Nine Reasons to Vote for Donald Trump

In “Nine Reasons why beating Hillary Clinton trumps ideological purity,” Dennis Prager urges the reader to abandon “moral purity” and vote for Donald Trump. Prager suggests that anybody who won’t vote for Trump is prudish and unrealistic. Citing America’s support of Stalin over Hitler, he suggests we should vote for Trump because he is less wrong than Hillary Clinton.
I say I am worth no more than I demand from others. If I accept lies, I deserve the disrespect that goes with lies. My father may have supported lending arms to the Soviets so they could defeat Hitler, but he would never have voted for Stalin. Neither will I.

I have minimum expectations for my elected officials, and Trump (like Clinton) fails almost all of them. But here, I want to explain why Prager’s nine reasons are nine obfuscations of the truth:

1. Prevent a left-wing Supreme Court. This reason isn’t much of a reason, given that Trump’s positions on issues meander conveniently from the right to the left, depending on the audience at hand. Given that he has walked back any statement that has generated controversy, why would we expect him to stand fast on any position, including the nomination of a conservative justice?

2. Increase the defense budget. In reality, the Obama administration is spending more on defense than ever before. How much? the highest ever — 15% higher than his predecessor! Given that, I have to ask whether we need to spend more or buy less expensive weapons.

3. Repeal, or at least modify, Dodd-Frank. Repeal – are you kidding me? You and I own houses worth considerably less because investment banks played fast and loose with mortgages until the market imploded during the last decade. Dodd-Frank was an attempt to keep that from happening again, and now somebody is trying to convince you to let the investors off the leash? And let’s say that I haven’t convinced you and you still want Dodd-Frank rolled back. What do you think the chances are of Trump the $500M debtor doing that while his creditors phone the Oval Office?

4. Prevent Washington D.C., from becoming a state and giving the Democrats another two permanent senators. Really? Where did this come from? The DC statehood issue is a time-honored football that serves Congress best just as it is – a great distraction from what matters. What about Puerto Rico, or Guam, or American Samoa? What if the Democrats want not two but eight new senators? What if aliens land on the National Mall and want to put the UN in charge? It’s about as likely as DC statehood.

5. Repeal Obamacare. It’s not going to work. Why? The Affordable Care Act is a response to unpaid bills which were a result of the Emergency Medical Treatmant and Active Labor Act of 1986, which forced hospitals to provide free services to those who could not pay.

Faced with a surge in non-paying patients, we responded with an effort to ensure everybody could pay their bills, to keep us from paying them. Let’s get one thing out there immediately: the Affordable Care Act is one ugly baby, and I’m not one to avoid calling other peoples’ babies ugly. However, as much as we don’t want to admit it, it’s our conservative ugly baby, at least in part. The ACA has its roots in the Health Equity and Access Reform Today act, sponsored by Republican Senator John Chaffee and endorsed by his conservative peers, to fight proposals then being advanced by President Clinton’s wife, Hillary. (Can you taste the irony?) Instead of calling out the witch hunters, perhaps we should tell our legislators to amend ACA instead of repealing it.

6. Curtail illegal immigration, a goal that has nothing to do with xenophobia or nativism (just see Western Europe.) Reality check: Illegal immigration to the US peaked nine years ago, and has been on the decline since then. Why? Two compelling reasons: first, DHS has built a wall (yes, it’s already there) across the vast majority of the southwestern border, and covers the rest with a sophisticated array of sensors, aircraft, and Border Patrol Agents. Yes, I know, we hear all about the wide open borders. So if our concern isn’t factual, what is it? It’s about fear of an unknown. Folks, sorry to say it, but that’s xenophobia.

7. Reduce job-killing regulations on large and small businesses. Can we be a little more specific? Last time I looked, conservatives held the majority of seats in both houses of Congress, which would make job killing regulations their responsibility.

8. Lower the corporate-income tax and bring back hundreds of billions of offshore dollars to the United States. This one needs a “Yuge” reality check. Yes, our tax code calls for 35% tax on large corporations. But what do they pay? If you’re United Airlines, General Motors, Hewlett Packard, Xerox, or one of many others, you paid no income tax last year – none. So tell me again why should we lower their income tax?

9. Continue fracking, which the Left, in its science-rejecting hysteria, opposes. Does fracking result in expanded sources of natural gas? Absolutely. Does it come without damage to the environment? Undoubtedly not. Remember coal? It’s now billed as “cheap” and “clean.” Ever seen an abandoned coal mining site? Take a drive through West Virginia, and hang on to your adjectives. Remember, fracking is the new coal mining – a process invented by organizations that want profits and don’t care what is left behind.

I’m a conservative. That means I prefer to maintain as much control, responsibility, and agency over my life as possible. Because of that, I don’t willingly hand over control to others, and I never hand it over to people who peddle lies to me.