Hi friends ! None of us enjoy speaking ill of others, especially not our own friends or co-workers or family or even acquaintances. We are very sentimental and want to be charitable even towards those on the other side of the political aisle. I get that . And in the past, one could make reasonable arguments that their past presidential nominees and some of their Congresspeople were good humans with strong character who loved their family and their country and who were people of integrity. We disagreed with them politically, but most Democrats (but probably not most Kossacks) could admit that they (their previous presidential nominees ) were good but flawed people, as we all are (me by far most of all). As progressives, we are compassionate and care about others. We felt that their policies were mean-spirited and hurt the vulnerable, but most Democrats could admit that these people were good if flawed humans and their voters and supporters were as well. Before I begin in earnest, I will posit straight away that I feel that I am an extraordinarily flawed human whose flaws far outweigh my virtues (if any). I have a very poor opinion of myself, recently reinforced . The simple truth is that I am the least of all people with only certain exceptions. I do want to make clear that I have no one person in mind when I write these words. They are not directed at any one person. I was not in the voting booth with anybody else. So, I don’t know how or for whom any one voter voted. This is not targeting any one individual. I am NOT thinking about any one person when I write this. This essay explores the concept of the morality of Trump voters. It is more complex than simply labeling all such people as purely evil with no good in them. I do maintain that Trump voters are not good people who value A or are not good people who value B or are not good people who value C. Notice that I am not stopping with not good people. So, at least here in this essay, I am not simply advocating that every single Trump voter is not a good person period. I am advocating the position that no Trump voter is a good person who loves and supports democracy and free and fair elections , that no Trump voter is a good person who loves justice, that no Trump voter is a good person who values and reveres life, that no Trump voter is a good person who values Biblical Christian ethics / morality, and that no Trump voter is a good person who opposes bigotry. That’s the thesis statement for this essay.
As I wrote above, Donald Trump’s actions after the election were perfectly foreseeable. A good person who loves democracy could not have voted for Donald Trump in 2020. Donald Trump called for the imprisonment of a political opponent at a political rallies in 2016. (Quick note — my laptop’s numerical key for six isn’t functioning — I am pasting a copy and going into tablet mode with the tablet keyboard so please be aware if this becomes an issue later or you see circumlocutions or the number written out). This is the act of third world dictators in tin pot countries, not the act of presidential candidates in our American democracy. A person who loves democracy would not be able to vote for a presidential candidate that does such a thing. He also called that election “rigged”. Furthermore, PRIOR TO THE ELECTION THIS YEAR , he initiated an effort to persuade state legislators in Pennsylvania and Michigan to select his slate of electors even if he lost the popular vote. Again, this was down prior to this year’s election. So, whoever voted for him would have been aware of this and voted for him anyway. He also said, “We need to get rid of the ballots!” Those are the words of a dictator, not a presidential candidate in America. And he said that prior to the election as well. He already cast the validity and legitimacy of this year’s election into doubt prior to the election. So, his voters, each and every one of them knew some or all of these facts prior to voting for him. Nobody who is a good person who loves democracy could vote for such a candidate.
Nobody who is a good person who cares about justice could vote for such a candidate. Trump is guilty of at least (and I can name and document them) 15 serious felonies over the time from 2015 to 2020. Robert Mueller was and is a lifelong conservative republican and Marine and former Director of the FBI. This is not in dispute. He documented ten instances of Obstruction of Justice. This and the Ukrainian crime were and are so well known that it is simply not possible to be ignorant of them. The coverage of the Ukrainian crime was wall to wall and could not be missed. Congress under Article 1 Section 8 of the US Constitution has the power of the purse. This is explicitly stated in the US Constitution. Nor has Congress given up this power (so it is different than an AUMF for example, an authorization for the use of military force which enables the executive to initiate military action and war). Congress approved foreign aid for Ukraine. They also verified that Ukraine was eligible to receive it. While the money was going through the Treasury Department, it was not ever subject to the powers of the president of the United States. He had and has zero authority to delay it or alter it or deny it (the foreign aid). Yet, on his telephone call when the Ukrainian president asked for that money to be delivered (since it was so much later than when it was supposed to have been delivered), Trump IMMEDIATELY responded that he needed a favor. The fact that this response by Trump was immediately after the request shows that Donald Trump was seeking to extort a political favor from a foreign government in exchange for the money that Congress had already approved. It is illegal for a presidential candidate to solicit an in kind contribution from a foreign national or a foreign country or government (and this would have been exactly that) and this is a felony. What is far worse, however, is that Donald Trump arrogated to himself such a power that is exclusively given to Congress. Using money from the federal government for his own political purposes is extraordinarily serious and dangerous. It is an abuse of power. Imagine the vast sums of money that the president could use for his own political gain if he could simply control personally alone any and all foreign aid or simply money in the Treasury or that goes through the Treasury Department. Furthermore, this would make him subject to blackmail from a foreign government and make him obligated to a foreign government. For all of these reasons and more, since the Ukrainian crime was universally known and the Obstruction of Justice was so well documented and also universally known, it is not possible for a good person who loves justice to have voted for Donald Trump in 2020.
