I can’t stand Donald Trump. Like many others I’ve been long aware of him since he first splashed his way onto the national stage as a self proclaimed real estate genius. It was, frankly, pretty entertaining to watch him showcase government dysfunction in the Wollman Rink affair and I found myself visiting the glitzy Taj Mahal when it first opened after years in the news. I even applied to be on the second season of The Apprentice. In other words, I was aware of Donald Trump to the degree I was aware of any celebrity in our celebrity driven culture and took a mild interest in stories or events that caught my eye.
After a year of Trump being on the campaign trail however, I feel like I know him a lot more than I used to… and I like him a lot less! Why? Because previously he was some distant arrogant rich guy who was crowing about crossing home but tried to pretend he wasn’t born on third base. But there are lots of guys like that and other than taking $20 bucks or so from me at his casino, I had little reason to have a real opinion about him one way or another.
That all changed when he threw his ring in the hat for president. At first I was glad he had stepped in, particularly with the issue that I think is probably the single most important facing the Republic right now… the unfettered immigration of people from dysfunctional third world disasters. I was glad he put the issue on the map but had little thought that he might actually get the nomination.
As his competitors fell to the side one by one however, I started to pay closer attention, and I didn’t like much of what I saw or read. Donald Trump is a crony capitalist. Donald Trump is duplicitous. Donald Trump has anti-freedom, fascist tendencies. Donald Trump has little use for free markets, indeed he’s a protectionist – and don’t forget, protectionism turned a mild recession into the Great Depression. In other words, Donald Trump stands for pretty much everything I don’t, what’s more, he stands against most of the things I stand for and care about. So, how in the world could I possibly even remotely consider voting for him?
Because, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, Donald Trump is the worst viable candidate running for president… expect for the other viable candidate running for president.
I may dislike and, frankly, fear Donald Trump, but not as much as I abhor virtually every single thing Barack Obama has done since he entered the White House, and I expect Hillary Clinton to be exactly like him, only worse, if that’s even remotely possible. For eight years the country has been wrecked with racial animus due to Barack Obama’s constant race baiting. For eight years we’ve seen the government insert itself into everything from where companies must hire employees, to what the demographics of your neighborhood must be to when a man is a man and when you have to let him pee in the stall next to your daughter. We’ve seen government literally steal companies out from under the real owners, we’ve seen government use the banking system to put law abiding companies out of business, we’ve seen government decide they can dictate virtually everything that has to do with the Internet while at the same time deciding dictators around the world could better run it than Americans have. In eight years we’ve seen the economy and prosperity wither, we’ve seen regulations strangle businesses big and small and we’ve added more debt than in the previous two centuries. And that’s just domestic policy…
On the foreign policy front, we’ve careened from one disaster to another, from prematurely exiting Iraq and laying the foundation for ISIS to capitulating to the Chinese in the South China Sea to essentially handing the Iranians $150 billion and the keys to nuclear weapons. From Egypt to Russia to Cuba we have embraced tyrants while in Iran and Honduras we rebuffed those advocating freedom. We’ve thrown allies like Israel, Poland and the UK under the bus. The world was certainly challenging under George Bush, under Barack Obama it’s become an abject disaster.
As much as I dislike Donald Trump and worry he will do some of the same things Barack Obama has, I know for certain that Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders would do all of the same things Barack Obama has done, and more.
Donald Trump may not appoint a clone of Scalia to replace Scalia, but I expect he’s not going to appoint another Ginsberg, Sotomayor, or Breyer. He may be a crony capitalist, but he’s unlikely to use regulation to try and strangle the energy companies, farms and gun manufacturers – the latter particularly after the NRA just endorsed him. Hey may have isolationist tendencies, but he at least professes the need to restore a military that Barack Obama gutted back to WWI levels. He may backtrack on his promise to build a wall along the southern border, but at a minimum one would imagine he’ll rescind the open invitation Barack Obama has sent to the third world. He’s every bit as arrogant at Barack Obama, but at least he recognizes the United States is a positive influence in the world and won’t betray her every time he walks onto the international stage.
I have no illusion that a Donald Trump presidency will be anything remotely close to what we need right now… i.e. a president who reins in government and restores free markets and liberty. No, my only hope with pulling a lever for Donald Trump would be to slow the advance of liberalism sufficiently that conservatives can figure out how to make a stand outside of the treacherous Republican Party. That may be a pipe dream and the liberal steamrolling of American values and the Constitution may continue, but with Trump in the Oval Office and advisors who used to be considered conservatives, it’s possible that the crush will be slowed to such a degree that the country doesn’t devolve into revolution and can be pulled back from the brink.
I’m not, frankly, optimistic, but in a country where voters have seen fit to put Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton at the top of their respective tickets, who would be? It’s sad, but for me it’s the difference between shooting yourself in the head vs. shooting yourself in the foot. One will certainly kill you, the other probably won’t. It could if left unattended, but if treated properly it’s possible to fully recover and maybe even go on to run again.
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Unless you live in a battleground state it doesn’t really matter much to whom your single vote goes
Why not just admit it Vince, it’s strictly partisan and that if Jesus Christ was running against Adolf Hitler, your vote would be contingent on who was on which ticket.
