IF NOT TRUMP, WHOM?

You are a moderate Democrat. You have always voted Democrat. You come from a family of loyal Democrats, stretching all the way back to FDR and the New Deal. The Party is part of your DNA. Voting Democrat is so engrained in you that you voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 even though you disagreed with many of her policies and disliked her, personally.

Now, however, you face a dilemma with respect to the 2020 election. You don’t particularly like President Trump, especially his penchant for tweeting whatever seems to come into his head, but you are in accord with most of his policies, such as the tax cut, support of the military and police, securing our borders, job creation, and his strong support of the American worker. The only problem is he is a Republican, and you have always voted Democrat, always, no matter what, often without giving it a second thought. My God, you even voted for Carter, Dukakis and Kerry!

The problem is you don’t recognize the Party anymore. There are over 20 candidates and to your mind, none of them speaks for you. Each one is severely flawed. Among the major candidates, you have always liked Joe Biden, the front runner. But, the current edition is not the Joe Biden you remember. His public appearances have been extremely worrisome. He seems unsure of himself, fumbling, stumbling and bumbling through his answers to even simple questions. Furthermore, he did poorly in the debates. He seemed indecisive and weak. At 76, it appears he is “losing it.” Moreover, like the other candidates you feel he has been pandering to the far left voters, and that makes you very uneasy.

From what you have seen, the political views of all the other candidates, especially Sanders and Warren, are geared toward Socialists rather than traditional mainstream moderate or even liberal Democrats such as yourself. How can you trust that any of them, if elected, will moderate their policies? The situation makes you very uneasy, and you have a hard time justifying voting for any of them.

Additionally, you don’t like that they label anyone who disagrees with them a racist, a white supremist, or a misogynist. Not only do they label President Trump as such, but also anyone who voted for him, contributes to his re-election campaign, or supports him in any way. They condone, or at least, do not condemn, indiscriminate harassment and violence against Trump supporters by ANTIFA thugs and others. According to them, roughly half the country falls into the above categories. That seems counterintuitive to you as neither you nor, as far as you know, any of your family and friends has ever met such a person. This lack of tolerance troubles you greatly. Haven’t these people ever heard of the Bill of Rights?

Additionally, they are being aided and abetted by a media that you feel is strongly biased toward the left. You used to be a loyal viewer of CNN, but lately all they talk about is the “racism and white supremist” attitude of Mr. Trump and his supporters. Perhaps, Mr. Trump’s claim of fake news is correct after all.

They are appealing to voters’ basest instincts. You cringe at the thought of any of them running the country. Whatever happened to the Party of FDR, JFK, LBJ and Bill Clinton. This is not it, and these candidates do not reflect your values and politics.

Moreover, they don’t offer realistic plans to resolve the issues you care about, such as income inequality, border security, the runaway cost of healthcare, and student loan debt. They seem to care more about illegal immigrants than Americans.

For example, most, if not all, of the candidates have endorsed the following:

1. Open borders, or at least considerably relaxed enforcement of immigration laws.

2. Free healthcare for everyone, including illegal immigrants.

3. Free college tuition.

4. Forgiveness of student debt.

5. Unrestricted abortion, even post-birth.

6. The Green New Deal.

7. And, to pay for all these goodies, a tax increase and a wealth tax.

You like free stuff as much as the next guy, but you are extremely bothered by these policies. You are not stupid. You know there is no such thing as “free.” Someone will have to pay for all this. You know that these programs will cost many trillions of dollars per year. In fact, no one has the foggiest idea of the total cost. There are not enough “rich people” to pay for it all. Guess who will be footing the bill? That’s right, the middle class. These policies will bankrupt the country.

CONCLUSION

So, to sum up, you are in a quandary. As a lifelong Democrat, you do not want to vote for Mr. Trump, but you are extremely vexed by the direction of the Dem Party. But, if you do not vote for Mr. Trump for whom would you vote? For whom could you vote?

Upon reflection, you realize that there is no one else. The politician whose policies are aligned most closely with yours is Mr. Trump. None of the Dem candidates is representing the traditional moderate Democratic policies you treasure. You feel betrayed. The Party of the middle class, the blue collar workers, and the downtrodden Americans has become Socialist and is more interested in helping illegal immigrants than its own citizens.

So, guess what? On Election Day you will do the unthinkable. You will break with a lifetime of tradition and pull the lever for Donald Trump, a Republican. You’d rather not, but you have been left with no choice. You will not tell anyone; they would probably not understand anyway, but you will do it.

In my opinion, the story of the fictional voter I described above will be repeated millions of times on Election Day. After all, why would anyone but a hardcore Socialist or a clueless person vote for any of the Dem candidates? And, folks, that is why Mr. Trump will win re-election handily and, perhaps, in a landslide reminiscent of Johnson-Goldwater, Nixon- McGovern, or Reagan-Mondale.