By Hans Christian Andersen
I'm an independent voter, having walked away from the Republic party in disgust several years ago. My views are mostly moderate-conservative, though I do break progressive on issues like climate change, public lands, etc. That said, I've never voted for a Democrat presidential candidate. Until this year.
Four years ago, I wrote-in Mitt Romney for President, rather than voting for either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. Living in Washington state, this was an easy decision. Washington's electoral votes always go to the Democrat, no matter the candidate. So my vote, one way or the other, was immaterial to the outcome.
I still live in Washington and could write-in Romney again this year. After all, I don't agree with some of Joe Biden's policy positions. But I'm voting for him anyway.
Here's why: I am so thoroughly disgusted and repulsed by Donald Trump that I want to run up the popular vote score against him. Trump is a bully, and I despise bullies! He is a remorseless, serial adulterer and womanizer. He is a godless, amoral flimflam man who has conned his Christian base into a Faustian bargain. He is a narcissistic, manipulative sociopath--made all the more dangerous by his laziness, unwillingness to take expert counsel, and wanton disregard for both facts and context. But arguably worse than all these, he is a divider with authoritarian aspirations, who convinces his base that their fellow Americans (who have different ideas, perspectives, skin color or backgrounds) constitute a dangerous, loathsome 'other' that's out to get them and must be suppressed, if not destroyed.
So no, throwing away my vote is not good enough this time--not even close. I'm voting to remove Trump from an office that he's wholly unfit to occupy. If the Democrats were running a dented can of tomatoes for president, I'd vote for it. Optimistically, I hope Biden can begin to heel the social fabric of our nation, patch-up foreign relations, and restore dignity to the presidency. But even if he can't, Joe Bidden will at least do much, much less damage than Trump.
The Mormon Vote
I'm disturbed and discouraged that so many members of my church are willing to plug their nose and vote for Trump. And absolutely perplexed by church members--and there are many--who enthusiastically support Trump. I'm sure they would be shocked to know that I'm anti-Trump.....and therefore an apostate, socialist, baby-killer.
As a disciple of Jesus Christ who strives to follow his example and teachings, I honestly can neither support nor rationalize a man like Trump. Granted, none of us is perfect (least of all me), but Trump is a prolific sinner who is brazenly proud of his wicked ways and shows no inclination at all towards repentance. If I can't look at evil and recognize it for what it is, how can I claim to recognize good? And if I can rationalize supporting an overtly bad man like Trump, how can I trust that any/all of my beliefs are not also rationalized fictions?
After much thought--and taking insanity off the table--I see four reasons that a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (or any person of any faith) would support/vote for Donald Trump.
1) Identity - They identify so strongly with being a Republican--it's who they are, as a person and as a member of the church--that they are actually voting for themselves and their church when they vote Republican. Many believe erroneously that the church tacitly endorses the Republican party. Voting any other way would mean going against the prophet of God, deconstructing their persona and shattering their self-image.
2) Gullibility - They've bought the snake oil Trump is hawking, cash in hand, "Trump that bitch!" t-shirt on their back, no questions asked. Due to a diet of 100% Fox News, conservative talk radio, pro-Trump social media feeds, and a dose of QAnon, they sincerely believe even the most absurd lies. And they think most other Americans believe them too. There are no dissenting voices in the echo chamber they've built for themselves.
3) Character - There are undoubtedly a few persons of faith who are just rotten human beings. They lie, they cheat, they say horrible things, and treat people they don't like in ugly ways. These folks correctly perceive a kindred spirit in Donald Trump. Birds of a feather flock together.....especially at Trump rallies and Klan meetings.
4) Practicality - They believe that, despite being a bad man, Trump promotes religion-friendly policies and appoints judges who will strike down laws with which they disagree. If I were to vote for Trump, this would be my reason. So I guess I get it. But I also see that the bad far outweighs the good in Trump's case. Especially since the good is more perceived than actual.
