This is an extremely long post. No apologies offered for my detailed writing below.
I have never in my life voted for a Democrat for President of the United States.
Except once. In 1976. I was 10 years old. It was a mock election in grade school. I chose Jimmy Carter because he seemed like a nice man. He is. What other 90-something year old former president keeps busy by helping build houses for the poor?
From the first time I voted in 1984 through the last election in 2016 I always voted for a Republican. Reagan, Bush, Bush, Dole, Bush, Bush, McCain, Romney, McMullin*
(*- ran as Independent)
That last one isn't Trump. There were reasons for that four years ago. Too many to mention other than I felt he was unworthy of the office, and his Democratic opponent was equally unworthy. I voted for the person who best represented me and my values even knowing he would not win. That's what you're supposed to do in an election for any office.
There's a lot for me to dislike about Joe Biden. On the surface he seems moderate enough even though eight years as Vice President under Barack Obama would suggest otherwise. His choice of Kamala Harris as his running mate I felt was a mistake as she is too far to the left politically for my comfort level.
(For you assholes who think I dislike her because she is a woman and a person of color, stop reading this now and wallow in your ignorance elsewhere.)
While I don't totally buy into the recent "gotcha" story that allegedly involves corruption with his son Hunter, his past plagiarism when it comes to speeches he's given does give me cause to wonder about how original his thinking will be.
Stands the Democratic Party have taken over issues like defunding police make my stomach turn. In general I might understand the left but agree with very little of their overall agenda, and Biden is the flag bearer for them, even though he has claimed the platform is his and not the DNC's. I think at the end of the day they're his handlers more than he is their champion.
Even thinking about voting for Joe Biden now makes me queasy, and yet after all of this for me to choose to vote for him means something is very, very wrong with this country in general and the current President of the United States in particular.
Donald Trump's narcissism is far and away my biggest problem because every single problem he has that is an issue for me stems from this.
Every. Single. One.
His narcissism is such, that he continuously gets in his own way. Decisions he makes, things he says, all stemming from how he feels or how he's made to feel based on questions asked or criticism given.
Never before has a President of the United States worked so hard to control the narrative. I don't recall any president before him, Republican or Democrat, go out of his way to attack journalists who dare to present news which, even when 100% factual but puts him in a negative light, is labeled as "fake news". Trump's almost robot like in the way he responds to critique resorting to name calling and Tweet Rage.
Speaking of Twitter, he spends way too much time on it. Even though I appreciate he uses the platform to bypass the media, clearly he has better things to do than spend hours on end playing on social media especially when it comes to being petty with critics and opponents and spreading misinformation about things like Covid-19.
I disagree that Trump single-handedly destroyed the economy. That's a lie the Biden camp is happy to sell to anyone willing to buy into. Governors in most of the 50 states acted to stem the spread of the virus and those lockdowns were the largest contributing factor to the slowdown. That being said, Trump's handling of the pandemic did contribute to the economic downturn and if he had listened to the medical experts early on, if he had attempted to cooperate with states who needed federal assistance - especially states headed by Democratic governors who he deliberately shunned, and had he simply been honest about what he was told about Covid-19 at the onset, I believe that our economic situation would be nowhere near as bad, and that we could be seeing real recovery by mid-2021. One can only speculate as to how many lives may been saved, but I believe had Trump been humble and led by example when it came to masking up in public many people would have stayed safe.
Trump's conspiracy claims aren't as far fetched as they may seem. A significant number of Democrats had been targeting him since the night he won the election and never relented. Their hatred of Trump only played into his hands allowing him to cast doubt over allegations of Russian collusion, and targeting the Bidens in Ukraine. He was only emboldened by this, and when Russian collusion could not be proven beyond reasonable doubt, and the rushed impeachment trial failed over the Ukraine issue. "See I told you so!" coming from Trump under these circumstances were enough to bring his base of supporters even closer and to feed his narcissism even more.
Russia, Russia, Russia. I don't believe for a moment Trump colluded with Vladimir Putin, despite the irrefutable evidence that Russian intelligence very much interfered in the 2016 election and that interference benefited Trump, from the DNC email hack exposing the screw job committee heads put on Bernie Sanders to ensure a Hillary Clinton nomination, to the memes and "news articles" that spread vile stories and misinformation and promoted division amongst Americans. Putin is far too smart to have worked directly with Trump or anyone in his campaign because if they had colluded and been caught, which would have been likely, even the most hardcore Trump supporters could not tolerate a US President appearing to bend the knee to the Russians and Putin knows that better than just about anyone. When the time came to confront Putin over his and his government's misdeeds in the 2016 election especially when the FBI had the goods on Putin to hold over his head, Trump simply had a chat with Putin, asked if he's responsible, was told no, then announced to the world he believed Putin. Remember Trump had long since fired James Comey from the head of the FBI and replaced him so there was no reason for Trump to believe they were conspiring against him. The fact Trump took the word of an adversary over an organization devoted to protecting the United States speaks volumes.
You can see that for yourself.
Treating our allies poorly doesn't help either. His outrageous actions at the G-7 summit, his threats to pull the US out of NATO, his Border Wall rhetoric, his forcing negotiations with Canada and Mexico to replace NAFTA have contributed to making this country look bad in the eyes of our closest friends. Weakened alliances only encourage countries such as Russia, China, and Iran to chip away at those long-standing ties.
Most recently, and most disturbing of all, is Trump setting the stage to reject the results of the election and even suggesting that people go to the polls to observe others, hence voter intimidation. Also, despite my own concerns about the overwhelming number of people who will be voting my mail - several times higher than usual - Trump continues to cast doubt about the legitimacy of the election. No president or presidential has ever done that before. Even Al Gore, who held onto hopes of winning in 2000 during the Florida vote debacle, ever questioned it after the issue was settled. Clearly when a leader appears to want to tear down the one element of a democracy that makes this country a democracy, the ability to freely elect someone, that simply cannot be tolerated.
I thought about voting for an independent candidate or a third-party nominee. If this were like 2016 that might be the way to go. The circumstances are so different now. The stakes are far too high to leave things to chance. Clearly this is an either/or vote, and any vote not for Biden works to favor Trump.
I don't like Joe Biden but I got to know him for 8 years as the Vice President.
I don't like Donald Trump and I got to know him for the last 4 years as President.
This election isn't even about choice anymore for me. It's about necessity. It's about protecting our country.
Donald Trump has proven himself to me to be unworthy, unable, and unfit to continue as our President. He did not live up to his oath of office. He threatens the fabric of our democracy,
Whatever I may dislike about Joe Biden, I believe that he will at least attempt to clean up the mess that Trump will leave behind, attempt to heal the divide where he can, and at least smooth things over with our allies while sending a message to our adversaries that the great experiment of 2016 is over.
That's why I will be voting for Joe Biden. I don't want to. There's just no viable alternative.
