It is about time for my quadrennial “Letter
to America” which is the view from afar that I try to post prior to every
Presidential election. Let’s do away
with the suspense – I’m not, having already argued against him twice - going to
reverse course and endorse Donald Trump in his quest to become the once and
future dictator. If anything I like him
less this time than in any of his other runs – but, as I’ve always said – there
is a need to differentiate Trump from his supporters. I’ve always tried to do
that - but I think there is now an even greater distinction to be made – I can
separate the Republican candidate from those who merely wish to support his
candidacy – and that is what I mean by his “supporters” – but I no longer apply
that same waiver to anyone that I would class as a Trump “follower”. The former category are people who it is
possible to disagree with, while the latter are simply dangerous.
So – what is the difference? Let me try to
explain. A Trump supporter would claim that the country is better off
having someone who pursues an aggressive stance when it comes to our allies –
that Trump is correct when he attacks Germany or France for not “pulling their
weight” in NATO or that NATO itself is becoming obsolete. I disagree with that position – but I can see
how someone might hold it. My job – since I take a different view - is to persuasively argue my own position,
which is that our allies, given their geographical location at the forefront of
Putin's aggression and the fact that they routinely surrender degrees of
sovereignty to the U.S. military - are more than pulling their weight. I’d also say that the situation in Ukraine
and the rest of Eastern Europe makes NATO more relevant than ever. That’s one
example of a discussion that two opposing sides can have.
A Trump “follower” on the other hand – doesn’t argue these sorts of things – he or she simply restates the clear lies (“alternative facts”) to create a false narrative – and then calls anyone who disagrees a naïve "libtard" or part of some undefined "conspiracy" designed to subvert the "true America". That’s what I mean by “the shaming of the true”. To this type person Trump’s position has “made America more respected in the world”. I’m “in the world” – and I know that isn’t true. A Trump follower says “NATO is stronger with Trump in charge” – a conclusion that no one could possibly justify using any set of facts. But for a true believer facts have become a mere inconvenience.
That is what is incredibly frustrating
about this election – approximately half of the electorate (and I’m not breaking things down
by state at this point) is never going to vote for Trump. Then, let’s say roughly one-quarter of the
electorate is within the “Trump supporter” category – you can at least talk
about things with them. Then, finally,
there is the “follower” category – the remaining quarter of the
electorate. They live in a fantasy world
where facts are optional – or so easily manipulated they are superficial. And where that quarter comes from might
surprise you.
People who should know better routinely
restate the obvious simply because – well – there are no consequences. Here are a few of the areas that are most
egregious:
1.
1. We have a border “crisis” of Joe Biden and
Kamala Harris’ making.
First of all – let’s stop all the “crisis”
bullshit. World War II – that was a
crisis. The Great Depression –
crisis. Vietnam – crisis. The situation at the border is just a “problem”
that wasn’t created by this administration (which actually worked hard to solve
it) but has arisen over decades (that’s why Trump was railing about “a wall” in
his initial campaign). What is going on at the border is simply a challenging
situation, one that we have faced and handled many times before and one which
could be easily handled now. In fact – we know this - because in one of the
instances where government actually did what it was designed to do both parties
came up with a plan to do exactly that.
And then Donald Trump killed it.
Not because it wouldn’t have provided much
needed solutions – but because that is exactly what it would have done, and he
did not want that to happen. Trump wanted to retain the “border crisis” issue
for his campaign and it would have been extremely inconvenient to, you know,
solve the damn thing.
Look – you cannot both moan about how
immigrants are destroying the country through uncontrolled borders and then
block attempts to control the borders.
That would make no sense. Of
course, making sense is not a prerequisite for followers of Donald Trump. I
will happily have a discussion with anyone about the state of immigration
policy – but don’t tell me it is an existential threat to the nation’s
well-being when your candidate walks away from a solution crafted by his own
party. Trump killed the bill because he
wanted to be able to rant about murderers, rapists and imaginary pet-eating
Haitians. It was crass political
gamesmanship (by a person whose followers revere him because he’s supposedly
“not a politician”) and anyone who denies that is simply shaming the truth.
2. 2. The 2020 Election was
“rigged” and “stolen”.
The fact that we are still talking about
this should disqualify Donald Trump from office in and of itself. The election was legitimate. Consider just this one item – in Arizona the
Republican majority legislature funded a multi-million dollar “audit” of the
election results in Maricopa County – which resulted in a recount that increased
Joe Biden’s margin by 360 votes. Unfazed, Trump acolytes pointed to a statement
in the audit report which criticized the use of “thin paper” on some ballots,
which might have led to “ink seepage” that might have caused a
miscount on some ballots. How the
leaking ink was supposed to know which candidate to leak in favor of – I do not
know. On this sort of “evidence” we are
expected to question the entire basis of our electoral system.
