I am a confirmed moderate. Two drinks maximum, 8 oz. steak, 8 hours of sleep, 74 mph in a 65 mph zone, Led Zeppelin and Queen. Nothing crazy, nothing extreme.
That is why, no matter how I try, it is just so damn hard to vote for Donald Trump.
Every time I am convinced that Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the rest of the Democrats are so pathetically incompetent and incapable of rational thought, Donald Trump and the Republicans do something so stupid that I find myself falling back into the rabbit hole of uncertainty.
- Threatening NATO members with a Russian invasion?
- Rejecting a compromise immigration bill supported by the Border Patrol agents?
- Insulting a presidential candidate because her husband is on active military duty?
- Supporting a presidential candidate who refuses to debate because he is so far ahead?
- Prioritizing investigations and impeachments of political enemies over the People’s business?
- Criminalizing abortion before a woman even knows she is pregnant?
- Exaggerating to the extreme our current President’s aging mind and body?
- Promoting lies about a two-tier justice system and the political weaponization of our Justice department?
- Blocking any and all efforts to address gun violence and our mental health crisis?
- Insisting on a no compromise, hyper partisan approach to governing?
- Considering an end to financial and military aid to Ukraine?
- Denigrating the legacy media as if it were a threat to our democracy?
Really, Republicans, where are all your big ideas to make America great again? All I see, all I hear, are small ideas coming from small minds.
Making America great again does not mean abandoning our role in international affairs. It does not mean blindly agreeing to the whims of a would-be dictatorial presidential candidate to save your own political careers. It does not mean demonizing half the country and the opposing political party.
If you take away all the clever insults, mischaracterizations, exaggerations, and lies that Republicans say about Democrats, there does not seem to be much substance to the Republican message.
This is not to say that the Democrats are any better, but it is very disappointing that the Republican party – the party of Lincoln, the party that portrays itself as the true representative of the American people – has so little to say that is of substance.
This is why it is so hard for Independents such as myself to wholeheartedly, even halfheartedly, embrace the Republican message.
Right now, the only two reasons that I would vote for Donald Trump is to end the national security disaster at our southern border, and to prevent Kamala Harris from ever becoming President. Both are solid reasons. I only wish there were more.