The novel coronavirus pandemic has completely changed the American way of life. This dangerous virus has taken 275,000 lives. Bob Woodward had Trump speaking using his own voice and words on recorded tape that demonstrated beyond any doubt that Trump had been lying about the novel coronavirus to the American public. There were calls to “Fire Fauci” at his political rallies at which he was present. He had abdicated his responsibility to manage or contain the virus prior to the election. Donald Trump is a narcissist of the first order and an extreme present hedonist. This explains his actions and inactions. While not all of his failures to manage this are equally well known, the lying about the virus was universally known. He is completely apathetic regarding the loss of life due to the virus. Therefore, it is impossible for a good person who reveres and values life as a Christian value to have voted for Donald Trump in 2020.
Donald Trump is not only a narcissist and an extreme present hedonist, he is a very evil and immoral person. He does not concede that he has ever acted wrongly or done anything wrong. Now a “godly” fundamentalist Christian must keep the marriage bed clean (Hebrews) . He has never admitted that he has ever done anything wrong. He is incapable of admitting serious moral failures and owning up to the fact that he has acted immorally or done anything wrong. Yet, the Access Hollywood tape was heard by everybody; the Access Hollywood tape was heard universally. It was not possible to miss this. He has had 30 affairs during three marriages and is accused of rape by 27 women. The Access Hollywood tape refers to a time when his wife was pregnant and he called the woman he was trying to seduce a “bitch” (“I moved on her like a bitch”) and she was married. Then we have all of Trump’s felonies (bank and tax fraud — you can’t give the same property a really high value when applying for a loan and then a really low value when determining your tax liability when you are doing both at the same time — this is textbook bank and tax fraud and it is a serious felony and the Obstruction of Justice and the Campaign Finance Law violations ). Moreover, it is well known that Trump is the most dishonest president we have ever had with more documented lies than any other president we have ever had. This was almost all universally known and therefore it is impossible for a good person who values the Christian morality and mandates and ethics that the Christian Bible teaches to have voted for Trump in 2020.
It is universally known that Donald Trump is an OG birther, propagating the racist conspiracy theory that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. He was an adult when he and his father marked rental applications with a C to tell the leasing managers to deny the rental applications because the applicant was an African American. He spoke of Mexicans as drug dealers and rapists. He spoke of “shithole” countries which were such in his little racist mind because black people lived there. He demeaned an Hispanic judge who resided in Indiana and said that he should not rule on the case because his ethnicity made him biased. He pushed for a ban on Muslims. He spoke down to women “you never do (think)” and “bleeding out of wherever” and his son pushed the use of the term whore against Vice President Elect Kamala Harris. He said that there were “very fine people” in the KKK. His racism and bigotry is universally known . Perhaps half of his voters voted for him precisely because of his bigotry. However, even for the other half, bigotry was NOT A DEALBREAKER. For whom is bigotry not a dealbreaker when we are speaking of political candidates ? There is only one simple and undeniable answer to that question. Only bigots don’t find bigotry to be a dealbreaker for a political candidate. His birtherism and these other statements are universally known, not allowing for any exceptions. Therefore it is impossible that Trump voters are good people who support social / racial justice and oppose bigotry.
So, there were not any Trump voters who are good people who love and support democracy and free and fair elections or are good people who value justice or are good people who value Biblical Christian ethics/ mandates, or good people who value and revere life, or good people who oppose bigotry. This doesn’t mean that we don’t love some of them, our family and friends. It doesn’t mean that in other ways that some of these Trump voters are talented people or a small percentage in narrow ways well-educated or that these people don’t do any good at all. It simply says that there are exactly zero people who voted for Trump in 2020 who are good people who love and support democracy and free and fair elections and zero who are good people who value justice and zero who are good people who revere life and zero who are good people who value Biblical Christian morality/ mandates, and zero who oppose bigotry. Not one.
