A friend whom I quite respect, and who still speaks to me even though I have come out as someone who is voting for Orange Man Bad, is surprised that I seem to have abandoned my tendency towards being an anarchist to risk being drenched in the stench of the republicans. Although I wrote a blog post about ‘Why I’m Voting for the Fucking Moron’, and the reasons I included there still apply, more has happened since then. Biden has ‘chosen’ Kamala Harris as his running mate and Bernie Sanders has exulted in the compromise to make Biden the most progressive president ever., and the democrats have made it quite clear that they want to ‘extend’ the Supreme Court and make the District of Columbia a state.
I think I made it very clear in 2016 that I was not supporting Donald Trump. I was horrified by the idea that Sanders might be the democratic nominee, and I said to several friends that between the two, I found Trump the lesser of the two evils. But, the democrats nominated Clinton, and I had the luxury of living in a state where my vote counts very little, Washington, so I could vote for Gary Johnson. It was only after the election that I read Clinton's It Takes a Village and I realized how glad I was that she hadn't been elected, but still, I was not expecting a Trump administration to be a good thing. I still listened to the sky-is-falling forecasts of the major news sources, who were pumping out fear of the Orange Man as fast as they could. I have friends with gay and trans kids who were worried about sending them to school after the Trump election. But, guess what? Trump didn't send anyone around to round them up or try to add some sort of ideological curricula to the schools. Instead, Betsy de Voss, whom my progressive friends most often call a witch or worse--even those who proudly call themselves witches--go figure--has actually worked to give parents more choice in the education of their children.
As the Trump years wore one, even though I had expected the worst--I mean, shucks ad golly, I'm a gay man who is appalled enough by his choice of draperies--I began to notice that the sky was not falling, that I approved of a lot f his policies, and that often he was being condemned most harshly for policies that had just continued from the Obama administration, I found it rather unlikely that Trump was actually anti-semitic when he had so many Jewish grandchildren. I found it hard to believe that he was racist when he was trying to get so many black prisoners released and so many black folks employed. But then neither Obama nor Trump were judged by the quality of their character, but by the color of their skin: Brown Man Good; Orange Man Bad.
Now, it's 2020. I'm not at all unhappy about reduced regulations--remember I am perceived as an anarchist by many who know me--nor by possibilities for peace in the Middle East, nor by a booming economy, nor by the US' having with drawn from the Paris Climate Feel-Good, because I actually do try to follow the science. I am not unhappy that the United States hasn't gotten into any more wars and has actually begun withdrawing from some. Still, there are certainly many things Orange Man Bad has done that I don't approve. In fact, he hardly ever even asks me for my approval. And still, I would rather there were a candidate for president in 2020 who were less divisive, who didn't call so many people names in 3:00 am tweets.
But hey man, here's the thing. Trump has said nasty things about the New York Times, but he hasn't censored it. It's the democrats who seem to censor free speech. Coming to power at a time when the presidency has been given and taken more power than ever before, he has been quite reticent to abuse his power. Not innocent, but compared to previous presidents, reticent. He has actually respected the rights of states, even when they have taken positions he vehemently and clearly finds repulsive.
Now, it's 2020, and although I might wish the democrats had nominated some reasonable alternative to Trump, I don't find that to be the case. Because hey man, here's the thing. I didn't vote for Trump because I 'support' Trump. I voted for Trump because I want to continue to enjoy 'the Blessings of Liberty', which, along with 'Justice, domestic Tranquility, . . . the common defense, [and] . . . the general Welfare' for which the Constitution was ordained and established. It is, I think, of great importance that the Oath of Office for not just the presidency but all national offices, is 'to support and defend the Constitution'. It interestingly enough is not to the people who ordained and established it. Should the people wish to change it, there are methods within the Constitution to do that. Now, I am I confess mostly disgusted when any politician, Orange Man Bad, or Clinton the would-be Champion or Sanders the Socialists, tells us that he is 'fighting for the people'. That is not the job of the president. The job of the president is to support and defend the Constitution. And, I suspect often in spite of himself, Orange Man Bad has done that better IMHO than a lot of presidents.
But, hey man, here's the thing: the democrats are pretty much running against the Constitution. The unfortunate thing about the Constitution, the feature that would-be-tyrants find a glitch again and again, is that it slows down change. It set up a Republic, which as Ben Franklin more or less forecast, we would often choose not to be wise enough to keep. It guards against the tyranny of the majority. It makes the president rather like a tennis judge, who no matter how much he may like one player, is expected to enforce the rules of the game. Were I a tennis judge, I would be tempted to judge for Rafa every time, not that he needs it. But then a different judge, who didn't like Rafa, could judge against him every time. And there would no more be anything to call tennis.
I am not, you see, a perfect anarchist. Then there would be no rules. I enjoy tennis, and I enjoy rules that respect the dignity of all the players of the game. One of the things that really convinced me to vote for Orange Man Bad this time, rather than for Jo Jorgensen, besides the fact that I though Gary Johnson would have been a better president thatn Jorgensen, is that watching the Democratic National Convention I saw speaker after speaker act as if the only way anyone could accomplish anything was at the pleasure and with the approval of Big Brother. Then I watched the Republican National Convention, with speaker after speaker expressing their belief in the dignity of persons as individuals, not just as citizens of Oceana.
So, hey man, here's the thing. I'm gonna do something I don't usually do, and invoke the flag. Oddly enough, we now live in a time when if one flies the flag--and I still fly the Jolly Roger--if one flies the American flat, it is assumed that one is a Trump supporter. After almost four years of the Orange Man Bad, the star-spangled banner still waves o'er a land , compared to any other land, free, and the home of at least some folks who are still brave. I don't trust that would be true under a Harris-Biden four years.
