There Were Many Reasons to Vote for Trump in 2016

There are none to vote for Trump in 2020

I voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. It was the right choice, and I’m glad that I did so. However, speaking as someone who voted for Hillary, let me say this: there were many reasons to vote for Donald Trump in 2016.

Before I get to those reasons, let we admit something else: there were many reasons to vote against Hillary Clinton in 2016. Again, I say so as someone who voted for her, not against her. But I voted for Hillary knowing the baggage she carried. I think she would been a good president…but she was a terrible candidate.

One of the biggest piece of baggage Hillary Clinton was her carried was her association with Bill Clinton’s presidency, and his extramarital affair. This includes being associated with his lying about that affair.

Hillary Clinton gained public prominence in part through her husband: no one voted for Hillary when she was first running many things in the White House. They voted for Bill. Therefore, though she is highly qualified, she got her start through family connections, which suggests nepotism. We have had more than one member of the Bush family in the White House, and we don’t need to have political dynasties in the United States. We don’t need a second Clinton, and that is another reason to vote against her, or a cluster of them.

Then there were the reasons that are real for many people, if less valid. When she is doing interviews with people, Hillary Clinton often comes off as warm, caring, and even humorous. She can tell and appreciate a joke. However, when speaking in public, she could seem harsh and unlikable. Again, I think she would’ve been a good president, but there were times when I winced at her public appearances.

A number of scandals swirled around the Clinton family, and one, the Benghazi tragedy, is hung directly on her neck. The loss of these brave American warriors is real and tragic. However, using that as a disqualifier is insufficient, unless one gets one’s news solely through Fox News, since Hillary went through 11 hours of testifying before Congress on the topic. She proved she had done all she could.

Hillary often seemed arrogant during her campaign, like she already knew she deserved to be president. There were times when she didn’t see the warning signs on the horizon, like the fact that the Midwestern states were actively unhappy. She might not have been able to address it, but she would’ve been a better candidate if she tried. All of those then, are reasons to vote against Hillary Clinton.

There were good reasons to vote for Trump in 2016.

Many people have strong and fervent commitment to the free market. There is no doubt that eight years of the Obama presidency encroached upon the workings of the free market. The very successes of the Obama presidency, such as Obamacare, are negatives and national sins for this section of the population. Any Republican committed to free market solutions would’ve seen better than yet another Democrat. The Democratic platform included an explicit commitment to protecting women’s reproductive rights, and millions of Americans consider abortion murder. Though his position on abortion shifted around some during his campaign, Trump eventually settled on a powerfully anti-abortion position.

Those weren’t the only reason to vote for Donald Trump in 2016. I watch some of his speeches, and as old as his ideas were, his delivery was energetic. It was powerful. When he took part in the debates, he did so on his own terms. He reshaped the public dialogue, and demonstrated outside of the box thinking. The single biggest example of this was him simply skipping one of the presidential debates. No other candidate dared to do so: he seemed bold and successful.

There were other reasons to vote for Trump in 2016 that are understandable.

Donald Trump is rich, and he is known for being rich and successful. Former President Calvin Coolidge said, “After all, the chief business of the American people is business. They are profoundly concerned with producing, buying, selling, investing and prospering in the world,” a sentiment often boiled down to “the business of America is business.” If that is the case, then there is no better person to be in charge of America than a successful businessman. Many people see Donald Trump as a successful businessman. They knew him from The Apprentice, The Art of the Deal, and from his many years of real estate development in the greatest see in North America: New York City. Many of us were not privy to the details of his finances, and so we had to take his word for this success. Trusting a man’s word is not a bad thing.

Throughout society over the last couple of decades, there has been a trend of managers moving from one field to another, applying the general skills of management learned in one business to another business in a different market. Donald Trump offered that expertise. He offered the dream that a businessman would come in and fix the American economy. America had recovered from the recession of 2000 housing collapse of 2008 under Obama, but it did not see a hugely booming economy. Donald Trump offered that dream, and people want that dream. They yearn for booming success that carries them along, and Trump offered that.

There were also reasons to vote for Donald try 2016 that were dark, loathsome, and un-American.

The easiest examples of these traits can be seen in Donald Trump’s treatment of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Ronald Reagan once said, “Whatever else history may say about me when I’m gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears; to your confidence rather than your doubts.” Donald Trump is no Ronald Reagan. He appeals not just to people’s worst fears, but to their most intense anger and foulest hatreds.

Donald Trump has enemies. He called Hillary Clinton “A nasty woman.” He presided over crowds chanting “lock her up.” Donald Trump has enemies. Donald Trump has a mob of followers who call for extralegal violence, and who engage in extralegal violence. Donald Trump has thugs.

Of the dangerous and the many dangerous and un-American attributes Donald displays, the ones that might appeal to people, to their dark side, are his racism and his blatant denial of facts. Often these blended together. Nowhere is this more visible than his long-standing attack on Barack Obama, such as his claims that he was not born in the United States. Donald Trump rose to political prominence based on this and similar attacks on people of color and on the truth. But for those who are angry over race, and who are not served by reality, this too would’ve been appealing in 2016. This can be seen as well in Trump’s claims that he would “build a wall.”

For all the reasons to vote for Trump in 2016 — and this is only a handful of them — none of the good reasons remain in 2020.

Let me say that again: while there were reasons, and good reasons, to vote for Donald Trump in 2016, there are no good reasons remaining to vote for Trump in 2020.

He has shown that if a businessman is the right person to guide the American economy, Donald Trump is not that businessman. He has cut taxes at times, and cut regulations, which is allowed corporations to spend less fighting pollution. This has revved up the engines of capital for some time. It has not, however, addressed our major and long-standing economic issues. Economic inequality has gotten worse under Donald Trump, not better. The general economy suffers under Trump. The best example of this is the massive drop in the GDP which happened during the second quarter 2020. There has literally never been simpler drop since World War II.

Trump’s outside of the box thinking that endeared him to many has gone too far. No longer does he just break social norms the daring fashion, like skipping a debate. Now he plays fast and loose with the Constitution, with ethics, with science, and with facts, waving away laws and calling expert claims a “hoax.”

It is not a Democrat who is suggesting wild unproven cures for the pandemic. It is Donald Trump. All of the things that he accused others of, he and his family have done and more. The potential nepotism I disliked about the Clintons? That is a drop in a bucket to what Jared Kushner and the Trumps have done, raking in ill-gotten gains for personal benefit as people die. The only reasons left to vote Donald Trump from are the bad ones.

Donald Trump is a racist who denies reality, but he makes you feel good to hate the same people he hates. He is a clumsy fascist who is trying to turn America to the dark side. If he had a conscience, he would resign. If Republicans had guts, they would have removed him when he was impeached. But only the members of the Lincoln Project, and people like Michigan’s Justin Amash or Utah’s Mitt Romney had the guts to call him on his actions.

There were many reasons people voted for Donald Trump. Some of these reasons were good. Some were less so. All of the good reasons are gone. All that is left are the lies, the racism, the corruption, and the denial. Now it is time to choose again, to send this destructive man home.

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