My Vote in 2024

My guess is that most of you have voted, and this isn't intended to change your mind even if you haven't. Instead, I just feel a need to share my reasons for voting the way I will. I guess it's sort of a catharsis since I have been quieter in the runup to this election than I've probably been since I've been old enough to know what an election is.

I'll start by saying there are three traits I consider essential in anyone who is going to earn my vote. These are decency, integrity and intellect. Decency is demonstrated in the respect one shows for others. Integrity is doing what's right even when it is not in one's own best interest. And intellect is the demonstration of curiosity and critical thinking that makes possible the strategic decision-making required of any effective leader.

Everything I have witnessed tells me that Donald Trump is woefully deficient on all three counts.

Decency

I could rehash all the former president’s insults, name-calling, threats and even the self-proclaimed pride he takes in the way his celebrity allows him to commit acts of criminal sexual assault. I could do that, but to what end? Somehow, good people have chosen to turn a blind eye. I can’t - my personal values won't allow it. Instead, I would ask those who support him to convince me I am wrong. Prove to me that he is a good and decent man. By that I mean not by dismissing the awfulness of his behavior as inconsequential, but by demonstrating in the affirmative how his behavior is evidence of his decency. More importantly, please convince me that he appeals to the best in us, that he makes us better as individuals, as citizens, as neighbors and as a society. Please help me understand. I desperately need to know. 

Integrity

It is said that reputation is what others see, character is who we really are. It is well-known that Donald Trump has endured multiple bankruptcies. It is well-known that investors in Donald Trump’s casino stocks watched their investments go up in smoke. It is also well-known that he has been sued multiple times for non-payment of bills, often sending his vendors into bankruptcy as well. But what is not so well known is that while the pain of his mismanagement was being felt by lenders, vendors and shareholders, Donald Trump was using those lenders and investors’ funds to pay himself millions and pay off tens of millions in personal debt. If integrity is doing what is right even when it is not in one’s own best interest, then this would be its antithesis. 

These represent just a small part of the questionable, and as the courts have determined, often illegal dealings of a man some would like to see return to the presidency. I am not one of them, and here are some more reasons why. 

He’s been convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, forced to pay $25 million to settle a lawsuit over defrauding financially-strapped students of Trump University, found to be an adjudicated rapist by the judge in the E. Jean Carroll sexual assault case and ordered to pay more than $450 million in fines for bank and tax fraud. Meanwhile, he is facing charges for intentionally refusing to return top-secret documents which he improperly stored and shared at his properties in Florida and New Jersey. Worst of all, he is under investigation for his actions on January 6 (a date, which like 9/11, needs no year to denote its infamy), where at best he turned a blind eye as his supporters sought to stop the legal process of certifying a presidential election, people he now seeks to lionize (I strongly recommend you watch this video beginning around the 26:20 mark through the moment Ashli Babbit gets shot at 28:35 and determine for yourself if she deserves Donald Trump’s praise as a “Great Patriot”).

Please note that everything in the preceding paragraph transpired after Donald Trump took office as president. His legal troubles stretch back decades before, beginning with the federal case over racial discrimination against he and his father in 1973. The apple does not fall far from the tree and his is a long history of disreputable behavior. Also note that none of the above is opinion. It is all documented fact.

I could go on, but at this point he has disqualified himself from my consideration. I would love for people to convince me otherwise, as long as they are committed to facts in refuting the points above.

Intellect

A cousin of mine who’s deeply involved in education once told me how brains develop in early childhood. We all begin with billions of disconnected neurons that begin to make connections as they are needed. This goes on for the first 4-6 years of life, at which point the brain starts pruning those that aren’t being used because it’s too inefficient to maintain those unused neurons. Mary Trump, Donald Trump’s niece and a PhD psychologist, has argued this same process may have been short-circuited in her uncle thanks to his mother’s cold indifference, literally leaving him with an under-developed brain. One may dismiss this as family disharmony. However, Dr. Justin Frank, the author of psychological studies of both George W. Bush and Barack Obama, also noted in his book Trump on the Couch, intellectual deficiencies and psychological needs in Donald Trump that are often the result of maternal neglect in infancy and which often manifest themselves in ways that “involve lying, exaggerating, and feigning certainty about things they do not comprehend” (Page 146). He goes on to describe how children and adults suffering from this subtype of dyslexia are often seen as having thin skin, confusing questions for criticism or attack because they either do not understand the question or lack the depth of knowledge to respond effectively. There are countless examples of this behavior, as seen in exchanges with NBC’s Peter Alexander or at a recent NABJ conference. 