In the current election cycle we are told
time and time again that an American election was “stolen” and are expected to
completely ignore the fact that this is a lie. Trump followers can blindly make
what amounts to traitorous statements and somehow, if we tell them that they
are wrong we’re the ones who are gullible. Here’s the thing – no we are
not. I have complete confidence in this
because I actually did the work to disprove the assertion, in real time,
immediately after the election. Yes, I
reviewed the election results in places like Georgia’s Fulton, Walker and
Gwinnet counties, did a statistical analysis, compared the numbers to previous
elections and reached a conclusion based on real data, not a blind assertion. I
really read the list of supposed examples of “election fraud” posted by the
Trump White House (try that some time) and found that the examples given
covered things like murder for hire schemes, people running for office in two
different counties and a woman who forgot to register and was sentenced to one
day’s probation. All those findings
were published here: https://sheamonu-granfalloons.blogspot.com/2020/12/
.
So – if you want to claim the 2020 election
was stolen I’ll pay attention to you when you go out, find actual proof and
produce your own equivalent piece of analysis.
Until then – please – just shut up.
3. 3. Kamala Harris is a “Mental
Defective” and Other Assorted Outrages
This could really just be classed under the
category of “Kamala Harris is…” and leave the ending to whatever trope Trump
and his followers happen to be harping on that day. The attack on Harris’s mental acuity is just
the latest form this gutter-based approach to politics has taken. In other week’s it was slut shaming (“did you
hear she dated Willie Brown, while she was single and he had only been
separated from his wife for two years”), race-baiting (“she was Indian and then
she decided to be black”), manipulative (“what she did to Joe Biden was a
palace coup”), a Marxist (“you know, her father was a Marxist professor and the
apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”) and next week it will probably be
“Kamala Harris is a shape-shifting lizard alien”.
None of these are true. She dated another person who had exited a
prior relationship – big deal. She has
always acknowledged all parts of her heritage and never “became” anything. Joe
Biden’s decision to exit the race was his alone and, while there were certainly
plenty of people in the Democratic party who encouraged him - one of those
people does not appear to have been Kamala Harris. The nearly one-hundred CEO’s who are
endorsing her (including this one) probably don’t see her as a Marxist. Her father might have been, but she never had
much contact with him growing up and it’s a bit harsh to visit the sins of the
parent on the child. After all – that
would make Donald Trump a racist, mustachioed, slum lord and I have never seen
a picture of Trump with a mustache.
In truth – and this letter is all about
truth – Harris has turned out to be the one thing Trump most feared. She has
shown herself to indisputably be one damn tough lady. Trump followers may hate to admit it – but if
they are being honest (admittedly a stretch for them) they have to. Harris, the
supposed mental defective, kicked Donald Trump’s ass in their debate – so much
so that he has run like a mutt from their previously scheduled next encounter. Harris, the supposed Marxist, has published
the most complete and business friendly economic plan of the last quarter
century – from any candidate, Republican or Democrat. Harris has stood up to the continual personal
attacks on her character better than Hilary Clinton ever dreamed of doing – and
she has rarely put a foot wrong so far in this campaign. Though it may be tough
for the Trump followers to admit this – I still hold out some hope for the
Trump supporters. In the final analysis do they want a 78 year-old narcissist
who flails around with semi-coherent rants to lead the country – or would they
maybe change their minds and pull the lever for one tough woman who is
routinely making him look like a clown?
I know what my answer is.
4.
4. Trump Handled the COVID
Crisis Well
Donald Trump was an extremely lucky man for
about three quarters of his Presidency.
There were no major crises that arose other than the occasional
hurricane (which he managed to screw up – twice – remember the sharpie he used
to extend the path of Hurricane Dorian, and the paper towels he threw at people
in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria? And I’m not even counting his request
to use nukes to destroy storms before they get to land). However – that last
quarter bore a resemblance to the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI.
That is because during the final part of
his Presidency the globe was hit with a pandemic that definitely qualified as a
major crisis. The one thing I had thought would be beyond question was the fact
that Donald Trump reacted to the pressure of this situation about as well as
Will Smith did to Chris Rock’s Oscar jokes.
Does nobody remember the whole “it will disappear like a miracle”
nonsense? The request to explore
ingesting disinfectant as a cure? The clownish
press conferences, the inability to properly distribute tests, the waffling on
how to use the vaccines once they arrived – if there is one thing that we can
definitely say about the Trump Administration it is that his handling of the
pandemic was an absolute shit show.
Or so you would think. The revisionism in relation to Trump
continues to boggle the mind. His mixed
messaging on vaccine uptake extended the pandemic in the U.S. and led to many
additional deaths. On that there is no doubt.
