I’m Voting For Donald Trump Here’s Why
Writer, engineer, political pundit, and part-time gay porn star
I’m voting for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential primary.
Please indulge me for a moment. I’m about as liberal as they come, vote in every election , and almost always cast a straight-ticket Democratic ballot. I’m registered as an independent, however. Eons ago, during one gubernatorial election here in Massachusetts, I favored the moderate Republican candidate over his much more conservative Democratic rival. Since then I’ve preferred to remain officially neutral, voting on the issues rather than automatically with the party. But as my opinions and morals lean pretty far to the left, I almost always vote for the Donkeys.
Not this time.
An example of this approach is the “Operation Chaos” gambit that Rush Limbaugh proposed during the 2008 presidential primary. By encouraging Republican voters in states with open primaries to cross party lines to vote for Hillary Clinton, Limbaugh argued that the GOP would slow the momentum of a surging Barack Obama. To an extent, his strategy worked. According to a Huffington Post article from March of that year, “approximately 25% of Clinton’s voters in Mississippi were Republicans voting for a candidate they hate in order to try to undermine Barack Obama … Obama would have easily expanded his delegate win there from 19-14 to 24-9.” Similar results were reported in Texas and Ohio.
Which is exactly why, on March 1, I’m voting for Donald Trump.
His Taxes And Charity Scams
53. Trump has refused to make his tax returns public, a practice followed by every candidate since 1980. When accused by Clinton at the first debate of not paying federal taxes, Trump responded, That makes me smart.
54. He falsely claimed he couldnt release his return while under audit, despite Richard Nixon doing just that toward the end of his presidency.
55. Records obtained by the New York Times show that he declared a $916 million loss in 1995, which meant he could avoid paying any income tax for 18 years.
56. Trump exploited a tax loophole to avoid paying taxes on canceled debt, using a maneuver his lawyers advised him against and is now illegal, the Times also reported.57. Trump hasnt donated to his own foundation since 2008 and instead relies on donations from others, unheard of for family charities, according to the Washington Post.
58. He used the money from the charity to buy himself gifts, including a six-foot painting of himself.
59. After Trump was sued for cheating a participant at a charity golf tournament held on his course out of $1 million, he settled the suit by issuing a check for $158,000 from his charity.
60. He also donated $25,000 of foundation funds to the campaign of Florida attorney general Pam Bondi, in violation of the tax code prohibiting charities from donating to political candidates. He paid a fine as a penalty.
What Makes Some States’ Votes Count More Than Others
Candidates tend to campaign in states where the result is uncertain – that’s why people say the votes in these states “count more”.
These places are known as battleground or swing states.
The US electoral system means that in all but two states, the margin of victory doesn’t matter, as whoever gets the most votes wins all the electoral votes on offer in that state.
In states which are almost guaranteed to vote a certain way – like California or Alabama – candidates have less incentive to campaign.
They’ll put most effort into a handful of tight races, such as Florida and Pennsylvania, targeting voters that could go either way.
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Can Electors Change Their Votes
Some can, but it rarely happens. Since 1948, there have only been 16 “faithless electors” although there were seven in 2016. Five switched their votes from Hillary Clinton to other people and two changed their votes from Trump to others.
Thirty-two states and the District of Columbia have laws requiring the electors to vote for the candidate they’ve pledged to vote for and, of those, 15 have penalties for electors who don’t. The Supreme Court earlier this year upheld states’ rights to penalize faithless electors.
Technically yes, but realistically no.
Under an 1887 law, a congressman and a senator together can submit written objections to a state’s vote count. Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., has already announced his intention to do so Monday, though no senator has yet said they would join him.
If Brooks is successful in finding a partner, the count would stop and the Senate and the House would separately debate the objection on the disputed state’s vote for up to two hours. Then the House and the Senate would vote on whether to sustain the objections.
“Both houses must vote separately to agree to the objection. Otherwise, the objection fails,” the Congressional Research Service noted.
With the House under Democratic control and Republicans having only a slim majority in the Senate, the odds of that happening are zero.
The Wasted Votes Of California And Other States
In 2016, Hillary Clinton won California with 61.7 percent of the vote, giving her a majority over Donald Trump of 4,269,978. In effect, 4,269,977 of these votes were wasted. Clinton only need a majority of 1 vote, not 4.3 million, in order to win the states 55 electoral votes. This fact is important because as California trends increasingly Democratic, it promises to skew the national popular vote totals more. Nearly a million people in California voted for a third-party candidate in 2016. For the sake of argument, lets say those voters went for Joe Biden this time around. Holding all else equal, Biden would win California with a majority of 5.2 million. Because California is so big, even this modest shift in one state would have a notable effect on the popular vote, increasing the national popular votes to the Democrats by nearly a full percentage point .
