With impeachment behind him, President Trump can turn to the 2020 presidential race. Here’s a tip for Trump: Your re-election is entirely up to me.
Well, at least, people like me. I make that assertion, only half-jokingly, because while Trump’s base will always be with him, I don’t think Trump’s base, alone, is enough for him to win. He also needs some mainstream Republicans, and perhaps even some independents, to win in November.
In other words, he needs people like me.
So, will I give him another term?
The chances are pretty good that I will – even though I do so with some reluctance. Anyone who follows my writing knows that I dislike Trump’s personality, his incessant tweeting, his coarseness and lack of good manners, and his name-calling and denigration of anyone who disagrees with him.
I can only watch his campaign rallies for about five minutes before switching channels.
But there are two reasons I could still vote for Trump. First, I separate his policies from his character and, with a few important exceptions, I mostly like his policies.
Second, I won’t vote for any of the Democratic presidential candidates. I don’t like their obsession with big government and higher taxes, among many other things. I may not like Trump, but I dislike the Democrats even more.
On the first point, Trump’s accomplishments are many: Great economy, excellent judicial appointments, reduced regulation, energy independence, tougher policies toward Russia and China, good progress on trade agreements, conservative policies on abortion, religious freedom, and other social issues. The country is prosperous and we’re relatively secure in the world. Trump has brought us to the brink a couple of times, but he has good instincts on when to pull back.
I don’t like a lot of his immigration policies, and I wish he would pay attention to the national debt. But those two things are not enough for me to vote for a Democrat promoting far worse policies.
On the second point, I think most of the Democratic candidates would be disastrous for the country. I like the moderate Democrats a little better, but even they would reverse a lot of conservative policies and would appoint arch-liberal judges. The next president will likely have at least one U.S. Supreme Court appointment. That’s the real lasting legacy of a president.
In general, I dislike Democrats’ continual promotion of victimhood and identity politics. They want to penalize businesses and have proposed free goodies costing trillions of dollars. I don’t want to see the country revert to bigger government, higher taxes, liberal policies and weakness abroad.
Democrats have unfairly harassed Trump even before he took office. I’m glad the impeachment fiasco is nearly behind us. Trump’s actions regarding Ukraine and the Bidens was by no means “perfect.” But it also didn’t come close to rising to the level of tossing a president out of office nine months before he goes before voters.
If Trump would simply act semi-presidential for the next nine months (I doubt he’s capable of that), he might even get my wife to vote for him. If she does, he’ll probably win going away.
