So, recently, I drafted a piece questioning why anyone would vote for Kamala Harris. In the spirit of fair play, I thought I would do something similar for Donald Trump. But let's call this one "Reasons to Hate Trump." (Or "Reasons the Left Hates Trump — and Why They Miss the Mark.")
1. He's Rude, Crude and Socially Unacceptable.
It's kind of hard to deny this. He is obnoxious, and he is crude. He tells NATO allies to their faces that they aren't writing enough checks and haven't been for some time. He also tells the Washington Press Corps that they are biased, unfair, and a bunch of Democratic Party Throne Sniffers. Anyone who witnessed the last debate is aware that this is true. However, Trump is like McDonald's. You get the same hamburger on the West Coast that you do on the East. No matter where he is, he's always Trump. He is what he is and makes no apologies. You may not like him much, but at least you have to admit that he's authentic, and you know where he stands. If you know where he stands, you have the information to cast an informed vote for him or somebody you like better. You don't have to sift through a mush puddle of political verbiage to pull out what he really thinks.
Contrast that with Hot Sauce Hillary or the KamalaFlipper's phony accent she reserves for black audiences (when neither the Indian nor Jamaican accents will do). These professional politicians tailor their speech and mannerisms to the people they address. They think they are being clever when they do this because they think you're ignorant. And if you're ignorant, they just might collect your vote in one little section of the net that they cast far and wide as they try to be all things to all people.
2. He's a Racist. I don't know if he is a racist. I'm not sure that he is, given his track record of assistance to the black community. He's said some dumb stuff (the New York Times has a list of them here), but I tend to look more at what politicians do rather than what they say because people say a lot of stuff. Donald Trump has bad-mouthed anyone and everyone he believes done him wrong. Black, White, Brown, or Purple. I once had a friend whose father was a shop work boss when TWA had their repair hub in Kansas City. He was known as hard but fair because he would "chew out a white guy as quickly as a black guy." I can respect someone like that.
During his presidency, Trump's economy had knocked black unemployment down from 9.6 percent to less than 7 percent by the time COVID lockdowns began to happen. Real median income grew by 7.9 percent between 2016 and 2019. His First Step Act regarding prison reform had freed thousands of blacks from jail, and he increased federal funding to black colleges and universities by 17 percent (over $100 million in real dollars.) If he is a racist, he's not really presenting as one, as far as I can tell.
And Joe Biden has his own sins, so if you don't like Trump because you think he's a racist then you have to find a way to square up Diaper Joe's unpalatable comments about certain groups as well. If you don't believe that, then you ain't (fill in appropriate adjective here.)
3. He's a Misogynist. As above, he could well be. His "grab'em by the......" comment isn't defensible. But his court case with E. Jean Carroll seems dubious to me because it was a simple matter of he said she said, and had about as much substance to it as the Kavanaugh accusations. However, he does seem to have a practice of hiring qualified people for jobs in his organization, and many of them have been women. A 2015 article in the Washington Post says as much. And while not entirely complimentary to Trump, it does establish the fact that he acknowledges and rewards the abilities and merit of female employees. He says stupid and inartful things about them, but he also says stupid and inartful things about men. So is he a misogynist or just an a-hole?
5. He's Hitler. Hideki Tojo prosecuted Japan's wars against other Asians and Western powers for four years as Prime Minister. He was brutal enough to be tried and convicted as a war criminal and executed in 1948. Benito Mussolini was an absolute dictator who is credited with the founding of Italian facism. He prosecuted wars against Africans in Somalia, Ethiopia and Senegal. He was hated enough to be executed by his own people in 1945. Adolf Hitler prosecuted wars against most of Europe and Russia. His brutality is well known and he's considered The Great Monster of the 20th century. Rumor has it that even Stalin has to give him his daily sponge baths in Hell.
