Would I Actually Vote For Trump??

Click bait title! Two political posts in a row! What can I say, it’s pretty captivating at the moment. This is a little ramble-y, but feels relevant.

In my last post about Biden’s age I wrote that I couldn’t see myself voting for Trump despite Biden being 100 years old. In the week since, Trump has gotten a lot of momentum after the RNC while Biden has finally stepped down yet democrats still feel like they’re in disarray. It appears Kamala will be the nominee but not all the dust has settled, a lot can happen in the coming weeks and it feels like the Republicans are the ones who have their act together.

So I asked myself “Would I actually vote for Trump?“. Put aside the republican policies which I generally disagree with, just simply, could I vote for Trump. And my answer is… No!

But it feels important to justify WHY at this moment in time, since the democratic party has taken such a big hit this past month, and rightfully so. Reddit would boil it down to “He’s a racist, misogynist, rapist who should be in jail for XYZ“. And that’s all well and good, but the last 8 years have made it clear that you need to be more… thoughtful than that. The people who insist this are part of why Trump has become so powerful as clearly millions of people don’t agree and insulting people like it’s an obvious choice doesn’t bring anyone closer to understanding. So here’s part of a more formal explanation.

I was listening to the Making Sense with Sam Harris and the guest was Anne Applebaum (never heard of her). Anne has been studying why democracies fail, and cites a number of examples from around the world. Below I paraphrased what she said that resonated with me on why I won’t vote for Trump:

“Democracies fall apart through a slow decline, the hollowing out of institutions. Court systems where the judges are so partisan that everyone knows what they’re going to decide. Media that’s not really media anymore because it’s owned by people who are business colleagues with the president and the alternatives are so weak that they don’t really matter.

There won’t be Nazis marching down the street. But what you will have is that the institutions originally designed to be checks and balances will start to decline. And you can see it already happening. The obvious example is Judge Aileen Cannon in Florida who is acting in such a partisan way, she threw out the documents case against Trump, which is the one case that is indisputable, anybody else would’ve gone to jail for it. It’s black and white. And she threw it out for a made up reason, which will probably be reversed by a higher court. So a judge like that, who is clearly not acting in good faith, who is there purely to defend Donald Trump, is a symptom of the decline of our institutions.

So my fear about Trump is that more and more of our institutions will be hollow, empty, and fake. And that’s because he’s not interested in them. He’s not acting in good faith. He’s running for President because he doesn’t want to go to jail and because he wants money and power. ”

She mentions a few other lesser known examples, but this notion, the undermining of institutions and what they’re intended for, feels significant.

Perhaps the biggest example is the 2020 election, which Trump still refuses to accept the result of despite a complete lack of evidence, then in response he orchestrated January 6th. For this upcoming election, there is no scenario where, if he lost, he would accept the result. He will undeniably claim that it was rigged and rally his supporters (January 6th), in an attempt to undermine the electoral process. Don’t get me wrong, democrats have certainly undermined institutions as well, I’m not delusional in thinking only one side does this, but for example, if Trump wins the election, I think the democrats will accept the result.

To me, Trump specifically shows far less regard for what holds the country together and is clearly in it for himself. Maybe that’s what it comes down to, what do you believe about Trump’s intentions. Many people believe he is genuine in his love for the USA and that he actually wants to help people. I completely understand why you would vote for him if that’s how you feel. I just do not believe that, and I think he’s given us countless reasons to doubt his intentions. Or maybe you just want to own the libs, in which case I can’t argue.

It’s disappointing as a democrat that I have to go through this exercise. The party made itself look so incredibly stupid in the last 12 months that I actually had to ask myself “is Trump that bad?. For better or worse, I feel the answer is yes, he is that bad, but I can’t blame someone if they disagree.