Further evidence of his limited intellectual capacity are the insults referenced above. Unable to formulate a coherent, factual response to those who criticize him, he must resort to insults and name-calling. His behavior matches his vocabulary, which has been shown to be that of a 4th grader. Interestingly, the late Charles Krauthammer, not only a reliably conservative commentator, but also a Harvard-trained clinical psychiatrist, was not so generous in describing Donald Trump's psyche. In a 2016 piece he wrote, “I used to think Trump was an 11-year-old, an undeveloped schoolyard bully. I was off by about 10 years. His needs are more primitive, an infantile hunger for approval and praise, a craving that can never be satisfied. He lives in a cocoon of solipsism where the world outside himself has value — indeed exists — only insofar as it sustains and inflates him.”

Krauthammer’s comment about a craving that can never be satisfied is insightful. In a 1989 Time cover story, a close colleague of Donald Trump’s describes him as a “black hole” which can’t be filled, no matter how hard he tries. He goes on to predict that Trump would pursue ever larger deals to try to fill the void, but to no avail. Viewed through the lens of the three PhDs above, this person’s take becomes unvarnished evidence backing the juvenile nature of the future president’s psyche. And one can't help but wonder if his pursuit of the presidency isn't just that last, desperate grasp for fulfilment predicted by his colleague, or see his angry stream-of-consciousness rally rants as public therapy sessions. Trump on the couch.

Of consequence, the neediness in Donald Trump’s mindset - the need for approval, the need to have the biggest crowds, the need to be seen as the smartest - can be exploited by others. For proof, look no further than his debate with Kamala Harris, who only needed to question his crowd sizes to get him to go off on a nonsensical rant that ended with him talking about unverified stories of immigrants eating cats and dogs. And in a world where every accusation is a confession, where he fears he's been outsmarted, Donald Trump needs to call Harris a “stupid woman” because he needs to convince people not that she is stupid, but that he is not - and because he lacks the intellectual capacity to make his case in any other way.

This craving for validation has real world implications. Why do you think he brags about the great relationships he has with Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong Un? Is it because he is working to develop relationships that are in our nation's best interest, or is it because they, like Kamala Harris, recognize how easily he can manipulated, whether by flattery or ridicule? If my country needs to stand up to those three tyrants, and others like them, I far prefer someone who knows how to play the game - someone like Kamala - than one who is so easily manipulated.

Clinical explanations such as these necessarily give weight to the claims by his former aides and cabinet members like Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Chief Economic Advisor Gary Cohn and others that he’s a moron, idiot or worse. But we don’t need to take others’ word for it. We can see it for ourselves in comments where he has asked why we can’t nuke hurricanes or hit Covid with a really strong flu shot. A seemingly humorous example, but one that could have serious consequences involved his Sharpie mark-up of an NOAA hurricane cone of uncertainty when he was trying to prove that Hurricane Dorian was headed towards Alabama. Instead of simply saying he misspoke and moving on, he felt the need to prove himself. Many of us laughed while others defended him, but it raises the serious question of how he would react in a far more serious situation where he’d made a mistake. Such stubbornness born of intellectual deficiencies and insecurities, combined with a lack of curiosity and strategic thinking in an increasingly unstable world could have devastating consequences.

I hesitate to say this because it will come across as, dare I say, a little Trumpish, but a line from Animal House comes to mind - nasty, amoral and stupid is no way to go through life. Nor are they traits I want in a president. But these are the traits that Donald Trump has exhibited again and again. And I have yet to come across anyone who can make an effective argument to the contrary. Yes, there are deflections, denials and the blind loyalty of a rather embarrassing cadre of sycophants, but I continue to wait for a coherent argument proving that what has been said above is unfounded.

