I don’t even know where to begin. I started writing these blogs a few months ago – June 2nd to be exact. I did it because I just needed somewhere to vent about everything that was going on in the political landscape of this country. I have covered a lot of ground. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve read a number of interesting and informative books. And here we are about one week away from Election 2020. Every presidential election is often billed as ‘the most important election of our lives,’ but I think this time, it really is.
In my opinion, this nation will not be able to recover and move forward unless and until the rampant partisanship and societal polarization is addressed. That is just a fact. Even if and when an efficacious and widely available vaccine for COVID is on the street and the economy begins a slow recovery, Trump will continue to fan the flames of division and govern less than half the country. Donald J. Trump has demonstrated, in spades, that he is psychologically incapable of uniting this nation. It is just not who he is.
Governing an entity such as the United States is a very complex undertaking involving a very diverse population facing huge, hard-to-solve issues. And when you are leading a nation of 330 million people, there is a 100 percent probability that some segment(s) of that population are not going to agree with everything you say and do. That does not mean those people are unpatriotic. They have every right under the US Constitution to disagree with the leadership of this country. If the person running the country does not understand that or is uncomfortable with that reality, they should not be in the job – period.
When I talk about needing a leader who is capable of ‘uniting’ the country, I certainly don’t mean that all 330 million people will get up every morning and sing the national anthem in unison. I’m talking about a leader who, once in office, will understand the need to listen to disparate points of view and use that information to make informed, rational decisions that are in the long-term best interests of the country and ALL of its people. Trump is just not capable of doing that. He only listens to people who agree with him, disparages all others and makes all decisions through the lens of how they will benefit him.
Trump has had four years to try to show some leadership and try to solve the ultra-partisanship and, as far as I can see, he has done nothing to try to mitigate the polarization. And, in fact, he continuously fans the flames of racism, bigotry and hate. That, in my opinion, is why he does not deserve a second term. It is hard to imagine how the country could become even more divided than it already is, but after another four years of Trump, I shudder to think what this country will look like. It will certainly be a different America than anything most of us have experienced in our lifetimes.
My argument against Trump is not a Democrat versus Republican issue. I am an Independent and rarely vote a straight party ticket. I vote for people. If there was a reasonable Republican candidate running against Biden, I would have to weigh all of the factors before making a decision. But the fact is, Trump is not a true Republican. He may have co-opted the party, but based upon past platforms from the Republicans, he is not a true Republican. So, let’s just take political parties off the table.
My issue with Trump is simply that he is psychologically incapable of governing a diverse democratic country of 330 million people. He ran his businesses as an authoritarian who never had to be accountable to anyone. Even when he screwed up, either his father or the banks would bail him out. Or he would have his army of lawyers litigate ‘opponents’ into submission. In his companies, if people disagreed with him, he could have them fired. Given this environment in which he has lived his entire life, he has never been in a position where he had to learn to cooperate and build consensus. The whole concept is foreign to him. This view is certainly consistent with all of the books I have read about Trump. He has a very transactional view of the world. It’s a zero-sum game – someone always wins and someone always loses. There is no room for compromise or anything resembling a ‘win-win’ situation.
The country will not fully recover economically and resume its place on the world stage with a President who refuses to be the president to half the population and does not understand the value of cooperating with strategic allies. That’s just not how it works. Imagine trying to run a business in which you only talked respectfully to and rewarded half of the employees. How do you think that business would fair? Not very well. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what is happening in this country right now.
I guess we’ll all know within the next couple of weeks how this will play out. I’ll certainly be sitting on the edge of my seat! The fact is, I’ve been sitting on the edge of my seat much of the last four years. I think it’s time we are all able to just sit back comfortably on the sofa for a while and relax. I’ve had enough of the chaos, governing by Tweet and childish name calling and tantrums. It’s well past time to tell this playground bully that he needs to go find another sandbox to play in.
Well said. For Trump to be a leader, clarity is far better than certainty. In this world nothing is certain. By saying you have certainty to predict the future saying “The pandemic will end soon” or “Masks and social distancing will not work”, and are found to be wrong and will not admit it, you become a liar and will lose trust. Especially from people expecting character from a leader. Clarity is demonstrated by intellectual awareness of the situation and being truthful by saying you cannot predict the future but will use current knowledge and have a game plan to mitigate the situation. By this you will build trust. This is simple logic. This concept seems to allude Trump and his supporters.