What I’m writing below is not really for anybody else to
read. I want it to remind myself of what
I was thinking on the day before election day of 2016.
I judge Facebook friends based on the quality of the source
of information they quote. In earlier
times, when someone tried to use evidence gleaned from a super market tabloid
or fringe political publication I refused to listen and considered them to be
irrational and/or misguided. This hasn’t
changed because of Facebook, but more and more people seem to think it’s OK to
pass off nonsense or propaganda as proof of “whatever”. If you
do this, by all means feel free to continue the practice as it often can lead
to chuckles or anger, but it will make it very difficult for me to be convinced
of anything you say or write when you start to get serious.
I have disliked Donald Trump since the mid-80s. My first discussion with a fellow college
student, who had just read the Donald’s book, came about when he tried to
convince me that DJT was a great role model because he became so
successful. My argument was that it was
unfair to lavish such praise on a guy that was born into wealth and just
continued his father’s business. That’s not
to take away from his accomplishments.
However, if you start in life with literally less than nothing, which
includes debt from college, then it’s hard to see using DJT as your role model
for how to succeed in life. I only write
this here as a memory… it’s not a reason for or against voting.
I have never liked DJT’s style… his bragging and grotesque
displays of wealth. The very rich people
that I knew when growing up didn’t talk about their money or show off what they
had. They didn’t have to. If you saw them walking through a mall or
down the street they looked like anybody else, possibly even a bit less dressed
up as they saw no need to convince anyone of their standing in life. I’m not sure why this bothers me so
much. But it does. And I have no interest in deep-diving my
psyche to figure it out. But I don’t
like his style.
There are three key factors about DJT that won’t allow me to
vote for him. First, his leader of the
birther movement was enough to make me see exactly what kind of a political
leader he would be… drawing conclusions with no evidence and/or leveling a
charge at someone because it had the feeling like it could possibly be true. I would have understood if this was a normal
part of vetting before an election.
However, Trump did this after Obama had already been president for years
and no evidence of his “unAmericanness” existed. His only purpose was to raise doubt about a
sitting US President, which I found to be extremely dangerous for this country. Next, his lack of any experience working at
any level of government is disqualifying.
Period. Finally, his refusal to release tax returns
makes it impossible for me to support him.
He will never release his tax returns because he is hiding things that
would get him arrested and jailed. He
would spin paying no taxes into a positive.
He would probably even figure out how to spin a lack of charity similarly. But he knows that there is information in
there that would get him convicted, so we will never, ever, see his tax
returns. Even when the “audit” is
complete.