This isn’t any fun. There is no joy to be had here. I think of it from a standpoint of set theory. Every member a in Set B has characteristic C. I have nobody specific in my mind at all and I don’t know how any one person voted (except I know that we Kossacks almost [there is probably at least one member here who did actually vote for Trump] all voted for Biden). This is not to say that these people don’t do some good in the world either. Bad people do good things. Good people do bad things. Life is complex. I view myself as a failure anyway. It is important to know and affirm that people choose their sources of information and that the choices that they make for those sources of information are often manifestations of their character. When people choose to read Breitbart, they are making a moral choice. Therefore, trying to limit the moral culpability of those people who voted for Trump based upon their failure to think critically and better evaluate their sources of information and their acceptance of conspiracy theories doesn’t work. Our sentimentality and our desire to affirm our coworkers, friends, acquaintances and family may or may not come from a good place, but it is perfectly understandable. Sentiment must yield to and be based upon truth. Calling good evil and evil good is perverse (Scripture).
Again, in the past, we could say that there are good people who voted for Democratic presidential candidates and good people who vote for Republican presidential candidates. Most Democrats would concede that there were some good Republican elected officials even if we strongly disagree with their views. This is not that time. We are beyond that period. Now, there is a great moral chasm between the two parties. If we imagine that the backers of Trump are good people who are with us on ethics and morality (which is a needed basis in order to persuade and argue — if we don’t have a shared view of ethics as well as a shared view of what is a reliable source of information, then we cannot reason together and make progress), then we will waste time and effort that could be better spent pursuing our worthy goals.
Finally I want to simply point out a simple truth. No republican president has balanced a budget since before Ronald Reagan. They explode the deficit and the national debt. President George Herbert Walker Bush led us into a recession. President Bill Clinton with a Democratically controlled US House of Representatives (1992-1994 the budget and legislation passed during that time is what brought the economic recovery later. It always takes a year or longer for legislation and passed budgets to affect the US economy because of its size and complexity.). President George Walker Bush led us into the Great Recession, President Barack Obama with a Democratic Congress got the recovery act passed and led us into the single longest continuous period of peacetime private sector job growth that the country has ever known, and Donald Trump led us into an even worse economic recession. So, the last two presidents to reduce the deficit were both Democrats, President Bill Clinton and President Barack Obama. The last three republican presidents all led us into a recession. The last two democratic presidents led us into economic recoveries. A third of Americans are behind in their mortgage or rent. Our country is in real economic trouble and until the virus is contained, there will be no real recovery. We need another round of stimulus in the hands of the American public. We are seeing nearly 3,000 people dying a day due to the novel coronavirus , we have over 100,000 people hospitalized due to the novel coronavirus, and we are at over 277,000 deaths due to the novel coronavirus in America. After the impact from Thanksgiving is felt, these numbers will worsen. We are just about out of beds in hospitals across the country. The virus is surging. Representative AOC is right: we need to pay people to stay home (unless they have essential jobs). If we don’t, then we are going to force people into a horrible choice which will lead to an even greater surge in deaths , perhaps 4,000 deaths a day (and the other choice is for people to be evicted and starving).
There would have been some economic headwinds from the pandemic no matter the president. However, had the pandemic been properly managed and contained and fought (as a Governor John Kasich or a President Mitt Romney or many other republicans as well as Democrats would have), then the recession would not have been nearly as bad. The same is true for public health . The pandemic would have presented a strong public health challenge to any president and some lives would have been lost, but we could likely have prevented 80+% of the deaths if Trump had not misled the public about the pandemic and had supported and promoted the wearing of masks, social distancing, mandating staying at home … instead of politicizing it and this denialism. Until the public health situation is resolved and we see a recovery in public health, we will not see an economic recovery. The jobs report was bleak. There is a dramatic slowdown in the recovery. Long term unemployment is awful. The job growth was half of what was predicted and the unemployment rate only went down due to a drop in the labor participation rate. The gross domestic product shrank by 32.1% in the second quarter, a record. This is the first president to have fewer people employed at the end of his term than at the beginning.