However, what separates Hitler from these others is the intentional massacre of the Jewish population in Europe. The SS, the Final Solution and Auschwitz are his fingerprints on history. He's known for little else. Now if you think Trump is Hitler, your knowledge of history comes from Pokemon cards, cereal boxes and Joy Reid. And you should be ashamed of yourself. Why does the left choose Hitler instead of these other two? Because most people never heard of them but everybody knows about Der Fuhrer. So they repeatedly label Trump Hitler so you associate all things Fascist with him. Which is not only false but evil.
Progressives in the media and political office (Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris, Clair McCaskill, CNN, MSNBC, James Clyburn, AOC...et.al.) either call him Hitler outright or compare him to Hitler as a tool of persuasion. And also because they just plain hate his guts and they can't call him a literal piece of crap on TV. Recently Trump said "We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country." And the media lost its collective mind. Echoes of Hitler they said. The word "vermin" dehumanizes political opponents, they said. Sort of sounds like the words "parasite" or "blob" the Left uses to identify unborn people so they can dehumanize and eliminate them, don't it?
Well, maybe Adolf used similar language but I bet he also said "I need to use the bathroom" too. It doesn't mean that anyone asking for the lavatory or using the word "vermin" to refer to someone else is a Nazi. And for whatever it's worth, I really don't want communists, Marxists, fascists or radical left wing thugs to be anywhere near the levers of power in my country either.
If the Progressives are looking for an appropriate wall to stick the dirty sock of HitlerHate on, they don't need Trump. They'll find it right in their own circle of friends. See Hamas, see the #Fromtherivertothesea guys. Calling for the extinction of a people and using violence and coercion to enforce it means there is very little daylight between themselves and the Nazi SS. But for some reason, Progs ignore this. And it speaks more to their low character than anything Trump has done.
6. He's a Nazi. (see above.)
7. He's an Existential Threat to Our Democracy. The Left keeps repeating this and has been doing so for quite awhile. It's like one of their academics dropped the word "existential" in a white paper and the next day they all began using it. It sounds so intellectual! So analytical! So....like..Einsteinian! Maxi ne Waters likes to say this big word, but I'm not sure she could tell you what it means. Anyway, the gist is that Trump is so bad, he will bring down the country because he's just...so...Orange.
Ok, I think this goes beyond hyperbole and maybe they really think he will destroy "our democracy" as we know it. But what is our democracy as we know it? Well, a democracy is rule by simple majority which can lead to the tyranny of the majority as written about by Alexis de Tocqueville in his work "Democracy in America." But, we're not that. We're a constitutional republic. This means that we operate on the principle of representative government. It will be extremely unlikely that one person is going to be able to assume power like some medal-chested strongman in Uganda. Lots of checks and balances to shove out of the way first. However, if you can do something to change the representative part, say import an entirely new population of voters without the consent of the citizenry because you believe they will vote a certain way, well then you kind of have a real live existential threat to the country.
So if you're going to say that Trump is an existential threat to our democracy, I'm going to raise you and say that Biden, Harris and Mayorkas are far greater threats to our constitutional republic. And l call.
8. He's a Liar. They're all liars to some degree or another. The contest is about whose lies are bigger. Trump might lie about the size of his rallies or that there is a 75 percent chance your child will go missing on the New York subway if travelling alone, but Joe Biden lying about having zero business dealings with The Smartest Man He Knows or Kamala Harris lying about no US troops in harms' way is demonstrably worse.
9. He wants to be a dictator. Trump said he "wanted to be a dictator only on day one." This is analogous to the common statement "If I were King for a Day" that anybody and everybody has made at some time or another to describe what they would do to fix something in a perfect world. "Day One" is also a reference back to Biden issuing a bunch of executive orders on his first day in office. Presumably, and I think accurately, he meant that he'd undo a lot of those orders. I don't think he meant that he wants to do a Castro.
