I had an epiphany this morning about Trump. I wish I had it back in January or February because I would have gone to work for his campaign for the rest of the year.
Trump is my dad and Middle America is my wife.
My dad was a New York asshole. A lawyer born and raised on Long Island.
He was pushy, belligerent, and entitled. That comes from living in a city which truly believes it is the greatest city in the history of human civilization, and having to fight every other resident of that city for every inch of space.
My wife is from rural, central Indiana. She is a green bean casserole. Warm, wholesome, family oriented, unassuming.
It took a long time for my wife to warm up to my dad. He made her cry more than once, and not on purpose. He intimidated her for a long time.
After ten years of knowing him she learned to love him and that he was a good person on the inside.
Trump is a New York asshole. He is THE New York asshole that’s has made a career of being a New York asshole on TV for a generation. Trump has been a brand my entire life.
His actual accomplishments are great. He got us out of the Obama economic doldrums. He brought more peace to the Middle East than anyone could imagine. He revitalized American manufacturing.
But to the Midwesterner, he’s a New York asshole.
They have to get over that and focus on his accomplishments to vote for him.
It never mattered how my times my dad pulled put his wallet and paid for dinner, the only thing my mother-in-law remembered was the asshole thing he said at dinner.
I wish I realized this eight months ago because the one thing I can do is get green bean casserole Middle Americans to love a New York asshole, because I was raised by the latter and married the former.
I wouldn’t change his policies, just work on his demeanor. If I could do that, the entire Rust Belt and Midwest would be his in the bag.
Fortunately, there are a fair number of captains of industry in the Midwest from the steel and automaking industries (and others to be sure) who maybe aren’t quite as brash as Trump but who are totally autocratic and love to boss people around — as well as live large — as part of top-down management. As someone who’s been in Michigan and Indiana my whole life, I can say without pause that people in the Midwest know get-it-done people who are Trump-esque. That’s a good thing because those are the folks who “get” why Trump needs to keep being president.
Now I understand why I like Trump!
If he wins, then Pence wins. If only to help get Pence in, its worth 4 years of blathering on Twitter. Then, Middle America will have the man they want in charge.
My lady has an interesting hole in her ability to see her political positions. What she is very good at is figuring out why she shouldn’t vote for the person she doesn’t want to vote for.
In 2016 she just couldn’t vote for Ted because he said something some time that was a strong Christian statement. And as a person that is not a Christian it was just totally unacceptable. Therefore she couldn’t vote for Ted.
Same thing for every other person on the Republican primary list. Every one of them had something they had said or done some where along the line that disqualified them in her mind.
She didn’t got that far in condemning every Democrat but she wasn’t going to vote for Clinton because of a bunch of things. And Sanders never had a chance.
But when it comes to her candidate it was all about all the positive things he had done or would do. Those things he had done wrong were minor in comparison to all the good things he would do. She is all about the BIG L, Libertarian candidate. This year it is “Well why doesn’t anybody listen to Jo? She’s a much better candidate than either Trump or Harris.”
And she’s already decided that the BIG L, Libertarian candidate in 2024 will be better than whomever the republicans put up, because all of the people on the Republican side have done or said something that disqualifies them. And with that one statement, she confirmed my opinion of how she chooses candidates she is willing to vote for. She’s already decided that it will be Justin Amash. Heck, I know he’s a bad dude just because he went to University of Michigan when everybody knows that if you are going to a school in Michigan, the only good one is Michigan State University.
I know why I plan on casting my vote for Trump. I held my nose and voted for him in 2016 and what I got in return was much better than I expected. I know why I won’t vote for Harris. My decisions are made on their policy statements and policy actions.
When the Harris campaign says they are going to take my guns, I believe them. When they say they are going to raise my taxes, I believe them. When they say they are going to force “diversity” down my throat, I believe them. When Trump says he’s going to do a good thing, I trust by verify. But he, in general, isn’t out there saying he wants policy I disagree with.
I’m voting for the candidate that will bring the best policies to my country. Even if those policies might negatively impact me, personally, a little bit.
That logical fallacy is known as “confirmation bias”. Basically, you selectively disregard evidence and history that doesn’t conform to your already-formed position, and keep evidence that confirms it. Think of it as unconscious cherry-picking of data.
She already decided to vote Big-L JoJo, so she’s justifying it in her own mind by stating evidence why everyone else is a bad candidate and disregarding every data point that says they’re good.
I’m like you: I try to make my decision on actual policy goals (and for incumbents, actual policy), and not my preconceived notions. I didn’t like Trump in 2016 (I still don’t, personally; I think he’s amoral and narcissistic with an over-inflated ego … but that’s not uncommon in politicians), but I voted for him because he’s Not Hillary. I admit I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the job he’s done and am supporting him in 2020.
And yes, when the Harris campaign says what their plans are, I believe them. That’s what you do: when your enemy tells you who he (or she) is, believe him.