Personal Note: My 2024 Presidential Vote

So when I wrote a post in memory of my old friend and co-blogger of political topics, Jeanette Lucey, I mentioned I set up this blog, Ashes From Burnt Roses, to especially write on topics that were not political.  I found the immersion into politics to be caustic to my soul, and so I set up this blog as a sort of virtual monastery to get away from political issues.  I have been pretty much true to that for the almost the twelve years this blog has been in existence.  In honor of Jeanette, though, I said I would violate that rule for just once and provide my intentions for the 2024 presidential election.

 

First off, I want to declare up front in no way will I be voting for Kamala Harris.  Democrats have become all Liberals, and extreme Liberals at that.  There are very few moderate Democrats left.  Current Democrats are on the wrong side of all the social issues: abortion, transgenderism, gay marriage, unrestricted legal or illegal immigration, euthanasia, legalized drugs, soft on crime, and so on.  They don’t have an ounce of common sense.  There isn’t a domestic issue they support that is not repulsive to me.  They have all become mindless Liberals, and Kamala Harris is the most mindless Liberal of them all.  She can’t even articulate a complete and knowledgeable opinion.  All she articulates are clichés and banal platitudes.  There is nothing there in that skull of hers.  So no, I am not voting for Harris, and I hope she loses miserably.

 

But that does not mean I am voting for Donald Trump.  I reluctantly voted for Donald Trump twice, in 2016 and 2020.  His views overlap with probably 75% of mine.  While he is soft on some of the moral issues (he supports gay marriage) he is very good on the immigration issues and on crime.  He was surprisingly pro-life in his previous two runs, but he has backtracked substantially on that now.  (For the record, I am not holding that against him.  He was instrumental in overturning Roe v. Wade, and some stepping back is understandable given where the country is on abortion.)  On the country’s economics he’s got good and bad.  He certainly didn’t cut the budget when he was president, and his heart is for protectionism.  I support free trade; in the long run protectionism reduces the standard of living.  But he did cut taxes, reduce regulations, and supported American energy production.  On foreign policy he does support a strong military and negotiated some interesting alliances and kept the US from entering new conflicts.  However, he is a constant critic of NATO, our key military alliance, who is doing all it can to counter an aggressive Russia.  Russia is trying to reconstitute its Soviet empire (Crimea, Georgia, and Ukraine more than once), and absolutely Ukraine requires our support.  Putin needs to be stopped, and frankly Trump is vague if not opposed.  So all in all, Trump is in line with a good deal of my issues, and given it’s a choice between Trump and Harris you would suspect a definite vote for Trump.

 

But I refuse to vote for Donald Trump a third time.  Donald Trump has (1) I think has psychological problems, (2) is a disgusting example of human character, and (3) has proven to have placed his egocentric desires above the good of the country.  Though he may have supported Christian issues—there is no evidence that in his non-political life he believed in any of it—the man does not have a Christian bone in his body.  He has been a negative force to the culture.

 

First of all, let’s see what JD Vance, his current Vice Presidential pick, once said of him.  From a CNN article, but you can find these quotes in most major news outlets.  

 

“I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler,” Vance wrote in a message to a friend in 2016. “How’s that for discouraging?”

In 2016 and 2017, Vance, then best-known for penning the best-selling book “Hillbilly Elegy” said Trump was “cultural heroin” and “just another opioid” for Middle America. He told CNN ahead of the 2016 election that he was “definitely not” voting for Trump and he also contemplated voting for Hillary Clinton (he ultimately said he planned to vote for independent candidate Evan McMullin.)” 

Hmm, Vance voted third party in 2016—keep that in mind.  Vance obviously has “evolved” on Trump by now accepting the VP offer.  I haven’t evolved.  Yes, Donald Trump is “cultural heroin.”  He has lowered the debate to vulgarism.  He has a crass persona that has degraded the public tone of civil discourse and civil society.  From Gerald Ford to Ronald Reagan to the Bushes to most of their Senatorial candidates, the Republican Party exuded decency.  I was proud to belong to the honorable Party. It astonishes me how conservatives have ignored the crass elements of Trump’s public persona.  What is it they ignore?