If anything, the past year on the trail should soundly turn anyone of reasonable mind away from Trump. He has disqualified himself so many times, told so many lies, exposed his abject disregard of law and order and due process, his bigotry and sexism, how disastrous he’d be for our military and defense, and even that he’d default on our loans (which would certainly create a global economic crises), and just how incompetent and dangerous he is.
When the left liberal press hates someone, how do you think you know them?
@Ajay42302: And yet he is better than the treasonous liar hilldabeast!!
Vince, can I ask something because I hear a lot of propaganda catch phrases but little substance.
How exactly? Has he promised to recind any part of the Bill of Rights? I have heard nothing like this.
You forget that when Smoot Hawley was passed, the US was a net exporter, both of goods and overall. Tariffs were raised across the board. Of course the results were disastrous, as the loss of exports outweighed the drop in imports. But the US has not been a net exporter since the 70s, so the math works differently.
Let’s face it, free trade, which worked in our favor until the 70s, has been biting us in the ass since then.
You have to remember that Trump is first and foremost a businessman. When he says that he wants to build a wall, and raise import tariffs, that is simply an opening salvo for negotiations. He knows perfectly well that they are not going to happen that way, and intelligent voters know that he knows – and that’s fine.
I expect him to go into the NAFTA agreement, TPP, and other such documents, and look for openings where the US can renegotiate a better deal, according to the agreements. That is something a politician would never do – simply having an trade deal, however bad it is, is considered a victory for a politician. But a businessman does that all the time – that’s why there are arbitration and termination clauses in contracts. “This deal is too one-sided, let’s renegotiate in accordance to section 7 para 14 sub e.”
And then the haggling starts. I don’t expect widespread tariffs – and you shouldn’t either. Your mistake is listening to him as if he were a politician, rather than a rather boisterous businessman.
@Dreadnought: What America can NOT afford is hilldabeast!! Does Donald have challenges, of course we have put up with seven years of racial discrimination. systematic destruction of our military, invasion by terrorists, health care in complete disarray, and Hilldabeast would be even worse!! This election it is NOT better the devil you know but rather the devil you know!! She can never wipe the Benghazi blood of her hands!!
@Common Sense: I would say that Vince’s shot in the head and shot in the foot analogy is backwards. If it were true, we’d be dead after 8 years of Obama and wouldn’t have survived the Bill Clinton years. So this Trump smooching is no more than argumentive baffoonery.
Come to think about it, Bush left office with the country pretty much knocking on heaven’s door.
http://internationalecon.com/Trade/Tch20/20img1.gif
Before the Income Tax our US Custom’s Duties (tariffs) were above 80% of our national government’s receipts.
Even after the Income tax, it was still around 50% of them.
That cut in tariffs in 1918 for WWI was NOT the cause of the Great Depression!
Although income from tariffs plummeted to near 2% in 1942 and has stayed there ever since, there is no reason it should remain so low a % of our federal receipts.
What Donald Trump promises is that IF various nations refuse to even the playing field as to trade with us, he will, via tariffs.
Mr. Trump beat the snot out of sixteen rivals that recorded the largest turnout for Republican Primaries. Mr. Trump is more a chemo treatment for a Republic that has a cancer, he is the last resort for survival.
Vince:
You have been listening to Donald Trump as if he were a politician instead of a negotiator.
Trump’s exaggerative style, or as Milo Yiannopoulos calls it, “a truthful hyperbole,” is just that, a style.
It is an opening salvo.
You seem to recognize this as you, yourself write:
Maybe what you lack is an understanding of Donald Trump’s bigger picture.
He has done better than Ross Perot did as to starting a conversation (as an Independent) on NAFTA only to later cause the election to go to the Dem.
He has staked out the Republican Party side.
That means Electoral College instead of merely popular votes.
He could win.
Perot could not win.
@Ajay42302:
“we’d be dead after 8 years of Obama” – WE ARE..
“and wouldn’t have survived the Bill Clinton years” – WE DIDN’T..
What you fail to grasp is that [Figuratively speaking] you are almost dead in your coffin and you are providing the nails with which to hammer the lid on with!
Oh yes our LIAR is so much better than their LIAR, How long did Trump campaign on how he loves the vets and raised 6 million dollars for them, story is different now. Hey all in for Trump people starting to feel like the Hillary backers yet? Nothing he could do will change your minds.
Fraud (Trump university)
Lies (loads and loads of them)
Flipflops (just about everything)
He isn’t building us a casino he is running for the highest office on the Planet people.
If you think the national debt is huge now wait til he is done.
Typical conservative scorched earth tactics.
You guys have been discredited by your constant sucking-off Obama and his radical globalist, Socialist Agenda.
Now the populist are about to metaphorically put you catamites against the wall and you still don’t get it.
All debts will be paid in full with interest collected via ex-sanguination.
@Ajay42302:
And Clinton is similarly disqualified. So we have two completely unacceptable people running and one of them is going to be the next President. So you choose the one that has a chance to be less awful, that’s the whole point of this article. Do you really not get that?
