Why I Am Voting for Donald Trump
Most Don't Like the Direction the U.S. Has Taken These Past Four Years
I know the many readers of the Independent have a hard time understanding why anyone would vote for Trump. They feel he is the devil incarnate so it makes no sense why any sane person would waste his vote on him. Well, I thought it might be instructive to explain why I am voting for him and why millions of other Americans are also making the same choice.
Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not because I don’t have many problems with him. I do. We all know Trump has many personality traits which are not good. He lies a lot, and he can be vulgar and tasteless far too often. January 6 was a disgrace and no matter what he says now, he did encourage it.
So why I am I voting for him? Because this is a two-person race and the other person is far worse in my view. She is not leveling with the American people as to who she really is. The fact that she is repudiating the many positions she took on major issues in the past is very objectionable. All of a sudden, she is tough on illegal immigration, border security, and crime. She refuses to acknowledge the policies pursued by the administration she was part of has led to the worse inflation in the last 40 years. Her inability to explain herself and primarily converse in word salads and cliches are insulting to voters who want to know how she is going to improve their lives.
The fact of the matter is most people don’t like the direction we have been taken in the last four years and don’t want a leader to continue the policies that have led to much higher prices for just about everything and have made life so hard for them. They are also concerned with chaos in the world today, whether that is the war in Ukraine, the Middle East, and the growing threats of Russia, China, and Iran.
It is probably not coincidental that Russia invaded Crimea and the country of Georgia during the presidency of Obama and ultimately Ukraine while Biden was president. Interestingly, Russia didn’t invade anyone in the four years Trump was president. Since Biden has become president, the Middle East, which was relatively peaceful, is now a cauldron of killing and destruction, with Israel under attack by Hamas, Hezbollah, and the head of the snake, Iran. Appeasing Iran, which was the centerpiece of Obama and Biden’s Middle East policy, has allowed Iran, free of the most punishing sanctions, to spend millions arming the most violent terrorists in the world.
Finally, the argument that Trump’s refusal to acknowledge his defeat in 2020 overrides all other issues and immediately disqualifies him from being president ever again is not persuasive to Trump voters. Regardless of the rhetoric, he left office peacefully on January 20, 2021.
Republican voters also have a hard time understanding why Democrats are so opposed to voter ID requirements. Today, you need an ID to get on an airplane, buy alcohol, open a bank account, rent or buy a house, get married, buy a cell phone, apply for welfare, Social Security or Medicare, and a ton of other stuff. But for some reason it is the end of our democracy to require it for voting.
On the other hand, many Trump voters worry it’s the Democrats that want to weaken our democracy by censoring speech, pursuing questionable prosecutions of political opponents and the elimination of the Senate filibuster, allowing them to pack the Supreme Court, make Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico states to gain permanent control of the Senate and to federalize election laws to favor themselves. Today, we have absolute one-party control of California, something many Americans don’t want to see for the country.
My intent in writing this piece is not to change any minds but to pierce the echo chamber many people are in so they can better understand voters who are making a different choice. No matter who wins on November 5, we have to live with each other after this election, and the less we can empathize with people we disagree with, the less chance for the country to solve any of our pressing problems to ensure America remains the place we all want to live and thrive.