On the other hand, if you want to talk optics and dictators, Biden's infamous speech at Independence Hall...with the Red Glow Background...the silhouetted Marines at attention...and the shrieking about MAGA fascists as he looked to the skies with raised fists....at Nacht...sure looked a lot like
1. He's Rude, Crude and Socially Unacceptable.
It's kind of hard to deny this. He is obnoxious, and he is crude. He tells NATO allies to their faces that they aren't writing enough checks and haven't been for some time. He also tells the Washington Press Corps that they are biased, unfair, and a bunch of Democratic Party Throne Sniffers. Anyone who witnessed the last debate is aware that this is true. However, Trump is like McDonald's. You get the same hamburger on the West Coast that you do on the East. No matter where he is, he's always Trump. He is what he is and makes no apologies. You may not like him much, but at least you have to admit that he's authentic, and you know where he stands. If you know where he stands, you have the information to cast an informed vote for him or somebody you like better. You don't have to sift through a mush puddle of political verbiage to pull out what he really thinks.
Contrast that with Hot Sauce Hillary or the KamalaFlipper's phony accent she reserves for black audiences (when neither the Indian nor Jamaican accents will do). These professional politicians tailor their speech and mannerisms to the people they address. They think they are being clever when they do this because they think you're ignorant. And if you're ignorant, they just might collect your vote in one little section of the net that they cast far and wide as they try to be all things to all people.
2. He's a Racist. I don't know if he is a racist. I'm not sure that he is, given his track record of assistance to the black community. He's said some dumb stuff (the New York Times has a list of them here), but I tend to look more at what politicians do rather than what they say because people say a lot of stuff. Donald Trump has bad-mouthed anyone and everyone he believes done him wrong. Black, White, Brown, or Purple. I once had a friend whose father was a shop work boss when TWA had their repair hub in Kansas City. He was known as hard but fair because he would "chew out a white guy as quickly as a black guy." I can respect someone like that.
During his presidency, Trump's economy had knocked black unemployment down from 9.6 percent to less than 7 percent by the time COVID lockdowns began to happen. Real median income grew by 7.9 percent between 2016 and 2019. His First Step Act regarding prison reform had freed thousands of blacks from jail, and he increased federal funding to black colleges and universities by 17 percent (over $100 million in real dollars.) If he is a racist, he's not really presenting as one, as far as I can tell.
And Joe Biden has his own sins, so if you don't like Trump because you think he's a racist then you have to find a way to square up Diaper Joe's unpalatable comments about certain groups as well. If you don't believe that, then you ain't (fill in appropriate adjective here.)
3. He's a Misogynist. As above, he could well be. His "grab'em by the......" comment isn't defensible. But his court case with E. Jean Carroll seems dubious to me because it was a simple matter of he said she said, and had about as much substance to it as the Kavanaugh accusations. However, he does seem to have a practice of hiring qualified people for jobs in his organization, and many of them have been women. A 2015 article in the Washington Post says as much. And while not entirely complimentary to Trump, it does establish the fact that he acknowledges and rewards the abilities and merit of female employees. He says stupid and inartful things about them, but he also says stupid and inartful things about men. So is he a misogynist or just an a-hole?
5. He's Hitler. Hideki Tojo prosecuted Japan's wars against other Asians and Western powers for four years as Prime Minister. He was brutal enough to be tried and convicted as a war criminal and executed in 1948. Benito Mussolini was an absolute dictator who is credited with the founding of Italian facism. He prosecuted wars against Africans in Somalia, Ethiopia and Senegal. He was hated enough to be executed by his own people in 1945. Adolf Hitler prosecuted wars against most of Europe and Russia. His brutality is well known and he's considered The Great Monster of the 20th century. Rumor has it that even Stalin has to give him his daily sponge baths in Hell.
