On Friday, October 9th I waited in an hour long line at the early voting place here in Columbus, Ohio. It was a pretty day outside and I was able to listen to the new Jeff Pearlman book about the Shaq / Kobe Lakers. Overall it felt good to do my civic duty, but also I felt a sense of dread about this upcoming election. One candidate is so extreme that almost everyone agrees that there is a decent chance that one candidate won't accept the election results or won't participate in a peaceful transfer of power. There is one candidate who so clearly has and will prioritize his own needs over the needs of the democratic system of our country. There should be little doubt for any rational person that one candidate would lie, cheat, steal and do whatever it takes to win. On Friday, October 9th on a nice day in Columbus, Ohio I voted for the other candidate. I voted for Joe Biden
And yes to start my vote was more of a vote against our current President than a vote for Biden. Some might level the criticism against me that I am more voting against someone than for someone else. I kind of get it and it was also mostly true in 2016. Still I feel like voting this particular person is a rational response and I will try to back up my thoughts on that.
Trump is bad. He is bad when you consider his personality, his policies, his words and his actions. He is a bad role model for our children. He was bad in the past, bad in the present and the odds are high he will be bad in the future. Bad is such a simple word, but in this case you don't really need anything complex in describing him. Here is how I reached that conclusion with a partial but certainly not full list of things I abhor about Trump:
Personality - Certainly some (a lot?) of Republicans like his combative personality and that he "isn't a politician" but from the Republicans I know they concede that personally he is a narcissistic bully who is a bad role model. (In my mind that should be enough for most people to not vote for him.) The way he talks and tweets about a wide range of people shouldn't be tolerated. There are almost too many examples to count, but really just turn on one of his rallies and if you aren't offended then I am not sure we are watching the same thing. (A month ago on September 18th he asked his 99% white audience if they were "having a good time with your refugees." He pushed a conspiracy theory about Congresswoman Omar marrying her brother. He said it was "the most beautiful thing" about a journalist being hit by a rubber bullet.) Seriously - any one viewing of any random rally should be enough to make you run to the polls to vote for Biden.
Those examples aren't policies he is pursuing. His speeches / tweets seem to fluctuate between culture war issues (ex. football players kneeling), attacking a diverse group of female Democrats called "the Squad" (not about policies, but about them hating America or listening in while his audience chants "send them back") and grievances against the media, his political opponents or whoever was the latest antagonist on Fox News.
And the strange thing to me is that his attacks in the last paragraph truly seem to be a big part of what drives Republican voters. I had recently spent a weekend with a Trump supporter. During that weekend we didn't talk about climate change, gun violence or even really COVID. We did talk about NFL players kneeling and how this lifelong football fan was going to be personally boycotting the NFL this year. Now let's say this was something I disagree with (it's not) then still I can't imagine kneeling NFL players would make my top 100 issues in this election.
Policies - Some of those same Republicans excuse his personality because they like his policies. Normally that means lower taxes, less regulation, conservative judges and anti-immigration. I will take those one by one:
Taxes - the big legislative achievement for Trump and the Republicans was the tax cut they passed in 2017. It is not controversial to say this tax cut primarily benefited rich people and that it 100% hurt the federal deficit. (Remember when Republicans cared about the federal deficit. It was amazing to me that with unemployment going down and the economy in a decent position, we saw such an increase in the federal deficit under Trump. The federal deficit has gone up every year under Trump after seeing year over year declines under Obama. Not that anyone cares about the federal deficit, but there are some amazing charts showing how it gradually declines under Democrats like Clinton / Obama and increases under Republicans like Reagan / W / Trump.)
Personally I liked that the tax cut doubled the standard deduction, which makes filing my taxes easier since I no longer need to keep up with charitable giving. I didn't like how the IRS asked for companies to deduct less from our paychecks, which meant that my tax bill at the end of the year was higher than expected. (Overall my taxes did go down thanks to the tax cut. I looked at my last 7 tax returns and it is clear that after the 2017 tax cut the %s went down. When Republicans make the point that Biden will raise your taxes then it is a fair point for me.) Anyway, I believe that it is patriotic to pay taxes in order to support schools, social services and general public welfare. I wouldn't do what Trump (or others) did and try to figure out all the loopholes to get as low a tax bill as possible. I didn't decline or donate the money I saved in taxes thanks to Trump, but I would rather taxes go up for me (and others - specifically people much richer than me) and for those taxes to help make this country truly great / fair.
Less Regulation - I don't always knows what specific regulations people want to get rid of when they say this, but taking it at face value I think it is fair to say most conservatives want to lower regulation. I am not sure if that means less environmental regulation, but that seems to be a constant theme from the research I've done. For me I would prefer more not less environmental regulation and it's not really that close. (I am by no means an expert on what that means, but protecting the environment seems like a worthy goal and I don't really trust Trump to do that.) Another regulation that seems like it would help the common American was the "fiduciary rule," which regulates that financial planners work in your best interest. Trump got rid of that. It seems like something so basic that any argument against it seems like a stretch. I wonder if there are conservatives who are "anti-regulation" who probably would benefit from more regulations on the companies that pollute the environment and financial advisors who sell shady products that make them money at the expense of their clients.
