Donald “Grab Em By the Pussy” Trump vs. Joe “You Ain’t Black” Biden. I am not making any predictions, because the way this year has gone, anyone who thinks they know what things are going to look like come November is crazy. My prediction would be useless anyway, because even on Election Day, I thought Hillary was going to wipe the floor with Trump.
I live in a region that is a white minority. Latinos are our largest ethnic group, we have a sizeable Asian population, and about 8% black. Most of my clients are Mexican business owners. My longest term associate, who has been working for me since the start of his career is the son of Mexican immigrants. He hates Trump and would never vote for him for obvious reasons. (You might have heard that Trump has had some derogatory things to say about Mexicans.) But many of my Mexican clients, especially the ones in agriculture, are very pro-Trump because California Democrats are waging a very destructive war on agriculture. From the people I see every day, the lines are not at a clear. Trump is marginally better for me personally because he is likely to keep income taxes down, but I wouldn’t vote for him.
Disclosure: I feel very much as I did in 2016. I am disgusted by both candidates and don’t think I could vote for either one. I might feel differently if I lived in a swing state, but I doubt it. I voted for Johnson last time, and it is very likely Jo Jorgensen will get my vote this time, even though I think she is a weak candidate who emerged from a chaotic nomination process in her party. But I feel very strongly that the only way we break the duopoly is to start voting for third parties; continuing to have the same entrenched assholes running the country is insane. Pelosi, McConnell, Schumer, and the rest on both sides have been in power forever. The differences between the parties is a pro-wrestling work that masks that they are all working for the same people: the 1000 richest Americans and the military industrial complex. Want proof? The Dems just nominated a man who wanted to slow the pace of school desegregation. I lean toward backing the Libertarians, but if you vote Green I get it. I just think the only way to stop these assholes is to stop voting for them. No third party will ever gain credibility to even present an alternative until they get enough votes that they get some attention to present their ideas so the public can pass judgment on them.
It seems particularly problematic in light of recent events that for most of his career Biden has been a tough on crime Democrat and was one of the leading forces for the 1994 crime bill. And the Iraq War. And the Patriot Act. But in a world where GW Bush and Colin Powell, men who lied us into war and the murder of innocents, get to be heroes to the left, I don’t know what to think anymore. GW punished inner city schools for testing poorly with NCLB, justifying reducing funding and resources due to test scores that showed they needed more resources, not less. I think we went through the looking glass a while ago.
I found the link I posted at the top interesting. These demographics are complicated, and Trump is the most confounding politician of my lifetime. He inspires an irrational rage in people, but often finds support in strange places.
Biden is a longtime party hack who has always been known for being pretty dumb, and at the conservative end of the Democratic Party. I remember when his presidential campaign in 1988 was derailed because he kept stealing speeches.
He seems to still have this problem.
Trump’s outrageous statements have been covered exhaustively, so I haven’t bothered to link them here. You can look at his Twitter if you need to. I’m not making predictions, but there is one thing that should concern Democrats, or those who want Trump gone. Nobody who wants Biden seems to be able to present a reason why he should be President other than he isn’t Trump. Rightly or wrongly, Trump’s supporters seem to have actual reasons for supporting him. That would seem to give him an upper hand, but what do I know?
Polls are all over the place, but polls generally predicted a Hillary win last time. Add to that that just about anything could happen next, including alien invasion, and I would not be surprised. 2020 is only going to get weirder, and no matter how ot goes, a lot of people are going to be enraged on election night. The next day, don’t wake up hating the people who voted for the other guy. In 4 years, we can do it again and it might go your way. Until then, we have to deal with each other.
However you lean, keep this in mind. 63 million people voted for Trump last time. Those people are still here even of Trump is finished, and they are all around you. 65 million people voted for Clinton last time. Those people are still here even though she lost, and they are all around you.
How a person voted does not tell you much about that person. Politics are generally the least important and least interesting thing about a person. I don’t think Trump is a particularly good President, but I don’t think he is as bad as his detractors claim; his main failing is his consistent ineffectiveness. (GW was so much worse). You don’t have to agree, but you don’t have to hate me or call me a racist. You might think Obama was our greatest President or that Bernie holds the keys to the future. I’ll disagree, but I promise not to hate you for it or call you a traitor to the nation. We all have our reasons.
Let’s be patient with each other, and not presume ill will or evil in our fellow citizens simply because they voted or thought differently from us. People do what they do politically for a myriad of reasons, and I continue to believe that people are generally decent, even those who think differently from me.
But not the matching band moms from my son’s high school. Those women are pure evil with only one solution. They can burn in hell.