In Praise of Trump or Why I voted for Trump for the First Term but not for the Second Term
Trump is moving us outside of our comfort zone. Nothing wrong with that.
Joshua Tartakovsky, November 12, 2020. City of Philadelphia.
I did not vote for Trump. Not this round. In fact, I voted for Biden. I believe Trump is a danger to many Americans. In his egomaniacal pursuit of fame and success, he does not take to heart, or even to mind, the issue of countless Americans dying from Covid. For him, it’s all about his perfection, his success, his gloty. The economy must do great, no matter what, everything must look perfect, so he can claim to be the greatest president ever. No matter the piling bodies of dead Americans, no matter that Covid is a scientifically-proven problem (it has been mapped), no matter the fact that elderly whites, people of color, poor, are dying. They are a burden on the economic system anyway.
There is an inherent paradox in Trumpism. On the one hand, he made large segments of the white working class proud. Finally a president who speaks to them, who addresses their suffering and economic plight (exacerbated by President Clinton’s treacherous free-trade policies with Mexico and Canada), who can break all bourgoise norms and do whatever the f–k he feels like, who speaks in a simple manner that everyone can understand. But, Trump was not really that good for the white working class. He nearly denied Covid, even as most Americans don’t enjoy the excellent private health care he was priviliged to, he supported fracking in Pennsylvania that created jobs but also probably posioned the water and the earth, likely creating many cases of cancer. He gave people more money due to lower taxes, but prices remained high, rent remained unbearable, jobs continued to pay low.
Trump had guts. He took on China, trying to bring jobs back to America, willing to crash the world economy in the process. But, he removed regulations from all corporations, allowing them to do as they wish, while they harmed workers’ minimal rights and posioned the environment.
It’s very simple though it has been made complicated. If only profit is the sole motivation of a given government or company, then why not create a disease to people will buy the medicine (patented in advance), why not destroy the tab water so people will buy your mineral water, why not destroy the ability to grow your own food so people will buy your (Monsanto for instance) food? Profit without any consideration of the effects, of the absurdities in the process, is the path Trump took.
As a Pennsylvanian at the end of the day, I voted for Trump in the first run, in his run-off against Hillary. Before I am stoned to death, let me explain why, if I may. I voted for Trump because he was the first candidate, perhaps since JFK or even earlier, to speak against the military-industrial complex, to voice his opposition to wars abroad, to object to Hillary and Obama’s war against Libya, a country that, – though ruled by a brutal dictator- provided a semblance of stability and is now one of the few if not only modern African states where slavery exists in 2020.
In my book and in my worldview, it was nice that Bernie Sanders supported socialism for the American people, or at least, getting rid of debt. America is a rich country, just like other American states, and can work out an environment where the basic needs of all citizens are provided and competitiveness remains for people to make a profit, secure a better livelihood and reach innovation. Bernie however, has not entirely ruled out wars abroad, and, he was effectively silenced by the DNC, the same DNC that decided that later Joe Biden must win. In some respects, as absurd, ironic or counterintuitive as it may sound, Bernie was less against foreign wars than Trump, perhaps precisely due to the fact that he did not appears as hard-core on issues of immigration and national identity as Trump did (and, if to borrow from US’ ally in the Middle East, perhaps why the Israeli state has historically seen its right-wing leaders make peace agreements that garnered the support of their citizens, if to overlook the ruled-over oppressed living in the non-colonies in the West Bank, rather than left-wing leaders).
But, there were a few glitches to Trump that emerged and became obvious over the years. First and foremost, he didn’t care about American lives, he cares about himself (pretending Covid wasn’t a problem until he got it, not wearing a mask then wearing a mask, claiming without any evidence, as if he was a mad prophet, that one day, Covid will just disappear). Second, he pushed for a race and civil war in the US, (”standback and stand by, ”you have good genes,” “bad people on both sides.”) Third, he took on the whimsical actions of attacking Syria based on a few pictures Ivanka showed him and of murdering in cold blood an Iranian and Iraqi security officials who were busy defeating ISIS in the Middle East).
The primary responsibility of every elected official, no matter how fair or unfair a democracy in a given state is, regardless of how transparent an voting system is, to take care of his own citizenry, to value the lives of the people who voted for him. Alas, Trump did not do that when it came to Covid. Hundreds of thousands of Americans died since Trump could not put together and emergency program. The United States is the richest country in the world, the number one economy. Surely, it has enough money to stop Covid. It’s en emabressment when US is the number one Covid country in the world and when Americans can’t visit Canada, the 10th largest economy.
It is not accurate to say that Trump could have stopped 200,000 deaths. But he could have stopped at least half of those, 100,000 deaths, even by conservative estimates. He did not.
If to borrow from the conservative hand book, what his intentions were, why he did not, or whose fault is was are irrleveant. Americans were and are dropping like flies under his watch.
The elections are over. Now is the time for the Great Recount, and yet another, and yet another. Biden won justifiably, and Americans can’t afford to waste time while people are dying. Nervertheless, Trump is doing our democracy a service. He is pointing out that it’s not enough to go to sleep, wake up, go to work and back again. We must fight for democracy. We must be indignant. Otherwise, we will lose the gains made.
For many people would prefer that voting would take place every four years and the rest of the time they can go one with their lives. A healthy society demands active engagment from its members. Freedom and well-being are not free, they demand constant work and sacrfice. Trump is reminding us that we can’t be too comfortable and confident that we know it all. We must be alert, fully aware that every victory gained, every achievment obtained, can be challenged. Let him challenge every vote, are we that certain that every vote was legally obtained and correct? If not, do we really trust our judges? And if we do not trust our judges, do we want to live in a society where there is no justice?
Al Gore lost the 2000 elections because he did not have the guts to send Americans to the streets and to unravel faith in US democracy. The result? A war in Iraq, hundreds of thousands dead, a destroyed country, a moron as president, and a poorer USA. Maybe it’s time for liberal Americans to realize they have to fight sometimes. At least sometimes.