 

Well they ignore the disgraceful way he belittles people, ignore the flaunting of his wealth, the imposing if his ego upon people, the expression of his exorbitant pride, the infidelities across his life with all three wives, including within the first year of marrying Melania, the infidelities with prostitutes and porn stars, including a borderline assault that we know of, and ignore his gutter talk. And how about that phrase he used on forcing himself on women: “Grab them by the …”  I won’t actually spell it out because it has no place on this blog.  But that conversation was actually captured, and here is the full context.  From The Independent, who printed the entire transcript: 

As he travelled on a bus with Billy Bush of Access Hollywood to meet Days of our Lives actress Arianna Zucker, Mr Trump bragged about his attempts to have sexual intercourse with a married woman who rejected his advances.

He insisted he had the right to do "whatever he wanted" with women, as he was a "star".

The nominee, who was 59 years old at the time, had just married his third wife, Melania Trump.

 

Notice he had just married Melania.  If you check the dates of his paid ”intercourse” with porn star Stormy Daniels, you will find it also happened within a year of marrying Melania, probably around the time she was pregnant with her son Baron.  Some husband!  I guess his newlywed passion for his young bride wasn’t so loving.  Continuing from The Independent:

 

 Trump: I moved on her [Arianna Zucker] and I failed. I’ll admit it. I did try and f*** her. She was married.

Unknown: That’s huge news.

Trump. No, no, Nancy. This was— And I moved on her very heavily in fact. I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture. I said I’ll show you where they have some nice furniture. I took her out furniture. I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn’t get there, and she was married.

Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big, phony tits and everything. She’s totally changed her look.

[The men spot Arianne Zucker waiting for them outside the bus]

Bush: Sheesh, your girl’s hot as shit. In the purple.

Trump: Whoa! Yes! Whoa!

Unknown: Yes! The Donald has scored. Whoa, my man!

Trump: Look at you. You are a p****.

[crosstalk as the bus doors open and close - Trump is still on the bus]

Trump: Maybe it’s a different one.

Bush: It better not be the publicist. No, it’s her. It’s —

Trump: Yeah, that’s her. With the gold. I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful - I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait.

And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything.

Bush: Whatever you want.

Trump: Grab them by the p****. You can do anything.

So if any of you people who think that the E. Jean Carrol abuse lawsuit was all made up for political reasons, you either don’t know the history of this man or you don’t care.  PBS has provided a long list of all the sexual allegations against Trump, here.  So that banter on Access Hollywood has been corroborated with a pattern of sexual affairs and abuse.  Frankly the man is a pig, a degenerate.  And I’ll say it again, Donald Trump doesn’t have a Christian bone in his body.

 

And if you don’t think he has a screw loose, just ask the people who worked for him.  It is astonishing how many of the very people he put in his administration quit and refuse to endorse him.  Here’s a few: Attorney General Bill Barr, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, National Security Adviser HR McMaster, National Security Adviser John Bolton, Chief of Staff John Kelly, Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, Communications Director Stephanie Grisham, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, and last of all Vice President Mike Pence.  There are plenty more. 

 

Most of these are good conservatives.  These are the very people he hired and worked for him.    Look up what they had to say about him.  It’s not pretty.  The man is ignorant, subject to conspiracy theories, and possibly unstable.  Bill Barr said Trump is “a consummate narcissist.” Does anyone doubt the man is a narcissist? 