Where there was doubt was in whether or not the more drastic action
instituted by the Biden Administration helped avoid deaths and end the
pandemic. Whether Trump was a complete
disaster was beyond question. But – in the
interest of fairness – let’s take a look at the question of whether the Biden
Administration response was “too extreme”.
As a test case we’ll explore the place that is often cited as the
paragon of rational restraint – Florida.
Remember – Ron DeSantis based a run for
the Presidency on just how efficient Florida was in dealing with Covid. He claimed that by not caving in to the calls
for lock downs, mandatory vaccinations for government workers or other
restrictive actions Florida suffered no greater deaths than the rest of the
country. The implication of this is that
while Trump may not have been the greatest leader during Covid’s inception, if
he had been around post January 2021 everything would have been just fine without
the “draconian” steps taken by Biden. The
only problem is – this is a lie.
We know this because of the non-partisan review undertaken by the National Institute of Health. Turns out – Florida did fine when it was following the guidance of medical professionals – after it went down the DeSantis route – not so good. Here’s the website to find this data: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38439756/#:~:text=During%20the%2016%2Dmonth%20first,an%20additional%2031%2C000%20people%20died.
And here’s the summary:
The first cases of COVID-19 in Florida
were diagnosed on March 1, 2020. Three years later, more than 7.3 million
people have had COVID-19 in Florida, and more than 93,000 individuals have died
from this illness. When considering the impact of COVID-19 on Florida, several
key factors need to be considered, including that Florida was one of the most
medically vulnerable states due to a substantial proportion of older
individuals and those with underlying medical conditions. Florida also has a
centralized Department of Health and Division of Emergency Management structure
that facilitated response activities. Looking at the impact of COVID-19 on
Florida, two distinct phases need to be considered: the pre-Delta variant phase
from March 2020 to July 2021 and the Delta variant and beyond phase that began
July 2021. During the 16-month first phase, about 38,000 people died. Yet,
24,000 people died during the 5-months of the Delta variant wave from July to
November 2021. During the Omicron waves that followed Delta, an additional
31,000 people died. Florida thus went from ranking 26th in death per
capita in the United States at the end of the first phase to 10th a few
months into the Delta wave and now ranks 8th. Why did these phases differ so dramatically
in terms of mortality? During the first phase of the pandemic, adherence to
established nonpharmacological and older adult protection measures was
recommended. When COVID-19 vaccines became available in December 2020, there
was an aggressive campaign to promote COVID-19 vaccination, and public
acceptance was high. The second phase followed political opposition to CDC and
public health expert guidelines, the rise of anti-vaccine sentiment and
misinformation, and falling vaccination rates. These factors contributed to
considerable population vulnerability to severe disease when the Delta variant
hit. As the former State Surgeon General and Secretary of Health of Florida
from June 2019 to September 2021, this report provides perspective on the shifting
impact and response to COVID-19 in Florida, which is the third most populous
state in the United States. This perspective shows the clear consequences of
shifting from standard public health practices and vaccine promotion to attacks
on public health and vaccines.
I was actually present at a recent meeting
where one of the heads of Miami Dade County’s business chamber told the true
story about why Florida changed its tactics on Covid and opened up the beaches
and amusement parks. It had little to
nothing to do with the fact that Florida wasn’t worried about increased
deaths. It was because due to the way
Florida has structured its tax regime – if it didn’t open up, it would go
broke. You see – the Sunshine State has
it built into its constitution that it can never institute a state income
tax. The only reason it gets away with
this is because of its extremely high (and regressive) sales tax – which is
paid by not just residents – but by the enormous number of tourists entering
the state as well. Florida desperately needed
to milk people from out of state in order to avoid bankruptcy. Disease
prevention would just have to wait.
Meanwhile – the Biden administration was doing what grown-ups do (and what the childish Trump had always refused to do) – telling everyone to stay in bed, take their medicine and do what the doctor told them. Yes – it was a royal pain in the ass for a while – but, it worked. The pandemic, which Trump had (let’s face it) never been able to get his hands around, was finally put in the rear-view mirror. But don't try to tell that to a Trump follower - there is no quicker way to be labeled a tool of "them", the deep-state interests who are somehow tied into big pharma or, oh, I don't know, maybe the producers of "Tiger King" - than to try to reference reality and criticize the way Trump dealt with the biggest crisis of his tenure in office.
5.
5. Inflation is Joe Biden
and the Democrats' Fault
This has proven to be one of the tougher
myths to counter – mainly because inflation is not really the “fault” of anyone
– it’s an economic outcome that can be attributed to many independent factors. It is true that it typically gets blamed on whoever
happens to be in office when it hits – but that is like blaming someone for the
weather (yeah – I know – the Trump followers do that too).
Inflation is like trying to turn an aircraft
carrier – you can start it on a certain course but it could be miles before you
actually notice that there has been a change in direction. The round of inflation that hit during the
past few years had its roots in three main things – cheap money, supply chain
disruption and war.