@Ajay42302:
Specifically, what was a lie, how did he disregard law and order, how was he bigoted, how has he been sexist how has he shown he would be disastrous for the military and defense and how is he going to default on loans?
You sound like Hillary as she wails about Trump using fear and decisiveness to gain support while she calls Trump a racist that will bring back segregation and cause the deaths of little children… strong on rhetorical lies and desperately short on supportive facts.
If the Revolutionary War dead are looking down on us now, I’m sure their question to us would be “Why did we bother?”
@nomobs: Such stupidity! Ok, this is the ghost of Ajay typing! And if we didn’t survive Obama and Clinton and we’re now dead as you say, how much more deader will we be with with 4 or 8 years of another Democrat?
@Bill: If you honestly don’t know the answers to your questions, that you don’t understand the premise of my argument, that you’ve never caught wind of these accusations, there’s seriously no need for me to enlighten you as you’ll obviously just not see them or understand them again.
@Bill: Notice, as per comment # 17, you didn’t get any answers.
But by that poster’s standards Jerry Lewis is the biggest liar and fraud this country has ever seen.
People call in and PLEDGE a certain amount for his MD charity.
Then that’s not what they send.
For Donald Trump to be called a liar over the fact that some of those who pledged for the veterans but have not (yet) sent in their money is just the same.
@Ajay42302:
REALLY DEAD- You are CIRCLING THE DRAIN and you expect a DEMOCRAT to replace the plug??
@Ajay42302: Come to think of it, the economy was already in recovery when Obola took office, come to think of it Obola lied to get elected twice once on healthcare and the other on Benghazi, come to think of it Hilldabeast said Benghazi was caused by a video. We are closer to hell than heavens door now!!
@Common Sense: Funny stuff. Most Trump suckers and Bush lickers try to blame the abject failures of the Bush era on anyone other than the rightful owners but even the stupidest of the stupid don’t try to claim that Bush left the economy in recovery mode. Most simply try to pretend there was no Bush era.
Haven’t you guys seriously embarrassed yourself enough over your Benghazi scam?
@James Felix: I well understand our choices and I’m unhappy with either.
Hillary is by far more “qualified” by definition and I don’t think that fact is arguable. You may not prefer her policies (and by and large, neither do I) and it might make your blood boil that she’s a Democrat and you might even consider her an abject idiot and a liar and anything else you want to throw at her but she is much much more qualified than Trump.
@no-mo-bs: you actually validated my argument. It has nothing to do with qualifications or if the candidate is Hitler or the devil or even worse as long as they’re not a Democrat. It’s strictly partisan and nothing else.
@Ajay42302: Funny ideas, all Obola moronic libturds as you included try and blame Bush for his failures!! I did NOT say the economy was in good shape when Bush left office but to solely blame Bush is another libturd move.
@Ajay42302: She certainly is NOT more qualified, she has already demonstrated this.
@Ajay42302: Actually it has nothing to do with Party other than the fact that Hilldabeast is a demoncrap and has already demonstrated her incompetence in government.
@Common Sense:
Thank you. Obviously I’d get a more inteligent rebuttal from a trash can. Accordingly, I’ll pass on any future attempts with you.
@Ajay42302:
The fact that the hildebeast is more qualified cannot be argued with? Don’t make me laugh. She slept with bill (as did many many others), she got a carpetbag senator job and did nothing, she was one of the worst SOS’s we ever had (Albright is grateful) and she has run for President of a country she hates. Yeah, qualified…
@Bookdoc: How she was elected as Senator, her sex life or that of her husbands, the fake scandals of her SOS term, or how you deduce she feels about her country are all inductive arguments on how qualified she’d be to run the country.
And when you compare her to Trump, well, game over.
@Ajay42302: Good save me time reading the crap you write!!
Okay-maybe you can do something she sure as he!! can’t-list her illustrious accomplishments. At least Trump has met a payroll, created jobs, dealt with the government bureaucracy monster as well as many other management tasks.
I plan to vote for Trump but also with eyes wide open. I, too, don’t think there will be a slowdown on immigration (legal and illegal) but likely not a wholesale flood like we have now. However in my mind there is one major difference between him and Obama, Clinton and Sanders. He is the only one who doesn’t appear to look down on the people of this country. Well, that and he is the only one who has ever run a company and has the slightest chance of getting a clue as to how the economy works. (Not saying he has one now.) And as an aside, when will we ever get a chance again to have as President a non- career politician? So I say let’s see what he’s got. My curiosity is killing me.
@Robert What?: That’s about as lukewarm an endorsement as one can give.lol
I find it amusing that the more time people look at these two immensely flawed candidates the better Obama does in approval ratings–50-52% . I expect they’ll continue to rise as Trump and Clinton rev up the ugly personal attacks.
Obama could win a 3rd term running against either of these two.
@Robert What?:
I guess if you’re referring to rich white men only.
He well understands how the economy works. You default on out debt (which he said he would do if things got bad) which would of course crash the economy and then he and his friends can buy on the cheap (which he admitted hoping on the housing bubble to burst in order to do so-and he did).
How about next time you need an electrician, call a plumber? Or if you need a doctor, call an ambulance chasing lawyer? Or better yet, any known con man?