Changing Principles?

I’ve had people suggest my values have changed. They haven’t. I became a Republican the way most people choose a party - because that’s how my parents voted. But I quickly developed my own set of values that I found better supported at the time by the GOP, including respect for the individual, personal liberty, commitment to fiscal responsibility and the championing of democracy and human rights around the world through a combination of military strength and moral leadership. However, even early on, I recognized that there were two ideologies coursing through GOP veins. One, an optimistic one embodied by Ronald Reagan and Jack Kemp, reflected the principles just noted. The other, led at the time by Pat Buchanan, pushed a dark, us versus them narrative that saw the world as a zero sum game. I noted my opposition to such a world view in a handwritten 1992 journal entry and I hold that view to this day. Sadly, the GOP has been taken over by the Pat Buchanan wing, led by Donald Trump. They no longer represent my values, so I can no longer support them. As Ronald Reagan once said of the Democrats, he didn’t leave the party, the party left him. Or, as Winston Churchill observed, some abandon their party for the sake of their principles, others abandon their principles for the sake of their party. To me, principles matter more.

That’s because I have never held policy as sacrosanct. I see policy as a means to an end, as a means to living up to my principles. And just as I see my HVAC unit as a means to comfort - sometimes I need some heat, sometimes I need some A/C - so I see policy as a necessarily flexible means to a better, stronger, more just society that empowers individuals to be all they can be, respects personal liberty, chooses long term fiscal responsibility over short term interests and promotes the right of self determination around the world. It’s not the means, but the ends I care about. Unfortunately, Donald Trump’s GOP has abandoned all the above. 

Now, I understand that there is one issue, abortion, that for some matters more than anything else. I understand the concern, but I am not and never will be a single issue voter. And even on the matter of abortion, I would rather folks seek to change hearts than use the courts to reinterpret the Constitution, because doing so has required the appointment of justices who have a narrowly defined view of all rights inherent in that document. We should not lose sight of the fact that Plessy v. Ferguson, which enshrined separate but equal as a constitutional principle, and Brown v. The Board of Education, which found separate but equal unconstitutional, were both based upon interpretations of the 14th Amendment’s equal protections clause. The wording of the document didn’t change. All that changed were the people interpreting it. That is what is at stake. Justices who see fewer individual protections put all our liberties at risk and those are the justices today’s GOP seeks to place at all levels of our federal judiciary. I cannot and will not vote for that.

Which leads to what I see as Donald Trump’s greatest shortcoming - that he understands America no better than the Grinch understood Christmas. It’s all about the material goods with no understanding that America, as the Grinch learned about Christmas, is about a little bit more. Here are two examples.

The first involves a visit I made to the American cemetery in Normandy honoring those who died on D-Day. There is a plaque at the entrance that reads:

"If ever proof were needed that we fought for a cause and not for conquest it could be found in these cemeteries. Here was our only conquest, all we asked... was enough soil in which to bury our gallant dead." - General Mark W. Clark, inscribed at Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France 

I took a picture and have shared that inscription numerous times since, rarely failing to choke up while doing so. It represents what makes me proud to be an American.

Contrast that to Donald Trump’s comment in this video regarding the war in Iraq, where he casually argues that we should have taken the oil. Forget that doing so would be a war crime, it shows how everything is transactional with Donald Trump. That is not what made America great, nor will it ever. To be honest, that comment makes me ill, as does the thought of someone who would so disgrace our nation serving as our president. 

The second example begins with a talk by management guru Simon Sinek on the Navy Seals, describing how they became the most effective operating unit on the planet by self-policing based upon a system that puts a higher value on principles than on performance. He relates how they would rather have a low performer with high values than a high performer with inferior values. Yet consider Donald Trump and the case of Seal Eddie Gallagher, who killed a teenage Iraqi prisoner with a hunting knife, then posed with the body and subsequently held a bizarre "re-enlistment ceremony" over the body, forcing team members to pose with the corpse. He had previously killed a schoolgirl and elderly man from a sniper's nest, leading a fellow team member to tell investigators that "the guy is freaking evil." As is the Seals' custom, he was reported by his team members. The U.S. eventually found him guilty of war crimes and removed him from active duty.

