Similarly to the 2016 election, 2024 is presented by the media as being between "two highly unpopular choices." People seem to believe, as they did in 2016, that this is a normal election. In 2020, enough voters were alarmed at all the horrible things that Trump had done, and that knowledge put Joe Biden in the White House. But memory of that four years seems to have faded shockingly quickly.
Let's look back.
In 2016, Trump made grandiose promises without having worked out any plan as to how to deliver on them.
He promised that he would repeal Obamacare and replace it with "something terrific." He never elaborated on that statement, and no one observing his campaign activity and, later, his time in the White House would see any evidence of anyone doing work on a replacement plan.
He promised to work on America's infrastructure. Every year, "Infrastructure Week" came and went with no signs on anyone doing any work on it.
He promised to build a wall at our southern border, and to make Mexico pay for it. How anyone would believe he could deliver on that promise is beyond me. He did put up some sections of very flimsy wall, and took money out of the military budget to do that. Perhaps one could say that the Mexican immigrants who have joined the U.S. military paid for that?
He promised to eliminate the national debt in eight years. It's lucky we only gave him four years, because he grew the budget deficit by fifty percent.
He promised to bring back coal, a horrible idea. We're lucky he failed.
He promised to bring back manufacturing, but made no visible effort to do so.
Meanwhile, during the campaign, he revealed himself to be a crooked businessman and a moral disaster as a human being.
We found out, by his own recorded words, that he is a serial molester of women. We found out that, as the funder of beauty pageants, he felt it was his right to enter the dressing rooms and view teenage models in various stages of undress.
We found out that his Trump University was a scam. Trump, who claims he never settles lawsuits, settled that one.
We found out that he doesn't pay many of his building contractors, most of whom don't have the funds to take him to court for payment.
We saw him making fun of a reporter's physical handicap.
We heard him insulting Gold Star parents. His idea of comforting a grieving military wife was to tell her that her husband "knew what he was getting into." He called soldiers losers.
After the 2016 election, pundits waited for an expected "pivot" into a more presidential persona. (Some pundits are apparently still waiting in 2024.
In spite of promises to release his tax returns at some vague future date, he never did.
He opened a Trump hotel in the Old Post Office, and charged foreign dignitaries ridiculous rates when they came to visit.
He never divested from his business interests while president.
He assigned some of the most difficult governing tasks to his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who had no particular talent or experience to get those jobs done.
He promised us that he would be working hard every day, not golfing like Obama. He golfed more than any president in history, at his own properties.
He put asylum-seekers in cages, and separated children from their families. Some of those children could not be located later.
He had no understanding of climate change. He claimed that there were "piles of bald eagles" at the feet of windmills, and that the sound of windmills causes cancer. He continues to claim that windmills over water kill whales.
He hates electric cars, and believes that batteries in electric boats will electrocute passengers if the boat sinks.
His handling of the COVID-19 crisis led to unnecessary deaths. He had previously dismantled the government organization charged with handling epidemics. He didn't want testing for COVID because more testing meant higher numbers and made America look bad. He did not trust the scientists who understood the disease. He advocated various dangerous quack remedies: injecting disinfectant into patients; using hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin. He was against the use of masks and social distancing. He distrusted vaccines, while taking credit for their production. His example caused many to refuse the vaccines, and demand unproven and dangerous "cures." Many of these people died horrible deaths.
He admired despotic rulers, such as Vladimir Putin, Rodrigo Duterte, Kim Jong Un, and Viktor Orban, while alienating our longtime allies.
I would go on with his disastrous presidency, but I think it would just cause numbness in the reader.
It is well-known (although perhaps not well enough known or enough believed) that he attempted to prevent the Biden administration from taking office through a violent insurrection, attempts to create fraudulent slates of electors, and frivolous lawsuits (all dismissed).
Now, Joe Biden is described as old and feeble, which I suppose he is, but during the last four years he has done a solid, if unflashy, job. The undecided voter may somehow feel that the choice between Trump and Biden is a choice between two equally bad candidates. I believe that anyone who sees these two as equally bad is sadly politically disengaged and thinks that we're in the midst of a normal election cycle.
I was in the barber shop yesterday, and the barber said a couple of things that alarmed me. First, he said he figured that Trump did a pretty good job as president. I would say that the barber is either a low-information citizen, or a high-misinformation citizen if he really thinks Trump did anything close to a good job. Second, he lamented that "in the old days, people in presidential debates talked about their policies, while nowadays they just call each other names." If the barber were really paying attention, he would know that there is only one name-caller, and that his performance in his last debate with Joe Biden was designed to prevent any policies from being discussed.
Undecided voters, please try to see Trump for what he is, and try to get enough information to differentiate between two very different candidates.
