This year’s election will be the 10th one in which I’ve cast a vote for President. Each election year, I ask myself the same thing, “Are these really the best people that this country has?” It seems to me that with tens of millions of potential candidates, we should be able to come up with better options for President of the United States.
In 2016 we had, effectively, two choices. Trump or Hillary.
Trump was a wildcard. He had never before held public office and had no track record we could use to judge how effective he would be as the president. Trump was unpredictable. And that intrigued me.
Then there was Hillary. She had been in politics for years and it was easy to foresee exactly where she would lead the country. Hillary was predictable. And that scared me.
I had long believed that we needed a businessman to lead the country. I had also believed that we needed someone who hadn’t been in Washington, DC for decades, had experience in the real world and wouldn’t be beholden to partisan politics. I believed that the previous administration had weakened the United State’s position on the world stage.
Back in the 80’s and 90’s I did a lot of international travel. I carried my blue passport from the United States of America and felt safe wherever I went. About five years ago I took my most recent trip abroad. Prior to the trip, I was instructed that, if anyone asked, I should say I was Canadian.
I did not like that. Not one bit. So, when I heard that Donald Trump was going to “Make America Great Again”, I understood what he meant, and I liked what I heard.
So, I voted for Trump.
Now it’s 2020 and we have, effectively, two choices, Trump or Biden.
President Trump has taken the United States to new levels of prosperity. Unemployment was, prior to the virus, at its lowest point in 20 years. As I’m writing this, the stock market is approaching record highs. He has opened a dialog with North Korea about their nuclear weapon program. He renegotiated trade deals to get better terms for the United States. He has worked to make America better for ALL Americans. He says what he thinks and isn’t afraid to stand up to…well…anyone. He has done much of what he said that he would do. It is easy to foresee that he will continue to do so.
Joe Biden has been in politics for nearly five decades, starting with his election to the Senate in 1973. But, Biden is in an obvious state of cognitive decline. At best, his Vice President will take office when Biden is declared incompetent. At worst, he will continue to hold office and someone behind the scenes will be pulling the strings. A Joe Biden presidency is a wildcard, the results of which are impossible to predict because we don’t know who will actually be in charge of policy.
Once again I’m asking myself if America should be able to produce better candidates for President. And, like every previous year, I believe we should. But I need to select someone from the choices with which I’m presented.
So, I’ll be voting for Trump in 2020. Because Trump is predictable, and that intrigues me. Joe Biden is unpredictable, and that scares me.
