Tweet
...is that to a real degree this presidential election I am one of the sad "undecided" voters. I vote every year there is a ballot for my address and this is not the first time I've been late to decide how to fill the ballot for various local races but it is only the second presidential election in which I have been this ambivalent about casting a vote for a presidential candidate on the ballot. I was even more undecided before Biden dropped out and now I am leaning heavily towards giving my vote to Harris but despite the relative scarcity of contrary conservative pro-Trump members her at 'Poly I wanted to start a thread to give them a last chance to change my mind and for Harris supporters to make me feel better about letting her get my vote.
I tend to give Harris little direct blame for Biden's serious mistakes as well as little to no credit for any of his few successes. I just don't think she was offered or accepted or sought much input into the Biden administrations policies. I'll just judge Harris primarily by what she has said in public and by her limited public service record.
Trump I am much more opinionated about. Basically Trump lost me when he sat for hours in the white house 06Jan 2021 not even using the bully pulpit to try to get the rioters out of the capital who were *clearly* acting out in his name. He revealed himself as the worst, most deluded sore loser and his insistence that fraud had cost him the election was especially galling with the lack of evidence and at least equal opportunity for fraud and of suspicious circumstances in 2016. The fact that he left office without being dragged out or additional violent confrontation actually surprised me after that but it seemed to establish that Trump is too cowardly to overtly participate in armed insurrection so I will probably always dismiss any likelihood of him doing so after Trump skipped the chance back then.
As far as policies go Trump is a terrible big spender, I had contempt for his tariff and general protectionist ideas but I think they worked out much better than I expected (a very low bar) during his term. I think together those policies shoulder a large fraction of the blame for the serious inflation during Biden's term but Biden likely gets about half of that blame since Biden generally slightly outdid Trump on practically every inflationary policy. I suspect that if Trump wins and follows through on his tariff extension ideas the inflation during his next term will be even worse than a second Biden term would have been. I think Trump holds a ton of ignorant racist sentiments and wants to dog whistle and covertly solicit racist support but I don't think he cares to pursue racism for racisms sake. I think he's thrilled by any minority economic success on his watch. I don't think Trump cares about project 2025 and will constantly contradict its aims. For instance there is no way he is going to sign any federal limits on abortion or fertility assistance and in general I think project 2025 will prove worthless as a guide to a any second Trump term policies. The guy thinks he's a genius and will just go with whatever his ignorant gut tells him on every issue. I struggle to see how Trump is fascist in any way on any level. I think there is so much poorly vetted maligning information and intentional disinformation on this guy that it's a real chore to see what he really believes about anything despite the fact that he never shuts up and is an expert on everything that isn't 'dumb'. I think he lies sometimes, mostly to himself, but mostly he says false things because he's sure he's too smart to have to check anything out so he just relies on his infallible gut and whether he thinks anyone could prove him wrong. I don't think he's anything like the pathological liar his opponents make him out to be rather he seems like it because of pathological narcissism combined with his average to slightly above average intelligence resulting in a steady stream of unverifiable assertions that just about everyone opposed to him (such as all US media that isn't overtly conservative) constantly publish as "lies". I think he constantly backstabs people who work for him creating a host of disgruntled people formerly close to him who make **** up about him and publish tons of unflattering lies and unflattering facts about him out of spite and this leads in part to his obsession with personal loyalty to himself that he never really earns but always demands. I think he also does not at all get the vast political network of players and stakeholders that rule the US and his blundering around as a loose cannon in that establishment has also made him an enormous constellation of powerful enemies who also work to incessantly malign and undermine him. I have contempt for the political establishment so I actually like that about him but it's not near enough to win me over.
I never felt he made covid worse in any way, He may even deserve credit for putting so much presidential pressure behind a vaccine. In foreign policy I think he did OK. He gave Ukraine some support and generally avoided contributing to starting new wars and conflicts. He did nothing to defuse the dangers of North Korean WMD but that ship had sailed decades earlier. He says tons of misleading terrible things concerning foreign policy but most of the worst is just him thinking that him saying and threatening those whacky things will help him negotiate later.