Conservative judges - this will play a little bit into the next bullet point, but I am completely against conservative judges limiting our democracy by excusing gerrymandering and striking down the Voting Rights Act. Normally I think the "originalist" intent is just bs that allows judges to make whatever argument they want. Also, I was alive in 2016 when Republicans were very clear about allowing the US public to have a choice in filling the Supreme Court seat. They didn't give a moderate / relatively old judge (Merrick Garland) a hearing after Antonin Scalia died 9 months before an election. They were clear about their reasons. Now in 2020, they were completely ok confirming a much younger / much more conservative judge after Ruth Bader Ginsburg died less than 2 months before an election. It is worse than hypocrisy. It is pretending that people don't remember what happened 4 years ago. I would still be upset, but not as angry if they just said they had the power and that is how they were going to use it how they see fit. However, they try to come up with elaborate reasons on why this is ok, when they have to know that they have damaged if not destroyed the Supreme Court. (Since 1968 Democrats have won the popular vote in 7 out of 13 presidential elections, but have appointed just 4 out of 19 Supreme Court Justices. It is not fair. It's not fair especially when considering the Supreme Court helped W win, which then led to Supreme Court decisions that led to Trump winning that led to decisions that might allow him to win again. It's a cycle that reinforces itself)
Democracy - The biggest issue for me is Democracy in general. It is amazing to me that people will justify certain votes being worth more than others or that voting in general should be tough. Personally one of my strongest political beliefs is that voting should be easy and fair. Currently there is a ton of evidence that Republicans don't believe that. You can see it in their words about "real Americans" or in their actions. My home state of Mississippi doesn't allow for early voting, which is a pretty clear sign of voting suppression. What happens if on election day your car breaks down or you are sick or the voting line is too long and you need to get to your job - well you are disenfranchised in Mississippi. And people not only are ok with that, but are actively working to make sure that remains the system. Thankfully we do have early voting in Ohio, but that doesn't mean my vote for Congress matters. Ohio is an extremely gerrymandered state, so that a roughly 50/50 state goes 12/4 for Congress thanks to the wonderful work the GOP did in 2010. Gerrymandering makes votes not count. That is wrong. Another thing that makes votes not count is the electoral college. For some reason getting rid of the electoral college is now considered an extreme position....but I am really not sure why my vote should count more if I live in Ohio than if I live in Mississippi. I don't know why we would set up a system where 500 votes in Florida are more valuable than 500,000 votes in the rest of the country. Or where 70,000 votes in the Midwest would count more than 3,000,000 votes anywhere else. The electoral college is at best quirky and at worst undemocratic.
Doubt -
I have a lot of doubt about what is in Trump's tax returns (his audacity to say they are still under audit is amazing).
I have a lot of doubt that he truly cares about the country and almost zero doubt that he cares about himself more than the country.
I have a lot of doubt that he wouldn't work with foreign governments in hurting an opponent or helping himself.
I have doubt that he hires the "best people" when so many people that worked for him end up in jail. I have doubt of his competency as a leader when the people that don't end up in jail write books and go on TV talking about how he is a narcissistic madman who is bad for the country.
I have doubt that he is a smart person.
I have doubts (thanks to the Bob Woodward tapes) that when it came to COVID he really wanted to do what is best for the country and that by "intentionally downplaying" the virus he didn't lead to more people dying in America than if we had picked another more truthful path.
I have doubts that he is truly the "religion freedom" candidate when one of the first things he tried to do was ban an entire religion.
I have doubts on his record on the environment, when he doesn't seem to truly address the issues with Climate Change and stories have shown that "less regulation" often means more pollution.
I have doubts that Mexico is paying for the wall.
I have doubts that he has a healthcare plan. I have zero doubt that he is being absurd when he says Republicans will protect people with pre-exisiting conditions when that only happened in this country because of President Obama's administration.
I have doubts that Trump fired the FBI Director (Comey) for the right reasons....just like I have doubts about Trump firing the inspector generals.
I have a lot of doubts about the ethical moves of Trump's personal decisions.
I have doubts on most of the conspiracy theories Trump throws out there and I don't know if he thinks they are true or if he knows they are false but thinks they might help him out.
I have doubts that he is the "least racist person" with a history that includes the Central Park 5, birtherism and refusing to rent to Black tenants in the 1970s. I have doubts that it speaks highly of him that the best argument against him being racist is that he is just a jerk to everyone.
I have doubts that he is the best candidate against "cancel culture" when he routinely is asking people to boycott things and has talked numerous times of canceling people, companies, etc.
I have doubts that that the rest of the world thinks more positively about America with him as our leader.
I have serious doubts about reducing immigration or reducing the number of foreign students (either directly or indirectly by making America less appealing) in our colleges won't have serious consequences to our economy and world standing
I have doubts on Trump sticking up to China and doubts that his tariffs have helped our country.
I have doubts on his critique of socialism when his subsidies to farmers seems to be (by most conservative's definition) to be socialism.
I have doubts that if he wins we still will be a democracy and won't fall into some authoritarian country where voting no longer matters and is strictly ceremonial.
I have doubts that I would be able to look my children in the eye if I voted for such a terrible person who I believe puts himself over our country.
Final- Do I have doubts about Biden? Yes - that section would be a lot shorter and also more picky. Overall he seems like a good person who is moderate left and will hopefully bring the temperature of this country down a little bit. I don't want to care about politics as much and I think a Biden presidency would be a lot less of pretty much everything. I don't want to be shocked by what my President writes on Twitter or says on TV. I would like to elect a relatively normal person that can help our country get back to a more normal time. Trump unfortunately has brought out the worst in a lot of people and has made me question things about this country that I previously took for granted. Biden is at worst a generic politician, who will give boring speeches and not make much of a change. Unfortunately that is a huge improvement over our current situation. I have gone from "hope and change" to just hoping my (and others) vote counts and that we will continue to live in a democracy. It's quite the shift, but the best thing about a low point is that hopefully there is no where to go up but up.
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