However, what separates Hitler from these others is the intentional massacre of the Jewish population in Europe. The SS, the Final Solution and Auschwitz are his fingerprints on history. He's known for little else. Now if you think Trump is Hitler, your knowledge of history comes from Pokemon cards, cereal boxes and Joy Reid. And you should be ashamed of yourself. Why does the left choose Hitler instead of these other two? Because most people never heard of them but everybody knows about Der Fuhrer. So they repeatedly label Trump Hitler so you associate all things Fascist with him. Which is not only false but evil.
Progressives in the media and political office (Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris, Clair McCaskill, CNN, MSNBC, James Clyburn, AOC...et.al.) either call him Hitler outright or compare him to Hitler as a tool of persuasion. And also because they just plain hate his guts and they can't call him a literal piece of crap on TV. Recently Trump said "We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country." And the media lost its collective mind. Echoes of Hitler they said. The word "vermin" dehumanizes political opponents, they said. Sort of sounds like the words "parasite" or "blob" the Left uses to identify unborn people so they can dehumanize and eliminate them, don't it?
Well, maybe Adolf used similar language but I bet he also said "I need to use the bathroom" too. It doesn't mean that anyone asking for the lavatory or using the word "vermin" to refer to someone else is a Nazi. And for whatever it's worth, I really don't want communists, Marxists, fascists or radical left wing thugs to be anywhere near the levers of power in my country either.
If the Progressives are looking for an appropriate wall to stick the dirty sock of HitlerHate on, they don't need Trump. They'll find it right in their own circle of friends. See Hamas, see the #Fromtherivertothesea guys. Calling for the extinction of a people and using violence and coercion to enforce it means there is very little daylight between themselves and the Nazi SS. But for some reason, Progs ignore this. And it speaks more to their low character than anything Trump has done.
6. He's a Nazi. (see above.)
7. He's an Existential Threat to Our Democracy. The Left keeps repeating this and has been doing so for quite awhile. It's like one of their academics dropped the word "existential" in a white paper and the next day they all began using it. It sounds so intellectual! So analytical! So....like..Einsteinian! Maxi ne Waters likes to say this big word, but I'm not sure she could tell you what it means. Anyway, the gist is that Trump is so bad, he will bring down the country because he's just...so...Orange.
Ok, I think this goes beyond hyperbole and maybe they really think he will destroy "our democracy" as we know it. But what is our democracy as we know it? Well, a democracy is rule by simple majority which can lead to the tyranny of the majority as written about by Alexis de Tocqueville in his work "Democracy in America." But, we're not that. We're a constitutional republic. This means that we operate on the principle of representative government. It will be extremely unlikely that one person is going to be able to assume power like some medal-chested strongman in Uganda. Lots of checks and balances to shove out of the way first. However, if you can do something to change the representative part, say import an entirely new population of voters without the consent of the citizenry because you believe they will vote a certain way, well then you kind of have a real live existential threat to the country.
So if you're going to say that Trump is an existential threat to our democracy, I'm going to raise you and say that Biden, Harris and Mayorkas are far greater threats to our constitutional republic. And l call.
8. He's a Liar. They're all liars to some degree or another. The contest is about whose lies are bigger. Trump might lie about the size of his rallies or that there is a 75 percent chance your child will go missing on the New York subway if travelling alone, but Joe Biden lying about having zero business dealings with The Smartest Man He Knows or Kamala Harris lying about no US troops in harms' way is demonstrably worse.
9. He wants to be a dictator. Trump said he "wanted to be a dictator only on day one." This is analogous to the common statement "If I were King for a Day" that anybody and everybody has made at some time or another to describe what they would do to fix something in a perfect world. "Day One" is also a reference back to Biden issuing a bunch of executive orders on his first day in office. Presumably, and I think accurately, he meant that he'd undo a lot of those orders. I don't think he meant that he wants to do a Castro.
On the other hand, if you want to talk optics and dictators, Biden's infamous speech at Independence Hall...with the Red Glow Background...the silhouetted Marines at attention...and the shrieking about MAGA fascists as he looked to the skies with raised fists....at Nacht...sure looked a lot like
