Why I'm not voting for Trump
I have voted Republican for President since I was 19: Bush (2000), Bush (2004), McCain (2008), Romney (2012), and Rand Paul (2016 - Write-in vote).
Much have been made of Trump's moral failings, and I want to take this a different direction.
Why I don't plan on voting for Trump in 2020
Trump is someone I have never supported as a politician. Later in this post, there is a section that describes why I did not support him in 2016. I feel he is a dangerous person to have as President.
1. Used power of Presidency to prevent funds from going to Ukraine, in return for an investigation of Hunter Biden.
Was impeached for this. Mitt Romney heroically was the only Republican Senator to vote to convict the President of the crime, and he eloquently described his reasons for it (https://youtu.be/aS8dF1GkYSo). That is why if I were to write-in a vote in 2020, I would write Mitt Romney.Just because Congress votes along party lines on something major like impeachment, doesn't mean that I have to do the same. Based on what I know about the Ukraine investigation, I would have voted the same way as Mitt Romney. It's unfortunate that our Republican nominee this year has been impeached. Think about that - do you really want someone who was impeached to be your nominee? The conservative media says this was not a reasonable impeachment, and that Democrats were playing political games. But I think the conservative media is unreasonable, and are almost always taking the side of Trump.
So I am not voting for Trump. I don't want to elect someone who has abused power, and been impeached for it.
2. National debt
Even before COVID, the national debt rapidly increased under Trump. "President Trump promised to eliminate the national debt in eight years. Instead, he plans to add $8.3 trillion." https://www.thebalance.com/trump-plans-to-reduce-national-debt-4114401
3. Using emergency declaration to build a border wall.
When an executive is frustrated by the usual balance of power, and instead uses loopholes to gain funds, that is not democracy. These funds were also meant to appease the voting base, who were disappointed that Trump was not fulfilling his campaign promise of building a wall. So that makes it worse, since an emergency declaration was used for political purposes. I am against illegal immigration, but I do not want to see our democracy erode. I am a Republican because I support limited government. Unfortunately, Trump and this current batch of Republicans are more concerned about retaining power than about preserving our government.
4. Commuting sentence of Roger Stone
Commuting the sentence of your friend, that is an abuse of power. His friends should have to go through the slow appeals system just like everyone else. I was reading about this more, and the idea that Trump would do this actually allowed Stone to evade telling the truth, during hearings concerning Trump in the first place.
https://www.lawfareblog.com/roger-stone-commutation-even-more-corrupt-it-seems
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, on Saturday criticized President Donald Trump’s decision to commute the prison sentence of Roger Stone, calling it “unprecedented, historic corruption.”
5. Many Republicans not endorsing him.
John Bolton is an experienced, Republican public servant who is criticizing the job that Trump did.James Mattis served as the US secretary of defense, and resigned, because Trump failed to take his advise regarding Syria, and has publicly criticized him.
Previous Presidential nominees John McCain, Mitt Romney, and George W. Bush are not supporting him. Several hundred people who used to work for George W. Bush's administration are endorsing Biden. https://43alumniforjoebiden.com/43-alumni-endorsing-joe-biden/
There is a list of Republicans who do not support Trump: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Republicans_who_oppose_the_2020_Donald_Trump_presidential_campaign
6. Public demeanor/character
Calling protesters in Minneapolis "thugs," a racial epithet that poured gasoline on the flames, rather than attempting to bring healing.He called Baltimore "a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess." https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/27/trump-calls-baltimore-a-disgusting-rat-and-rodent-infested-mess-in-attack-on-rep-elijah-cummings.html
He had affairs with pornographic actresses, and allegedly approved illegal payments of "hush money", then didn't back up his lawyer who was on the hook for the crimes.
7. Anti-environment
When Trump made the US leave the Paris Agreement in 2009, that may have made some financial sense, but it sent the message that Trump did not care about the environment. And he did not want to discuss the environment with the world. On the other hand, his opponent cares about the environment.Article about Trump's track record on the environment: https://www.brookings.edu/policy2020/votervital/what-is-the-trump-administrations-track-record-on-the-environment/
8. Taxes
This is a brand new one. I read the New York Times article about Trump's taxes. A lot of it was tedious, but it's really tough to come away with a positive impression of Trump. At worst, he's a failure as a business person and a crooked tax evader, and a fraud. At best, you could say he took business risks that didn't pan out, and was good at finding loopholes. But overall, it just seems really unethical that this supposed rich person paid zero taxes "for 10 of 15 years before the 2016 election." The average American such as myself paid more personal income taxes than a supposed rich person who holds the highest office in the land.
