Why I’m Preparing for Four More Years of Trump
By: Milton Black
Tags: Politics, Election 2020, Society, Culture, Elections

Election 2020

Why I’m Preparing for Four More Years of Trump

And Still Voting for Joe Biden…

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

The grim prospects of the next couple of days leading up to the election couldn’t be any clearer to me, as I stock up on food, supplies, and things I need, knowing full well the destruction that lies ahead if we end up with another four years of Trump. With four more years of Trump solidified, who knows what the cost of these things will look like in a few months.

Am I being a bit dramatic? Probably. But Trump has proven himself capable of shaking things up in ways that none of us could really imagine in 2016 before his election.

His wanton policy-by-tweet style, his willingness to suddenly pull US troops out of warzones in ways that could be potentially hazardous, causing his then-Secretary of Defense James Mattis to resign, and his general disregard for human life and American well-being all tip me off to the fact that we’re dealing with someone who is a liability — and that’s putting it lightly.

All of these things have shaken the markets time and again and we’re lucky to have had them recovered the way they have. I fear that a Trump reelection will jeopardize our economic security and I’m not the only one.

When I stop and think about it, I envision a world where food prices have skyrocketed because of the shortages forced by sick workers as COVID-19 rips through the United States into 2021. I see an already-wobbly stock market beginning to tumble and fall apart as the president finds himself clueless about how to mend the situation and patch up the ship he was entrusted to steer.

These specific fears of mine may never come true, they might not be what the future holds, but as time goes on, I have become more and more resigned to the idea that Trump could win the election — and that’s a terrifying prospect.

At this point, you must be wondering how? How, with a pandemic raging, with 220,000+ Americans dead, with millions upon millions unemployed still after the pandemic crash that sent our economy into a spiral of unemployment, how could I possibly think that Trump could overcome this all and win the upcoming election?

Couldn’t this be the most no-brainer election possible? I mean, who in their right mind would vote for someone who’s performed this badly in his first four years?

You’d think so…and you’d think the American people would be unanimous in their distaste for Trumpism, by now, but here we are...

The fact that it’s a close race in some states demonstrates that there’s still some value in the Trump brand that resonates with some voters for reasons I can’t possibly begin to understand.

America isn’t in her right mind. America isn’t in her right mind and maybe she never has been. I’d assume that’s how we ended up here.

Have you ever heard the saying you’re not seeing the forest for the trees?

When we get lost in the insignificant details, the poll numbers, the pundits, the dialogue, the key point here, the coronavirus death toll there, we tend to miss the overarching trends occurring. And the trend I see is a race before us where one party is running on all the same old ideas that got us here and another party is running on an ideology that — no matter how ugly — is new.

The real question is whether or not America will view the Democratic alternative as a return to normalcy or a return to the pain of the past.

As I’ve said time and again throughout the year of 2019, the Republican Party has, like it or not, gone through a radical revolution. They’ve revolutionized their ideas, what they believe, and what it means to be a member of the Republican Party, their identity.

Just eight short years ago, the party felt that Mitt Romney, the sort of centrist Senator from Utah, was their best option to be the new face of the party.

Now, Romney finds himself a complete outcast, not vicious and mean-spirited enough to lead a party that’s increasingly based on its love of raw, naked power and might, without care for principles or integrity.

Romney is a principled man and there’s no room for principles in the party of raw power, the new Republican Party…Trump’s Republican Party.

Along with Romney is a list of very principled men who didn’t fit in with Trump’s vision. Like them or not, John Bolton, James Mattis, Justin Amash, and others who’ve boldly stood up to Trump are principled people, even if by that act alone. And the party has proven time and again that it doesn’t care for principles but naked power alone.

All of this is clearly evinced by the rush to nominate a Supreme Court justice in the very hours after the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the party dancing Le Danse Macabre, the death-dance of joy over the still-warm corpse of Ruth Bader Ginsburg in their understanding of what it will do for them and their hopes of attaining power, no matter how illegitimate.

Never mind the formalities and keeping of with appearances of decency, let’s just be open about the fact that we crave power and are willing to even engage in perverse acts of hypocrisy to get it.

The Republicans worship unadulterated power and anyone who stands in the way of that, like Senator Romney, must be ostracized completely, disowned, and cast aside; just like voters in those pesky competitive districts that need to be purged and suppressed, the Republicans see anyone who isn’t wholly on-board with this new Republican identity as little more than fodder, obstacles to be cleared in the latest grab for power.

The Trump Train isn’t slowing down, it’s going full speed to a stacked court of conservative justices, it’s aggressively courting new voters that the old Republican Party had long given up on, black and Latino voters, and it’s actually not doing a bad job at it — this isn’t a party or ideology in decline, no matter how foul it may be, this is an ideology ascendant.

And when I turn over to the other hand, I open it and see an increasingly frail, yet compassionate Joe Biden, the long-time Senator and former Vice President who’s been a staple in American politics since he was first elected to the Senate in the 1970s.

Joe Biden is just the kind of compassionate leader we need right now, thoughtful, honest, quiet, willing to listen, and caring, but he’s also the old guard, business as usual, the Democratic Party establishment. When I look at the Democratic Party, I see nothing worthwhile revolutionary going on and a hesitant electorate that may or may not see the solution to the current problem in the model of the Obama Era. Especially younger voters seem hesitant in jumping on board with Biden.

In this election, America faces a choice: do we double down on insanity and selfish gluttony all the way until it kills us; or do we try with all of our might to return to decency and reestablish some sense of normalcy, whatever that may look like.

Decisions, decisions….

Let me be undeniably clear, here: I will be turning out and will be voting for Joe Biden. I would vote for a tin can before I’d vote for Donald Trump.

I’m neither a part of nor do I understand the strain of leftist voters who are sulking that their candidate didn’t get picked, threatening to not vote at all or to vote for a third-party in protest. To do so would just be irresponsible, in my view.

But they are right about one thing, the Democratic Party made a colossal mistake when it nominated Biden. There were so many bright and upcoming stars, Julian Castro and Corey Booker, there was Senator Warren, there was the classic Bernie Sanders who’s been the most revolutionary force in the party for a long time. We passed over all of them to stick with the same old, same old of the Obama-Biden era. That’s the gamble we’re taking and hopefully, it’s the right one.

Betting odds suggest that Biden has a 66.7% chance of winning the election, while Trump only has a 34.8% chance. But stranger things have happened. 2016 happened.

Maybe I’m scarred but I’m preparing for the worst because 2016 can happen again. The odds were about the same then as they are now.

I just hope the country chooses the right candidate and elects Biden so we can begin to pick up the pieces of our disheveled country and we can worry about revolutionizing, revitalizing the Democratic Party later, once Trumpism is vanquished once and (hopefully) for all.