In 2016, I never considered voting for Donald Trump. The Johnny-come-lately Republican and his nasty schoolyard jibes seemed to me the worst degradation of American politics. But in 2020, I may be forced to vote for the man.
Hear me out.
I don’t need a bumper sticker or a lawn sign to convey my distaste for Trump — his odious tweets, his chronic mendacity and general crudeness. Over the past four years, like an oil slick that besmirches all it touches, Trump himself has managed to obscure his administration’s more-substantive accomplishments, such as focusing the world’s attention on China’s threat to global security and brokering a new era of Middle East peace.
I fear Trump’s erratic, personality-driven decision-making...
But I fear the leftward lurch of the Democratic Party even more.Oh MY God! Dread the thought. Here's what Pletka said about Trump, apparently during the 2016 campaign.
What is there to be afraid of? I fear that former vice president Joe Biden would be a figurehead president, incapable of focus or leadership... I fear the grip of Manhattan-San Francisco progressive mores that increasingly permeate my daily newspapers, my children’s curriculums and my local government.
Alas, Ms Pletka doesn't explain who has put a gun to her head to force her. That is, other than the AEI brand that has made a seemingly indelible mark on our country's laws, politics, and government.
On AEI's website, the headline issue at this moment is an brazen effort to completely undermine public education. So, it's no wonder Ms Plentka is trying to torpedo Joe Biden's campaign.
This afternoon, WaPo satirist/opinion columnist Alexandra Petri answered Pletka.
We stand together in FIERCE HOPE for regime change in America. That regime change must be accompanied by scholarship by researchers who expose the hypocrisy and oppressiveness of the unbridled capitalism that has cast a dark shadow over our land. That shadow is increasingly fostering calamities due to climate change and oppression from unregulated business practices. Without such scholarly research, another Trump-like demagogue won't be far off in our future.
Opinion by Alexandra Petri, columnist
September 15, 2020 at 1:05 p.m. MST
Believe me when I tell you that the LAST THING I could POSSIBLY want would be to vote for Donald Trump. That’s why I am so stunned that you have taken it upon yourself to go to such lengths to FORCE me to vote for him! You sick, sick monster! I don’t even like him, not even one little bit. So I hope you’re happy with what YOU are making me do, which comes to me as a total surprise and is definitely not a foregone conclusion in any way.
Over the past four years, Trump’s ominous shadow has devoured everything that was precious about America, chewed on it and spat out only bones and gristle. This has slightly obscured the accomplishments of his administration, which include, if I am remembering right (DON’T TELL ME IF I’M NOT; THAT WILL MAKE ME ANGRY, AND YOU KNOW WHO ANGRY PEOPLE VOTE FOR), ending the budget deficit and doing whatever it was Abraham Lincoln did, but better and faster.
Do I think Trump has the attributes necessary for governing? Absolutely not! He is a dangerous man, and every day we spend under his leadership is a day we lose a precious share of the world’s respect that we may never regain. There’s definitely not a “But!” coming after such a strong and overwhelming condemnation of his leadership.
But! (You MONSTER! I can’t BELIEVE you put a “BUT” right here in my otherwise full-throated condemnation! That is the only explanation for how it could have gotten there; I know I would not have put it there.) I am more afraid that Joe Biden is the unwitting puppet of dangerous socialists, something you forced me to think using a mind ray. God! You’re even more disgusting than I imagined.
It is also bizarre and, frankly, counterproductive of you to insist that I not read any of Biden’s policy positions on anything, or how you have expended all this effort to make me baselessly paranoid that some shadowy, unseen figure is pulling his strings — something I would not think on my own! Can’t believe you’ve pushed me to this point.
I should also note that, much as I hold deep, principled reservations about Trump’s leadership, I just want to say that if anyone makes me feel the least bit uncomfortable about the legacy of racism in this country or urges me to learn one particle of history that I would not like to learn, I will panic, and when I panic, I vote for Trump (which is, I admit, weird given that I have ZERO desire to do so).
Also, I am sick of media bias. Journalists never quote the president saying anything that makes him look good or sound competent. But just statistically a person must sometimes sound at least kind of competent. Like the monkey-typewriter-Shakespeare thing! So if I see anywhere that the president said something that makes him look bad, malicious or incompetent, you know what that means: I’m going to have to vote for him. Twist my arm, why don’t you!
I am not worried about any dictatorial tendencies from Trump. Yes, he says all the time now that he deserves a third term and that his first one should not be counted, and he constantly implies that he will not accept the results of the election as legitimate if they involve the counting of mailed-in ballots. He also loves nothing better than to embrace creepy strongmen abroad! But (whoa, another “but”! You must be really messed up) I just kind of don’t think he really will follow through on any of it? And what if Biden, whom I have no reason to believe would do any of these things, were secretly planning something much, much worse?
Are there people on the right as bad as the people on the left who are really what is wrong with America? Yes, I think? You made me frame that very confusingly. Sure, it’s bad that the president is giving aid and cover to white supremacists, but — I can’t BELIEVE you would make me put another “but” here! This isn’t a sentence that should have a “but” in it! Though while we’re here, I guess I would say, since you’ve forced me to — but how much do we really need to care about that? You’ve given me no choice but to vote for Trump.
Is there anything any of you could say or do that would make me not vote for him? Wow, it’s condescending questions like this that have really forced my hand.
So I am going to hold my nose and vote for Donald Trump. It would be a real shame for the country, I think, but then again, it might not be such a shame. It almost feels like you WANT me to do it. Okay, I’ll do it.God forbid that the radical takeover of American government since the 1970s be challenged. That takeover, has been nearly invisible to most of us. The voice of the American people, the American electorate, the American voter CAN and must be given heed so that those who dare to echo Lincoln's call for government, of the people, by the people and for the people actually again be heard.
We stand together in FIERCE HOPE for regime change in America. That regime change must be accompanied by scholarship by researchers who expose the hypocrisy and oppressiveness of the unbridled capitalism that has cast a dark shadow over our land. That shadow is increasingly fostering calamities due to climate change and oppression from unregulated business practices. Without such scholarly research, another Trump-like demagogue won't be far off in our future.
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