves a second term more than did Obama, either Bush, Clinton, Carter, Ford, Nixon, Johnson or Kennedy.
Reasons 6-10 are coming right up.
Ethics Alarms 
The Democrats have put the lie to the old thing we were told as children: Anyone can grow up to be president. As far as the Democrats and their elites are concerned, that’s simply not the case. Only professional politicians who have started out as dog catcher or student council president or treasurer need apply. You have to spend your entire adult life grovelling for campaign funds and spouting talking points generated by paid consultants and pollsters if you want to be president. Outsiders are not allowed and can’t be trusted to play the game so everybody gets rich by going to D.C. Anyone who’s made their money in any sort of actual business is simply anathema to all the grifters in government. The Dems have gone after Trump so relentlessly because he winning the biggest prize as an amateur and governing pretty darned well exposes their entire scam. “Just ignore the [big orange] man who’s actually doing some good things!
OB
You have succinctly stated my belief in why Trump is hated by the entrenched bureaucracy in DC and in other political strongholds. I will not lay this entirely at Democrat’s feet . The R’s have their fair share of grifters as well.
It is my belief that is precisely why we need new parties. Republicans and Democrats have gotten too powerful as political entities and its not good for our country. Now I feel we’ve added a cultish/religious fervor to the mix. I actually think Jo Jorgenson, the libertarian candidate, would be the best pick. That would’ve made everyone take a much needed, completely shocked pause and no one would destroy their cities.
There is no more Republican Party. Most of the ‘old guard’ are retiring or becoming Democrats. The new wave are more in line with Trump. I really do think there is more truth than lie in the idea that the neocons and neoliberals are one in the same. They just divided to give us the illusion of ‘choice’. Now the Democrats are divided into a neocon/neoliberal alliance and the leftist fanatics and the Republican Party seems to have a lot of younger, more reasonable people. The next 10 years should be interesting if Trump wins and a horrible autocratic state full of censorship and purges if Biden/Facebook/Google/Twitter win.
I have probably not regarded an election with such trepidation in my lifetime. I have wanted, passionately, for various candidates to win the presidency, or wanted others not to win, but I cannot recall ever thinking that an election could be a life or death matter for our republic. The Democrats have gone a long ways to convincing me that it could be — although, as one commenter mentioned recently, there will be another election in two years. If things get too far out of whack, the American electorate has a habit of yanking the parties back towards the center.
Here in North Carolina, no one saw the Republican tidal wave in 2010 — the Democrats had done their gerrymandering for decades and the Republicans were supposed to stay in their places. Even in 1994 they didn’t manage to take the state legislature. But in 2010 they did — massively. Naturally the Democrats have targeted retaking it almost every election cycle since, and they are especially hopeful this year. My point is that gerrymandering is effective only up to a point where the electorate totally rebels. It has happened many times over the last 233 years (Massachusetts, up until FDR, was a rock solid Republican state since the party was born).
This year — this month — I look at the polls that were accurate last time around. I look at blogs and newspapers I at least half way trust. I see the obvious enthusiasm for Trump, in his rallies, spontaneous demonstrations, signs, etc. I read stories about the upsurge in Republican registrations, the ground game that the Republicans have organized whilst the Democrats have, in many cases, eschewed.
I am hopeful — even somewhat confident — that he’ll win again, possibly even a really major win. But I am also apprehensive. No one really knows what’s going to happen. If there is a shy or hidden Trump vote, which I think is real, could there be a significant anti-Trump vote from his 2016 supporters? Could there really be enough Democratic support to pull off a Biden win?
Could there really be 30% of black voters going for Trump, as Rasmussen found recently? If so, why is Trump not ahead of Biden in their polls? I’ve a friend who is probably an anti-Democrat craziness Trump voter who believes that the reaction to all these lockdowns will oust some of the Democratic governors, specifically here in North Carolina.
So I will be at the polls on Tuesday casting my vote for Trump and the Republicans. I will be hopeful and apprehensive. I can’t stay up all night Tuesday watching the results because I have to be at work Wednesday morning (and just how much work is really going to get done Wednesday, do we think?).
I will also say that we may have a very good indicator from right here in North Carolina. I believe they are feeding the mail-in votes to the machines every few days, just like they do with the early voting ballots. No one can know the results yet, but come Tuesday the tally should be reasonably quick. So if North Carolina goes for Trump early on — as it did in 2016 — it is a good sign for him. In 2012 Romney carried the state but it was very close and they couldn’t call it for many hours. If that happens again — it wouldn’t bode well, in my opinion. We shall see.
Those are very good questions.
The Rasmussen Daily Tracking Poll had Trump’s sdhare of black support in the high twenties the previous four days before that. I do not know if they are systematically oversampling black Republicans.
Even estimates of the partisan breakdown of early votes can only tell so much.
Yep, it is why everyone is going to be on pins and needles until (and after) next Tuesday. Even the most confident Democrat has to have a little voice in his head saying — 2016.
1. Actually, an article just hit that said something to the effect that Biden knows that voters want to feel good about their vote. That is frankly the absolute worst reason to cast a vote. Your duty as a citizen is to cast a vote that you believe will benefit the country, state, etc. Despite what Lena Dunham (is she still in the public eye?) might have said, voting isn’t like partying or sex. Emotions shouldn’t enter into it. It’s no different than a detective being affected by a particularly unpleasant homicide being told the best therapy is to clear the case and refer it to the DA, or myself being told when I swore revenge on an unpleasant adversary that the best revenge was to beat this guy in court, not behind the courthouse. Unfortunately, emotions do enter into it, sometimes unpleasantly so.
2. Of course they didn’t give him even the slightest amount of support because they hated him that much. This wasn’t supposed to happen. However, if Biden wins and the GOP and the smaller conservative section of the media start to break his balls, the Democrats and the media will condemn them for not giving the office of President the respect it deserves and not uniting behind a newly elected president. I’ve said this probably 50 times – if there were no such thing as double standards, the left would have no standards at all.
3. No one ever said doing the more ethical thing doesn’t come at a cost. Sometimes it’s a very high cost. Sometimes it’s easier to tell the unethical side to get lost, like in the Untouchables, when Elliott Ness throws a local politician who tries to buy him off out of his office and tells him to tell Al Capone he’ll see him in Hell. Sometimes it’s not so easy, like when your friends and family might turn on you for no good reason.
4. The Democratic party right now has a handy militia and they are using it. The day will come when the conservative mainstream, not just the idiot white guys who were not big enough for the NFL, too fat for the army, and too stupid for the police, gets tired of cowering from mobs, and it won’t be pleasant.
5. The other side, unfortunately, can turn Trump’s successes against him, saying that the economy has only done better for the super-rich, the conservative judges are going to gut healthcare and make abortions harder to get, and his environmental policies are going to turn this country into a polluted nightmare.
I look forward to reasons 6 to 10, but you could go all the way to 100 and it wouldn’t be enough for the left. I have to say I still think there’s a better than even chance that the president is going to come up short.
It will, however, be necessary.
That is your strongest point.
Sometimes a flawed man can make a good president. He kept his word with the American people who voted for him and inspite of COVID, he kept the economy growing and implemented policiies that opened up opportunities for Black and Hispanic that his predecessor never did. I hope that despite big techs and the mainstream medias war against him that he prevails and wins the election.
“Trump’s own self-destructive tendencies”
These are more than balanced by the self-preservation capabilities which kept him away from the Mueller perjury trap, the Mueller obstruction trap, and the Ukraine impeachment trap. I still stand amazed that 4+ years of zealous investigation has turned up nothing against him of substance. Maybe those self-destructive tendencies are not, in fact, very self-destructive.