Why I would vote for Trump
1. Pro-police
Trump has been making statements that are positive about the police, and saying "there are a few bad apples," referring to police who may be racist. I agree with him that police need more funds and training. Defunding the police is not what we want. Note, Biden doesn't support defunding the police either. There are things Democratic supporters are doing that are actually harming Biden's election chances.
2. Conservative Judges
By electing a Republican, the hope is that conservative judges will be placed, so that they will be more sympathetic to the conservative side on battles such as abortion and gay marriage. I'm more for state rights. Roe v Wade was an egregious example of legislating from the bench. So by conservative judges, I actually refer more to the John Roberts style of judge, who is an unpredictable swing vote, and apparently tries to get to a ruling based on the Constitution and precedent, rather than personal biases.Anyway, all that is to say, I feel that Democratic Presidents tend to seat judges who are activists, rather than judges who enter the cases with an open mind, and judging the constitutionality of things.
Why I would vote for Biden in 2020
I think government needs to take environmental issues seriously, and this is really important to Biden
3. GunsHorrible people with powerful guns have committed shocking massacres, and I wonder if my community is next. I just want politicians to discuss how to make our communities safer. Unfortunately, Republicans seem to be opposed to even discussing any gun laws.
Why I wouldn't vote for Biden in 2020
As stated at the beginning, I've always voted Republican in the Presidential election, and voting for a Democrat just doesn't feel right. I'm still deciding whether to vote for Biden or to write in Mitt Romney.
Not reasons why I would not vote for Trump
These are reasons that I've heard of why people cannot vote for Trump, and I just do not share those views.
1. Trump welcomed Russian interference into the election of 2016.
Robert Mueller and team investigated this for two years, and left almost no stone unturned, and found no evidence that Trump colluded with Russia. Yet Democrats continued to claim that Trump was guilty of this.
2. Trump kept children of immigrants in cages
This was debunked in an AP News fact check.3. 200,000 people are dead because of Trump's coronavirus response.
I think it's unfair to blame 100% deaths from a pandemic on any one person. Imagine if Trump had the perfect response to the virus. Some people would have died. It's impossible to know the number. It's also easy to criticize someone looking back in time. And none of us really knew the best path to take when this started. Again, I'm not saying he did a good job, but I just think the criticism goes to the extremes.
4. Any fake controversies such as "Trump thinks Americans Who Died in War Are ‘Losers’"
This is an article quoting anonymous sources about something Trump said, and to me, it's very questionable about whether the article is accurate. It feels like the media has been trying to "take down" Trump for four years, and it gets tiring to hear about the latest controversies, many of which are unfairly magnified.
Why I didn't vote for Trump in 2016
I also didn't view Trump as being legitimately Republican or conservative, or even a serious candidate. My view and that of many around me, was that he didn't expect to do so well, and it was a publicity stunt.
My first exposure to Trump being in politics, was when he pulled a stunt concerning Obama's birth certificate. This is when Trump "pledged $5 million to a charity of President Obama's choice, provided the President [made] public his college applications and transcripts and releases his passport history". https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/donald-trump-fails-drop-bombshell-offers-cash-obama/story?id=17553670
Another somewhat political action I had known Trump for, was how he took a full page ad in the New York Times denouncing the Central Park Five, who later were found to be innocent.
Then his demeanor was also an issue, and he liked to tear people down. I thought that this was someone who would disgrace the office of the President. His moral issues were a big deal, such as blatant lying, and treatment of women.
Also, although I am for enforcement of our laws, I have never been in favor of a border wall. I don't think it would be effective, and it's too partisan. (Would we build a wall, and then a Democratic administration would tear it down?).
So overall, Trump was someone I didn't take very seriously. And I had developed a view that I should only vote for people that I can mostly support. So I decided to always vote for whoever I liked the best, even if they had no chance to win. This was problematic in 2016, because I didn't like Hillary either.
Why I didn't vote for Hillary in 2016
One reason Clinton was a bad candidate for the Democrats is that she is married to Bill Clinton, who has already been in the White House, and who Republican voters don't like. I did consider Hillary, by watching her speeches, and she was not inspiring to me, and I did not agree with many of her views and statements.
Photo included so that FaceBook can have a preview picture:
Comments
Post a Comment