What we are seeing Trump do now is simply a continuation of his actions which started in 2016 and continued right before this election. The republican senate is complicit in allowing his attempts to subvert democracy and attempt a coup and give lie after lie about the election. Only a handful have acknowledged that Joe Biden won in a free and fair election devoid of widespread fraud despite the results of the recounts and the certifications and the results in the court cases (Trump is 1-39 — or worse and the only case that he won involved reducing the distance between observers and election workers to six feet and in no case have they presented evidence of widespread fraud and they have lost and been excoriated by judges whom he himself picked for the federal bench.) 70% of the almost 75 million people who voted for Trump believe Trump’s lies. The remaining 30% still had to know that this was coming based upon what he had already done before this election. And nobody who was not okay with this would have voted for him knowing that this was coming and it was 100% foreseeable based upon what he had already said and done in 2016 and prior to the 2020 election. And when well armed uneducated maniacs believe that there was widespread fraud in the presidential election and that the other side is going to get away with it, then death threats are going to be issued and sooner or later we will see people murdered because of Trump’s lies. And all Trump 2020 voters will be culpable for it because even those who may claim that they don’t support what Trump is saying and doing now had every reason in the world to know that this was coming based upon his past.
Very last point. It is hard to imagine that we could get a decent stimulus / coronavirus passed after President Elect Biden and Vice President Elect Kamala Harris are sworn in unless we control the US Senate. It is absolutely imperative that we win the two US Senate elections in Georgia, Ossoff over Perdue and Reverend Raphael Warnock over Kelly Loeffler. Both Perdue (a prolific stock trader who traded more than the next five most prolific US Senators and did so with companies who were within the purview and oversight of his committee and subcommittee assignments) and Loeffler (who lied to the public about the pandemic but made trades based upon intelligence indicating it would be worse than what she told the public) engaged in insider trading and were more worried about profiting from the pandemic than protecting their constituents from it by pushing for a novel coronavirus package or healthcare or economic relief. Jon Ossoff and Reverend Raphael Warnock (whose church she visited and whom she praised when she visited it earlier this year) would be serious upgrades for Georgians and would take the gavel away from Mitch McConnell which is vital. There are only so many executive actions Joe and Kamala can take through executive order and I don’t know that the republican senators who claim to be moderates (Mitt Romney, Pat Toomey, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Ben Sasse, ) would actually work with Joe Kamala to get good legislation passed. I find it highly likely that if we don’t win those races, Congress will be paralyzed and we won’t be able to get anything meaningful passed. That will really hurt the American people who need financial relief and help in managing the pandemic.
Saturday, Dec 5, 2020 · 6:04:49 PM +00:00
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Dem
I must admit that I am stunned to read from Mark’s diary about the Washington Post survey of the 245 republicans in Congress, both in the US Senate and in the US House of Representatives that 222 either don’t know who won the presidential election or refused to say which as Mark wrote was described the Washington Post as “complicit silence” .
This sentimentality and willingness among some to give Trump voters a free pass or an out not allowed by logic or fact is outrageous. 222 of 245 ? Don’t know or refused to say who won the presidential election ? Hillary Clinton called to concede within one minute of the AP calling the election despite winning the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes. She conceded. She helped by participating in the peaceful transition of power. Donald Trump and his legal team have produced zero evidence in the eyes of judges, many of whom were appointed by he himself, for the lies and false claims. The differences between 2016 and now are numerous and substantial: (1) She conceded, he did not (2) he has produced zero evidence whereas Robert Mueller’s report and the Rubio report both document campaign election law violations and collaboration between the Russians and the Trump campaign . Thus, we had some basis in fact to object to the legitimacy of the presidency of Donald Trump (3) He went to court and keeps losing. She did not go to court. (4) Congressional Democrats did not deny the Donald Trump was the president elect. Congressional republicans are denying that Joe Biden is the president elect.