Take, for example, an issue like abortion. Many church-going Republicans hope that rulings like Roe v. Wade will be overturned if they can just get enough conservative justices on the Supreme Court. This despite the fact that every year since 1969 the Supreme Court has been controlled by a majority of Republican-appointed judges. In fact, Roe v. Wade was decided by a 7-2 decision, where six of the seven justices in favor of legalizing abortion were Republican-appointed. If the Republican majority wanted to overturn Roe v. Wade any time since 1973, they had the votes to do it. So, a majority conservative court is not the panacea that many Republicans perceive. And even if it were, Donald Trump will leave office (even if voted-out) with a Supreme Court that is 6-3 conservative (and 7-2 Republican-appointed). How much more of a majority is needed to satisfy the demands of practicality?
The Dead Cat's Tale: A Satirical Parable
Note: This story is only partially fictional, but wholly political.
As a teenager growing up in the farming country of Southeast Idaho's Snake River Valley, I joined every other teen with a pulse in working the potato harvest. This annual two-week break from school allowed area farmers to hire the cheap labor they needed to harvest their extensive potato crop. And it allowed said labor to get rich.
I always worked for Dean Wood on his potato combine. Basically, a potato combine is a huge harvester, pulled behind a large tractor, that excavates 6-8 rows of potatoes at a time from the fields, separated them from the dirt, rocks, and other debris, then deposited them into a truck for transport to either a processing plant or storage facility.
This separation process is largely automated today, but back then it required 3-5 humans (usually local teens) to stand on a platform overlooking a conveyer belt and pick-out the dirt clods, rocks, and damaged/rotten potatoes. If all went well, only good potatoes would be deposited into the trucks.
Days on the combine were dusty, 12-14 hour affairs with a 30-minute break for lunch, so fatigue was inevitable, and friction between the workers on the combine was common.
One year I was working on the potato combine alongside three other teens from my high school, one of whom was named Mark. My problem with Mark was that he was lazy and let squishy, damaged potatoes go, rather than throwing them out. Now, I wasn't a perfectionist when it came to potato harvesting, but I did my best to do the job and earn my money (a slave wage that seemed like a fortune back then).
So Mark and I would often get into it over bad potatoes that he let pass and which I had to hustle to pick out of the endless conveyor flow. "Quit letting the bad ones go!" I'd say.
"Looks good to me." He'd counter. "It's just a little soft, but still edible."
"Soft? It's oozing for crap's sake!"
"Well if you're so picky, you throw it out!"
And so it went, hour after hour, day after day until...
I'm not sure how the dead cat got into the field. Maybe it died there. Maybe it was a pet some kids had buried there. In any case, it had been dead and decomposing for quite sometime before the potato combine excavated it and sent its rigid, flattened corpse up the conveyer belt along with the potatoes.
I saw the cat corpse coming up the belt before it reached us and was relieved that it would pass Mark before it got to me. And sure enough, seconds later it reached Mark and he saw it. He picked it with his gloved hand and inspected it briefly. Then, a matter of factly, he tossed it back on the belt and let it go.
"Seriously?" I said, removing the cat corpse from the belt and holding it aloft.
"What?" he replied defensively.
"It's a frickin' dead cat, Mark!"
He looked at the mangled corpse in my hand and shrugged. "Looks like a potato to me."
Just then the tractor pulling the potato combine stopped to allow an empty truck to pull up, at which point we had a few minutes respite. By this time I was pissed-off. "Come on man! It's a disgusting, decomposed corpse, and you know it! You're gonna let that go into the truck?"
He shot me a fiery, defensive glare, looking first at the cat, then back at me. "Of course I'm letting it go. It's a potato."
I asked the other two teen pickers if they thought it was a potato. They didn't really want to get involved, but reluctantly conceded that it was not a potato.
"See, it's a dead cat" I said somewhat triumphantly, which only made Mark more defensive.
"Is not!" he cried.
"Are you blind or crazy?" I asked.
"Shut up!" he screamed, his voice shaking with anger and tears forming in his eyes. "You think I'm crazy? Well you're crazy! It's a dang potato! A perfectly good potato! You wanna throw out a good potato, you go for it. But you won't last long around here when Dean finds out you're throwing out his cash crop."
I was stunned. I didn't believe for a second that the dad cat was a potato. But I was now convinced that Mark believed it.
"Look Mark," I said, trying to deescalate the situation, "we can argue about potatoes being rotten, or cut-up or squishy or whatever. That's fine. At least they're potatoes. But this...this isn't even a plant, much less a potato. Why can't you see that?"
"I see just fine," he seethed, "and that potato's going into the truck."