 

Which leads to the final point.  I ignored most this and still voted for him twice. I cannot do it a third time because worst of all after the last election instead of accepting defeat with humility like a good Christian, he brought the country to a constitutional crises strictly because for his self-gain and ego. Sure the election was close, and legal challenges to the really close states were warranted.  But every single court he brought a challenge ultimately rejected his claims.  His record is 0 for 62.  Then he goes off on a riff that the legal system was corrupt.  This is what he wants people to believe: that the Democrats cheated and the legal system was corrupt, 62 times.  Trump brought 62 lawsuits and he lost every one.  Are you telling me that 62 courts in the country were corrupt?  He lost and could not accept it. 

 

There was a point where you had to give up.  But he pursued it against the good of the country.  He tried to force—he seems to like to force people to do lots of things—VP Mike Pence to illegally overturn the validation of the election.  Nobly Mike Pence refused.  Pence said there was a time to give up, but Donald Trump’s ego refused.  Yes, there is something twisted in his brain.  He’s like a spoiled child that cannot accept defeat, cannot lose like a decent man.  This led to what is now commonly referred to as January 6.  He may not have instigated the break in of the Capital, but he was going to use the power of the protestors to force Pence and Congress into illegally overturning the election.  This was truly a constitutional crises, all for his own ego.

 

He has no concept of sacrificial Christianity. Even if he was right about the election irregularities, he needed to bring the country together, not bring it to a constitutional crises.  If he had accepted defeat, whether it was right or wrong, with Christian humility, I would be voting for him in November. He doesn’t understand humility.  He is the very opposite of St. Francis of Assisi. Putting one’s ego ahead of the country is a lack of patriotism.  Putting one’s ego ahead of the country is a lack of Christian values.  Putting one’s ego ahead of the country makes you unfit for office.  By bringing the country to a constitutional crises, he has proven to be unfit for office.  Even before the crises, Robert P. George, the conservative Catholic political philosopher, has said from 2016 on that Donald Trump is unfit for office.  He has not changed his mind and he is not wrong.

 

So I’ve heard the objections.  “You have a moral obligation to vote.”  Who said I’m not voting?  I’ve decided to put in a protest vote, and I will vote for Peter Sonski of the American Solidarity Party.  The American Solidarity Party is a Christian values party.  Its platform agrees with all my social issues, though I probably disagree with a good deal of their economic policies. But they are a solid choice which clears my conscience of voting for a degenerate on the right and an anti Christian on the left.  You can see if the Sonski ticket is on the ballot in your state or whether he is a registered write-in here.  

 

Another argument I get thrown at me is that a vote for a third party is a vote for Kamala.  Don’t blame me.  I’m following my conscience, and frankly a Trump loss would put the Republican Party back on track.  Blame the Republican Party for nominating a man unfit for office.

 

Another argument I get is that a third party vote is a wasted vote.  No it’s not.  A protest vote counts in the assessment of the election.  It factors into how future policy is going to be negotiated, how other politicians run on the issues in the future, how much support the winner actually gets from Congress, and how future lobbying groups will get heard.  A strong Christian protest vote will have an impact.  Your one vote for either of the main stream candidates will be dissolved into about 80 million other votes.  My one protest vote will have more meaning in the one million or so protest votes. 

 

Besides, I’ve learned the dust never settles in politics.  As soon as an election is over, the political fights continue.  The system has checks and balances, and the winner doesn’t get much of what he wants and the loser doesn’t lose much of what he has.  Fear and manipulation is what brings on these illusions.

 

Finally don’t be afraid to lose.  The major parties manipulate you into voting for them because they get you to believe the other party will destroy the country.  Every election they tell you—and people always seem to believe it—that this election if decided wrongly will bring the end of the country as we know it or even bring the end of times.  Well, I’ve been going through this for forty years and it has never been the end.  You’re being manipulated.  The new term for this is gas lighting.  Sometimes you have to lose a battle to win a war.  There is no dishonor to losing for the right reasons.  In fact it’s very honorable.  Jesus Christ lost the only election He was ever in.  The crowd chose Barabbas.  I believe God will bring a greater good whichever of the two horrible outcomes pan out.  That is faith.