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Nearly A Third Of Young Americans Say That Politics Has Gotten In The Way Of A Friendship Differences Of Opinion On Race
Thirty-one percent of young Americans, but 37% of young Biden voters and 32% of young Trump voters say that politics has gotten in the way of a friendship before. Gender is not a strong predictor of whether or not politics has invaded personal space, but race and ethnicity are. Young whites are more likely than young Blacks to say that politics has gotten in the way–and nearly half of white Biden voters say politics has negatively impacted a friendship 30% of white Trump voters say the same.
When young Americans were asked whether a difference of opinion on several political issues might impact a friendship, 44% of all young Americans said that they could not be friends with someone who disagreed with them on race relations. Sixty percent of Biden voters agreed with this sentiment, as did a majority of women and Blacks . Americans between 18 and 24 were more likely than those slightly older to feel that race relations would cause a problem with friendships. Differences of opinion on whether or not to support Trump was an issue for slightly more than a third , followed by immigration , police reform , abortion , climate change , and guns .
White House Lawyers And Other Top Doj Officials Threatened To Resign If Clark Was Named The Acting Attorney General
On 3 January, Clark told Rosen that Trump intended to appoint Clark the acting attorney general that day. That set off a scramble at the justice department, where Clark and Donoghue informed the heads of the departments various divisions what was happening. They all agreed to resign if Trump followed through.
Rosen and Donoghue met with Trump in the Oval Office that evening. One thing we know is you, Rosen, arent going to do anything to overturn the election, Trump said to open the meeting, according to Rosen. Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel, described Clarks letter as a murder-suicide pact and threatened to resign if Clark was appointed.
After a three-hour meeting, Trump ultimately decided not to fire Rosen.
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False Claims Of Fraud
Trump and a variety of his surrogates and supporters made a series of observably false claims that the election was fraudulent. Claims that substantial fraud was committed have been repeatedly debunked. On November 9 and 10, The New York Times called the offices of top election officials in every state all 45 of those who responded said there was no evidence of fraud. Some described the election as remarkably successful considering the coronavirus pandemic, the record turnout, and the unprecedented number of mailed ballots. On November 12, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a statement calling the 2020 election “the most secure in American history” and noting “here is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”
One week after the election, Republican Philadelphia city commissioner Al Schmidt said he had not seen any evidence of widespread fraud, stating, “I have seen the most fantastical things on social media, making completely ridiculous allegations that have no basis in fact at all and see them spread.” He added that his office had examined a list of dead people who purportedly voted in Philadelphia but “not a single one of them voted in Philadelphia after they died.” Trump derided Schmidt, tweeting, “He refuses to look at a mountain of corruption & dishonesty. We win!”
No One In Washington Is Sensible
I may be voting Republican this time, but I dont mind if Trump wins and Republicans lose control of the Senate. I despise Mitch McConnell . Hes been in politics so long hes completely blind and insulated from reality. So is Nancy Pelosi . They are both career politicians whose only thought in any situation is whats best for my party right now the normal rules of law and morality are out the window.
If Trump loses and the Supreme Court post hasnt been confirmed, McConnell would absolutely install a judge in the lame duck session before the new President is installed. It would be disgusting, but I wouldnt put anything past him.
In that scenario, I would definitely support balancing the court creating one extra space but not packing it with lots of new posts. That would be sensible, but I dont think anyone in Washington is sensible.
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Donald Trump Has Dignified And Built Up Totalitarian Leaders
This is kind of an odd one. The same people who talk about how mean Donald Trump is, also complain about him saying nice things about totalitarian leaders. Does anyone really believe that if Donald Trump said mean things about the totalitarian leaders the very same people would not be complaining that he is making diplomacy harder? Complaining that we wont be able to negotiate because Donald Trump is such a wildcard?
Donald Trump is a negotiator and he says the things that help the negotiation. He has made some progress with both North Korea and China. Also, Trump has negotiated some historic agreements in the Middle East. Its shocking that several Muslim nations signing normalization agreements with Israel isnt bigger news. Peace in the Middle East has been a prime foreign policy goal for every president since I dunno Carter? How can significant progress toward this goal not be big news?
So, I think a good person can look at the above and say, Trump may be saying nice things about some bad people, but he is also a great negotiator who has the best interests of the US at heart.