Enough from me for now. What have Harris supporters or Trump supporters got to help me or to make me second guess my decision? I'll probably cast my ballot late next week. Maybe you can change my mind or help me help others see it your way?
I tend to give Harris little direct blame for Biden's serious mistakes as well as little to no credit for any of his few successes. I just don't think she was offered or accepted or sought much input into the Biden administrations policies. I'll just judge Harris primarily by what she has said in public and by her limited public service record.
Trump I am much more opinionated about. Basically Trump lost me when he sat for hours in the white house 06Jan 2021 not even using the bully pulpit to try to get the rioters out of the capital who were *clearly* acting out in his name. He revealed himself as the worst, most deluded sore loser and his insistence that fraud had cost him the election was especially galling with the lack of evidence and at least equal opportunity for fraud and of suspicious circumstances in 2016. The fact that he left office without being dragged out or additional violent confrontation actually surprised me after that but it seemed to establish that Trump is too cowardly to overtly participate in armed insurrection so I will probably always dismiss any likelihood of him doing so after Trump skipped the chance back then.
As far as policies go Trump is a terrible big spender, I had contempt for his tariff and general protectionist ideas but I think they worked out much better than I expected (a very low bar) during his term. I think together those policies shoulder a large fraction of the blame for the serious inflation during Biden's term but Biden likely gets about half of that blame since Biden generally slightly outdid Trump on practically every inflationary policy. I suspect that if Trump wins and follows through on his tariff extension ideas the inflation during his next term will be even worse than a second Biden term would have been. I think Trump holds a ton of ignorant racist sentiments and wants to dog whistle and covertly solicit racist support but I don't think he cares to pursue racism for racisms sake. I think he's thrilled by any minority economic success on his watch. I don't think Trump cares about project 2025 and will constantly contradict its aims. For instance there is no way he is going to sign any federal limits on abortion or fertility assistance and in general I think project 2025 will prove worthless as a guide to a any second Trump term policies. The guy thinks he's a genius and will just go with whatever his ignorant gut tells him on every issue. I struggle to see how Trump is fascist in any way on any level. I think there is so much poorly vetted maligning information and intentional disinformation on this guy that it's a real chore to see what he really believes about anything despite the fact that he never shuts up and is an expert on everything that isn't 'dumb'. I think he lies sometimes, mostly to himself, but mostly he says false things because he's sure he's too smart to have to check anything out so he just relies on his infallible gut and whether he thinks anyone could prove him wrong. I don't think he's anything like the pathological liar his opponents make him out to be rather he seems like it because of pathological narcissism combined with his average to slightly above average intelligence resulting in a steady stream of unverifiable assertions that just about everyone opposed to him (such as all US media that isn't overtly conservative) constantly publish as "lies". I think he constantly backstabs people who work for him creating a host of disgruntled people formerly close to him who make **** up about him and publish tons of unflattering lies and unflattering facts about him out of spite and this leads in part to his obsession with personal loyalty to himself that he never really earns but always demands. I think he also does not at all get the vast political network of players and stakeholders that rule the US and his blundering around as a loose cannon in that establishment has also made him an enormous constellation of powerful enemies who also work to incessantly malign and undermine him. I have contempt for the political establishment so I actually like that about him but it's not near enough to win me over.
I never felt he made covid worse in any way, He may even deserve credit for putting so much presidential pressure behind a vaccine. In foreign policy I think he did OK. He gave Ukraine some support and generally avoided contributing to starting new wars and conflicts. He did nothing to defuse the dangers of North Korean WMD but that ship had sailed decades earlier. He says tons of misleading terrible things concerning foreign policy but most of the worst is just him thinking that him saying and threatening those whacky things will help him negotiate later.
Enough from me for now. What have Harris supporters or Trump supporters got to help me or to make me second guess my decision? I'll probably cast my ballot late next week. Maybe you can change my mind or help me help others see it your way?
Comment