Donald Trump not only pardoned Gallagher, but lauded him as a great warrior, before inviting him to join him on the 2020 campaign trail.

Just another example of Donald Trump not understanding the soul of America. If he wants to cavort with war criminals and insurrectionists like Gallagher and Ashli Babbit, let him do so on his own time. But please, let’s not let him poison the minds of the American people, lest we forget who we really are. 

Finally, when a party revels in making their opponents uneasy, behavior inevitably takes on the nature of an addict who requires ever stronger doses to get the same high. Thus, what we witnessed in the campaign's final weeks, culminating in Donald Trump's closing argument at Madison Square Garden. The important and most frightening questions are how far can this go and where does it stop? When people sharing the stage with a would-be president refer to their fellow Americans as garbage, when they argue they need to be spanked like a petulant teenage girl, that is a step too far. I fear that for some it is only the first step to a world we should not want to inhabit. When Edmund Burke said that all that’s required for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing, this is where it starts. We can either dismiss it as playful fun, which is a dangerous game to play, or we can put our foot down and say enough, this is not who we are. I am proudly putting my foot down.

Bottom Line

I realize this has been almost 100% about opposition to Donald Trump, but with good reason. He is an ill-tempered person lacking the moral character and intellectual capacity required in a leader of a great nation like ours. By contrast, Kamala Harris is striking all the right notes about who we are and the leadership our country needs. While the Biden administration shares blame for the inflation that followed Covid, pushing a relief program that was almost certainly too much, too late, it is also true that the U.S. suffered lower inflation than any other western nation and has enjoyed a far healthier economy than Trump would have us believe. In fact, adjusting for all job losses and bounce back jobs in the wake of Covid, Joe Biden has created more jobs on a monthly basis than Donald Trump did before Covid struck (247,000/month to 180,000/month). In fact, nearly as many jobs have been created in the last 26 months under Joe Biden as were created under Donald Trump in the 37 months before COVID struck (see chart below). Also, Donald Trump forfeited any right to use immigration as a campaign theme when he chose to torpedo the bipartisan border bill. Meanwhile, the infrastructure bill and the CHIPS Act promise to be investments in American productivity and competitiveness that will benefit us for decades to come. It’s things like that - the Panama Canal, the interstate highway system, the internet - that made America great and will continue to do so. Preying on fear, anger and grievance will do no such thing.

Sadly, this election has ignored numerous challenges we face involving deficits, demographics, climate change and global affairs that will shake our world regardless who's elected. I am of the mindset that tax cuts will only worsen our looming debt crisis, robust immigration is necessary to not only offset declining birth rates that risk undermining our ability to deliver on our Social Security and Medicare commitments, but also strengthen our competitive position vis-a-vis the rest of the world, that letting fossil fuel companies operate with abandon will worsen what nearly everyone now recognizes as a real threat to climate and the resulting human disruptions that will make today’s migrant crisis look like the good old days, and that sober, strategic thinking will be required to manage the geopolitical crises roiling the world. Only one party has expressed any coherent approach to these problems and only one candidate has demonstrated the decency, integrity and intellect needed to pursue those solutions. I would challenge anyone to argue that Donald Trump has offered any idea that would deliver on any of these vital needs.

In the end, the GOP of Donald Trump is not the GOP I supported when I was younger. Meanwhile, the influx of disenchanted Republicans into Democratic ranks is having a moderating effect on that party, to the chagrin of its progressive wing. Whereas the GOP once thrived as a center-right party of ideas, the Democrats are-building a center-left coalition seeking solutions to a range of problems. Meanwhile, the GOP has moved from being a party that believes in limited government and self-reliance to one that thrives on limited thought and self-aggrandizement, and not much else. The GOP now represents everything I stand against.

Thus, my vote for Kamala Harris.

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Jobs created by president in my lifetime.