The first of these – cheap money – had been
around for years as interest rates remained quite low for a record period of
time. I think it was exacerbated to the
point that it became an inflationary catalyst by two things – the Trump
approach to tariffs (he oversaw the implementation of tariffs against China and
offset these by creating the biggest government welfare giveaway in history in
the form of his agricultural subsidies) and the “stimulus” package offered during
Covid. Yes, the pre-Biden Democrats
supported Covid stimulus packages as well – but you know who it was that
insisted they be made even bigger? Yup –
this guy: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/22/trump-calls-covid-relief-bill-unsuitable-and-demands-congress-add-higher-stimulus-payments.html . This type of policy gave people all kinds of cash
during a period of time that they were sitting at home and had no where to
spend it. Of course, once things started
to open up all that money was being spent – which was an enormous inflationary impetus.
Of course – it wasn’t the only factor. Another was the fact that at the same time demand
was rising (since people could go to the stores again) supply was being choked. My favorite example has to do with the Dublin
airport (though similar issues about bringing people back to work can be found
globally). When Covid ended the airport
told workers that had been laid off that they could come back to work – with one
catch – they would have to repay the money they had been given as part of the
package received when they were let go.
Unsurprisingly – no one wanted to go back to work. The result was that anyone who was working
got loads of overtime and the costs (and time) associated with shipping goods went up.
This global shortage of supplied goods was another strong influence on inflation.
This wasn’t anyone’s “fault” – other than the poor planning that went
into the original schemes established to combat the pandemic.
Finally – Vladimir Putin drove costs
worldwide even higher when he attacked Ukraine.
We can talk quite a bit about whether Russia was emboldened into this
action by the chaos and confusion Trump has brought to NATO and the direct
actions he took to undermine Ukraine’s position – but there is no arguing about
how Russian aggression was a major driver of the inflationary period that became
noticeable immediately after Trump left office.
I would have no problem arguing that the aircraft carrier of inflation
was set on its course while Trump was in office.
I would also have no problem in arguing that the period of runaway
inflation is largely ended – as long as he stays out of office. In short – the vast majority of independent
and reputable economic models show that Donald Trump’s economic plans will send
the country back into the morass of inflation.
So – if you want your prices to go up again – vote Trump.
These are all truths - but we have reached the point where it feels like you have to apologize for telling them. Lies have become so common that truthing almost calls out to be prefaced by saying "I'm sorry to have to bring this up - but...".
Except - I'm kind of sick of being ashamed of telling the truth.
I could go on listing the lies, adding more
numbers to this letter and backing it up with all kinds of evidence – but it
won’t convert any “followers” of the Orange Menace. There is one tactic that
does seem to have shaken people out of their mindless rapture – at least for a
while. That was when a certain adjective
was applied to the actions of Mr. Trump and his running mate.
I’m speaking, of course, of “weird”.
It’s weird that a candidate for President
would pay a porn star hundreds of thousands of dollars.
It’s weird that a candidate for Vice
President would call childless women “cat ladies”.
It’s weird that someone thinks windmill
noise causes cancer (or kills birds).
It’s weird that a major party nominee
thinks the volume of water used to flush a toilet is a major issue.
It’s weird that a candidate would seek the endorsement of someone who picks up and transports dead bears and whale heads in his car - and even weirder that they would consider appointing them to a position in charge of national health policy.
It’s weird that someone would invite Russia
to interfere with our elections.
It’s weird that a grown man doesn’t know
how to order donuts.
It’s weird that a candidate would claim
(falsely) that hurricane aid is being withheld when thousands of people and
billions of dollars are racing to the assistance of victims.
It’s even weirder that his supporters would
claim that the hurricanes happen because “they” control the weather.
It is weird that a Vice Presidential
candidate would describe his running mate as “unfit for public office”.
It's weird that a group that gave us the legislative circus that was "musical speakers" and the likes of Matt Gaetz, George Santos, Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene as members of Congress should put itself forward as the "party of good government".
It’s weird that a candidate would accuse
legal residents of eating cats and dogs.
It’s weird for a candidate to say that if
you vote for him “you’ll never have an election again”.
It’s weird that a former President can’t
get the support of his prior cabinet. (Or his former Vice President – of course,
he did put him in danger of being killed).
Bottom line – these guys – whether you support
“conservative” causes or not – are weird.
The biggest contribution Joe Biden made (and he made others – but this
was the biggest) was the return to normality that he brought. When the 2020 election results were finally
announced I said, in this forum, “Thank God, now when I wake up and say “I
wonder what that crazy mutt got up to while I was asleep – I’ll be talking
about my dog and not the President”. I
still hope that is what I’m able to say after this one.
So please – vote for the woman who has turned
out to be tougher than anyone ever thought she would be – and not the weirdo.
