Four reasons we must dump Trump (commentary)

Courtesy of Bastrop Advertiser
Oct. 22, 2020
By Bill McCann

I cast my first vote for president in 1964, for Lyndon Johnson. I wasn’t a fan, but I feared Johnson’s scary opponent Barry Goldwater might start a nuclear war. In 1968, I filled out my ballot while sitting near a helicopter off the coast of Vietnam. I chose Hubert Humphrey over Richard Nixon, who promised to end the war. I didn’t trust him. He seemed corrupt. I was right.

Now 52 years later, in the most important election of my lifetime, we have an incumbent president who is far scarier than Goldwater and so corrupt he makes Nixon look like a choir boy. There are many good reasons why Donald Trump should be voted out of office and Joe Biden elected president. Here are four of them:

Trump threatens our health

He botched the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic, costing thousands of lives by his lies and incompetence. Trump still downplays the seriousness of COVID-19, despite a resurgence in many states. Some 225,000 Americans have died to date.

The prestigious New England Journal of Medicine recently urged voters to fire Trump, saying his administration “recklessly squandered lives and money” in failing to lead the country through the pandemic. Also, Trump has rushed the confirmation of a Supreme Court justice whose views threaten women’s choice of reproductive health. And his administration seeks to kill the Affordable Care Act and its protections related to preexisting conditions and lifetime limits on health care benefits.

Trump promotes racism, conflict, hate

He routinely has spewed hate speech during campaign rallies. He has regurgitated wild conspiracy theories, including myths about rampant voter fraud. His incendiary words and tweets helped fuel violence by his supporters in Portland and elsewhere. At the September presidential debate Trump again declined to condemn white supremacists. At a recent rally in Minnesota, Trump praised Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, who fought against the United States to preserve slavery, saying Lee “would have won except for Gettysburg,” according to Vox.

Trump is a wealthy welfare queen

The New York Times obtained documents showing Trump avoided paying federal income taxes for most years from 2000 to 2017. Trump, the supposed hotshot businessman, declared $1.4 billion in losses from his core businesses for 2008 and 2009. Also, he could be in legal trouble over a $72.9 million tax refund he claimed and received in 2010.

Even more worrisome, the Times reported that more than $300 million in loans for which Trump is personally obligated will come due in the next four years, making him vulnerable to financial blackmail if some loans came from, say, Russians. So, Trump also may be a serious security risk.

Trump flouts the rule of law

He sells himself as a law-and-order president but has assailed judges who ruled against him. He has attacked the constitutionally guaranteed free press and peaceful protesters. He has politicized the federal government, particularly the Department of Justice, where he demanded that Attorney General William Barr investigate his political enemies. He defied congressional subpoenas and oversight. He bypassed Congress by taking $8 billion appropriated mostly for the military to fund his border wall (which he promised Mexico would pay for) by declaring a “national emergency.” He has raised doubts about the fairness of the election – but only if he loses.

Those aren’t the actions of an honest president. They are actions of a wannabe dictator who has demeaned the presidency, discredited our government, and damaged our democratic republic. If we don’t dump Trump and elect Joe Biden president, the damage may be irreparable. As a former vice president, Biden helped lead the country out of economic chaos created by the Bush administration. He can lead us out of chaos again.