2016 was NOT any kind of precedent for what Trump and worse the Congressional republicans. At this point, there can be zero doubt who will be occupying the White House nor can there be any doubt that this was a free and fair election, devoid of widespread voter fraud. When Bill Barr who applied for the position by writing an essay demonstrating that he would serve as Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and not the Attorney General for the country in order to replace Jeff Session who was replaced precisely because he would not act enough like the president’s personal lawyer says that there is zero evidence of widespread fraud and Rush Limbaugh says that if you claim that you have massive evidence of voter fraud, then you have to show massive evidence of voter fraud and Chris Christie says that if you claim widespread voter fraud, then you must present evidence of widespread voter fraud and the fact that Trump’s legal team has not done so means that they simply don’t have it and even Lindsay Graham says that you have to prove it in court, then we can all safely say that every honest Congressional republican of any intelligence at all must know that Joe Biden won in a free and fair election, devoid of widespread voter fraud. Even Fox News, Senator Pat Toomey, Senator Lisa Murkowski, and Senator Mitt Romney admit that Joe Biden is the President Elect and Republican Secretary of State for Georgia Brad Raffenberger and Republican (cheater) Georgia Governor Brian Kemp admitted that Joe Biden won Georgia in a free and fair election devoid of widespread fraud and even Arizona Governor Doug Ducey admitted Joe Biden won Arizona, then we can be completely certain of the results, namely that Joe Biden won the electoral college in a free and fair election devoid of widespread voter fraud.
Thus far, Donald Trump has won 1 case out of 45 (?) filed, the one win was about limiting the distance from the observer to the election worker to six feet, most of the losses have not been from standing but from losses on the merits, and no judge has found that the Trump legal team has presented credible (or any) evidence of widespread voter fraud and numerous judges appointed by Donald Trump himself have excoriated the Trump legal team for vague and specious claims with zero evidence and a proposed remedy of what would amount to disenfranchising the majority of those who voted in these states. Those are the results in court. Those facts above mean that this election was a free and fair election, devoid of election fraud.
Again, the republicans in Congress cannot validly claim to use 2016 as precedent because of the radical and dramatic differences in the cases: (1) Hillary Clinton conceded one minute after the AP called the election for Donald Trump . Donald Trump has not conceded. Nor will he. (2) Hillary Clinton did not file lawsuits to try to overturn the will of the voters despite winning the popular vote by 3 million votes and despite the evidence of campaign election fraud (see Mueller report, see Rubio report) and coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign. Donald Trump has filed 45 plus lawsuits thus far (3) Hillary Clinton did not deny Donald Trump was president-elect. Donald Trump has denied that Joe Biden is president elect (4) Hillary Clinton participated in the peaceful transition of power (see her statement) whereas Donald Trump will not (5) Democrats did not deny that Donald Trump was president elect whereas Congressional republicans are denying that Joe Biden is president elect (6) Donald Trump and his legal team have produced zero evidence of widespread voter fraud. Robert Mueller in the Mueller report and the report issued by the Senate Intelligence Committee called the Rubio report both document collaboration and coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign and campaign finance violations.
Therefore, it is impossible to rationally or reasonably support or believe the claim put forward by the republicans in Congress that they are acting like Democrats did in 2016. That’s clearly not the case based upon the major and substantial differences between them.
Consequently, there is zero justification for their silence and refusal to admit that Joe Biden won the White House in a free and fair election devoid of widespread fraud. And their failure to acknowledge this contributes to republican voters continuing to believe the lies told by Trump which is leading to the death threats. Their gigantic moral failing here is extremely dangerous. While 2016 was clearly as I showed not a precedent for 2020, do these republicans want 2020 to be a precedent for 2024 and later presidential and other elections ? Because by doing this, they are setting this as a precedent and it will happen again and again. The hallmark of our democracy is a peaceful transition of power and it looks like that norm which has defined and marked our democracy has been eradicated.
The continued failure to call out and publicly reject these lies and all of the conspiracy theories has been a gigantic mistake and a huge moral failing of the republican party. It will have repercussions in American political life and the Republican Party for decades to come. They could have stopped this by publicly in a united way opposing birtherism and Q Anon and removing Trump when he committed Obstruction of Justice as documented by that radical lefty, the lifelong conservative republican Marine and former Director of the FBI, Robert Mueller. They could have stopped this election conspiracy theory by standing together and as a party publicly vocally, clearly, loudly, and unambiguously rejecting it. By not doing so, they are allowing these conspiracies to spread. Their voters will get more and more out of touch with the truth as they see their conspiratorial views rejected by even Fox News and thus, leave even Fox News for Russian propaganda tv and Breitbart. It will weaken their party electorally over time eventually. However, although they will grow fewer in number, they will become more and more radical. This will drive the less crazy of the crazies from their group and since those left are even more radical, they will seek even more radical sources of claims. It will likely result in assassinations at some point and murders. And one can see this coming based upon what is claimed. Their moral cowardice has badly damaged this nation and the damage is just beginning here.