As the 2020 Presidential Election continues to unfold, I think I may have learned something truly fundamental that I just couldn’t see before, because I was looking at the forest and the trees. I was looking at the biggest possible picture and finding so many flaws in the man currently leading our nation, that I couldn’t wrap my mind around how tens of millions of my fellow American Homo Sapiens could continue supporting him, and wanting him to lead. Florida may have solved this issue for me once and for all.
Florida will award its Electors to Donald Trump for President in 2020. He’ll win the state by 4 percentage points or so. Millions of people voted, and it was pretty evenly split with the difference between winning and losing coming down to 10’s of thousands of votes. But more people still voted for a man I find loathsome, without a single redeeming quality as I’ve written about many times. But they also voted to raise the minimum wage in the state to $15 an hour. Those two things don’t seem to able to coexist, yet they do. Why?
I think for a very large percentage of Americans, the overwhelming issue, as James Carville famously said in 1992 when Bill Clinton was running for President; “It’s the economy stupid.” People think Trump is better for the economy. It doesn’t matter if that’s exactly true… it feels true. So let’s run with that. If Trump is better for the economy, after all it was humming along pretty nicely pre-COVID and he passed a big tax cut, and the stock market is doing great, and interest rates are low. Let’s keep him there. People can’t live on a $7.50 an hour wage, so let’s raise it. Hell, let’s double it. What about everything else?!
But Trump bungled the COVID response!
Yeah, well that wasn’t his fault. It’s a virus. Came in from China. We can’t lock everything down. Look at what happened when we did. Businesses were lost. People lost their jobs. It’s a disease. We’ll take care of ourselves.
But Trump’s a racist!
Yeah well, lots of people are. Not just white people either. Plenty of minorities are racist too. Can’t legislate human nature away.
But Trump lies all the time!
All politicians lie.
But Trump is a tax cheat!
Hell, I wish I could figure out how to get away with that. I hate paying taxes too.
But he slept with a porn star!
Woohoo!
But he wants to end the Affordable Care Act and has no plan for health care!
I don’t need the government telling me I have to have health insurance if I don’t want it. Give me a good economy where I can make a good living and I’ll take care of my own health, thank you very much.
I think it may come down to the very basic concept of American individualism. There may be more of a libertarian streak running through the electorate than we realize. Granted, almost 3 million more people voted for Joe Biden so far so he should be elected as the new President. But there’s still almost 67 million people who voted for Trump. Donald Trump. Arguably the worst human being in public life. But if what you want is to be able to make money so you can take care of yourself and those you care about, and you think the best way to do that is with him in charge, then that’s how you’ll vote.
I’m not suggesting these people are right to think this way. I personally don’t think they are. I think character and honesty are critical qualities in everyone, let alone in our leaders. I think government has a major role to play in promoting the general welfare. Our founding ideals are to build a better union together. But I think I can see the appeal more clearly now if I strip away everything that doesn’t tie to someone’s economic well being, coupled with their desire to be free of government interference in their lives. Add some cultural hot button issues like owning guns to “protect” yourself, gay people having the right to marry and women getting abortions and suddenly it’s a clear choice.
Millions of Americans are about to be really pissed off and really nervous that an era of big, annoying and interfering government is about to enter their lives. And Donald Trump will still be there, bitching about how the election was stolen from him and now America is screwed and millions of people will believe him. Even if it isn’t true.
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