I voted for Trump in 2016 and again in 2020. Not because I thought he was a great guy or because he is my ideal candidate. He wasn’t and he isn’t. Nor did I vote for him because I’m a life-long, committed Republican. I am not now nor have I ever been a registered Republican. Nor have I ever felt an ounce of loyalty to the GOP. The only party I’ve ever been a member of is the Democratic Party, though that affiliation faded away during the Clinton presidency. I voted for Trump because, at the time, I thought that he was better than the alternative: better than Hillary Clinton in 2016; better than Joe Biden in 2020. And, given those specific choices, I still think that Trump was a better choice than Hillary in 2016 and a better choice than Biden in 2020.
That’s really what having an electoral choice for president is all about. Unless you want to write in someone’s name or vote for a minor party candidate, our electoral choice is binary. Between the existing party nominees, which nominee is the better choice: this particular Democrat or that particular Republican? The question is not: Which candidate do you love? Or even: Which candidate seems more presidential? You might decide that the real question is: Who is the lesser of two evils? Or: Who is less dangerous to the future of America? though the ideal question is probably more like: Who will do the better job for the people of the United States? Or one might ask the broader question: Who will do a better job for the people of the world? Or for the future of the planet? – since the President of the United States has an outsized global impact.
I don’t regret either general election vote that I cast for Trump. But I have no loyalty to candidates. Why would ANYONE be loyal to Donald Trump? Has Donald Trump shown himself to be loyal to anyone on the planet, anyone at all, with the possible exceptions of his children? Why would you be loyal to Joe Biden? He’s not even sure who’s dead and who’s still alive. (“Jackie, are you here?”)
We, the American people, hire a president for four years, with an option to renew for another four. A president is not our “best bud.” We may like a particular president. We might even love one. But it ain’t mutual, except perhaps in that nebulous way that rock stars “love” their fans.
I don’t regret having voted for Trump either in 2016 or in 2020. Was Donald Trump a great president? No. Is Joe Biden a great president? No. But presidents don’t have to be great in order to do some good. And they don’t have to be evil in order to do some real damage to the body politic. Donald Trump’s behavior on January 6, 2020 was despicable, reprehensible, and it should be considered disqualifying for any future presidential bid. But the guy is still out there and, apparently, he will soon throw his hat in the ring for a third time. Someone should pick up that hat and throw it right back in his face!
Democrats can and should do better than Biden. Republicans can and should do better than Trump. We should thank them for their service – whether we can do that with a straight face or only with a smirk – and then we should put them both out to pasture.