• by George Simpson , Featured Contributor, September 24, 2020

I am so appalled when I read about (or actually meet) someone who plans to vote for Trump, that I listen very carefully to their reasoning. It is utterly inconceivable to me that having seen and heard that moron for nearly four years, they still think he’s the Right Person for the job.  

They always start with the disclaimer that “Yeah, he can be a little rough around the edges” -- which glosses over things like telling 20,000 lies to the public, his dismal performance on the pandemic, and book after book from members of his administration that all agree, “This guy is nuts and he is hurting the country.” 

They skip over the rape charges, the racism and the advice to drink bathroom cleaner to protect against COVID, and hundreds of other utterances and tweets that showcase his uninformed, profane and narcissistic mentality. 

That nearly the entire government has been compromised as they labor under directives from the White House to do what is best for Trump, not for the nation, also seems not to matter to his supporters. 

The big reveal of their affection for Trump is “the economy.” Even though we are in the worst economy in modern history, they lay the blame on the “Chinese and the virus,” and conveniently overlook the facts that clearly show much of the economic progress of the past four years was a carryover from Obama policies. And aside from cutting taxes without regard for its impact on the deficit and future generations (including red state children and grandchildren), his economic performance has been ordinary at best. 

This is quickly followed by “He tells it like it is.” Which is contradicted by the fact he lies to the nation all day, every day. While he is a master of childlike characterizations of his enemies (sleepy, radical, failing, unpatriotic, etc.), his supporters seem to think he is speaking great truths, contrary to most Washington politicians. In fact, he is simply name-calling like an angry 12-year-old.

If you do not care about climate change, widely accessible healthcare, a woman’s right to choose and systemic racism, then you are thrilled that he is stacking the Supreme Court with conservative justices. 

That Trump has apparently already conceded the popular vote to Biden and is working diligently to find legal loopholes that will keep him in office, seems not to upset his followers. In fact, they agree that the Democrats are conspiring to “steal” the election -- which is utter nonsense and another manifestation of their collective paranoid delusion.

The final “argument” is that he supports “law and order and our military.” Never in all of history has a President heaped more insults on living (and dead) soldiers, nor used the military to “restore order” when mayors and governors begged him not to. Not a peep from Trump when his pal Putin was found to be paying bounties to kill our troops in Afghanistan. Nor much to say about cops killing American Black people with impunity.  

As has been written better by others, Trump supporters don’t care about the facts of his performance. They instead revel in a vote against “liberals” who ignore the concerns of red-state citizenry. How’s he done bringing back all those coal-mining jobs and stopping plants from opening overseas instead of in the Midwest and South?

It is clear from the hardening of positions that nothing I say here today will change the minds of any Trump supporters. If the evidence already out there is insufficient, then there is little more I can add.

Whatever you believe, do NOT sit on your butt and not vote this year.  Weigh the evidence, the facts if you will, and exercise your most valuable right as an American: to elect the leader of our nation.