"Nope," I replied, and turned to toss the hairless corpse onto the ground below. That's when Mark lunged at me, quick as a (live) cat, and plucked the corpse from my raised hand. Before I could react, Mark turned and side-armed the petrified remains of that cat like a frisby towards the bed of the empty truck that had just pulled up. Almost in slow motion, the disfigured corpse arced towards the truck. It looked like it was going to come up short, but maybe not. It was going to be close. Maybe...maybe...
It's been so long ago that I can't remember if that dead cat went in or not. I hope not. But I've never forgotten that story. And even today, I refuse to willingly allow a dead cat to make its way into the food chain. And even today, I'm stunned and deeply troubled by people who insist that a dead cat is in fact a perfectly good, edible potato. A person that can't distinguish a dead cat from a potato should just stop eating potatoes.
The Republican Party I Knew
The Republican party I knew no longer exists. Republicanism has sold-out to Trumpism, which is a thinly veiled mix of populism, white nationalism, and authoritarianism. The ease and speed with which Republicans abandoned their platform and values lead me to believe that they'll do it again for the next wingnut they manage to get elected. BTW, I believe the same thing about the Democrats. Nearly all politicians sell-out to power.
So--assuming a Trump defeat in the upcoming election--even if Republicans distance themselves from Trump and Trumpism, I'm not going to welcome them back. No, with a few exceptions, like senator Mitt Romeny, these were Trump sycophants. Yes men. Drummers for a demagogue. Toadies to an authoritarian party leader rather than representatives of the people and conservative values. For me, there can be no reconciliation with the Republican party until they've purged the fawning lickspittles of the Trump era. This should be their first order of business. It won't be.
"When someone has a long record, an ugly record of racism and of bigotry, that record simply cannot be erased by the glib rhetoric of a political campaign. So I believe David Duke is an insincere charlatan. I believe he's attempting to hoodwink the voters of Louisiana, I believe he should be rejected for what he is and what he stands for." -President George H. W. Bush on Republican candidate for Louisiana Governor, David Duke
Lessons Learned
Although I don't expect either party to learn a thing from the last four years, I've certainly learned a few things and made some resolutions:
1. I will always vote for the person, not the party.
2. Likewise, I will remain unaffiliated with any party and not vote a straight ticket except by coincidence.
3. I will always prioritize character over policy. This is in large part because, when it comes to actually legislating (as opposed to talking), policies don't really vary much between the parties. Example: Every for years we've been told that the Democrats will take our guns away. And yet here were are, many Democratic presidents later, with more guns than ever. Character, on the other hand, is king. The damage inflicted by an influential reprobate can take years, even decades to reverse. Indeed, it may become a permanent scar on the social fabric of our nation.
4. I will consistently favor political moderation over partisan extremism. Neither left-wingers nor right-wingers will get my vote. Moderate candidates of character from both parties will.
5. I will vote for candidates who are willing to reach across the aisle, build coalitions and negotiate win-win compromises.
6. I will be more data-driven in my political views. Anecdotes are often compelling but just as often misleading.
7. I will actively look for and find ways to expose the misguided notion that good members of the LDS church must be/vote Republican for what it is: Utter nonsense.
Where I Stand on the Issues
I recently took one of those online political typology quizzes that tells you where you fall along the political spectrum (Democrat-Independent-Republican) and it was terrible. Each question offered two diametrically opposed choices, neither of which fit me well most of the time (Do you think that armed militias should be allowed to roam our streets and murder people, or do you think that the government should take everybody's guns away and then use the military to enslave a defenseless citizenry?). My ideology is filled with nuance that does not lend itself to either/or categorization.
The following represents where I currently stand on several major issues that typically differentiate Democrats from Republicans. Note that the older I get, the more liberal I become. Then again, after four years of Donald Trump, I'm likely leaning a bit further to the left than I normally would. In any case, my views used to be much more dogmatically conservative/Republican than they are now.
Military
I'm pro-military and moderately pro-military spending, though I'm against war if at all possible. Diplomacy is inevitably easier when you carry a big stick. It's also better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. I also think military R&D and spending contribute to the economy.
Gay Rights/Marriage
My views are very nuanced on this issue, but I am pro-gay rights. I recognize that there is a lot that I don't know, and I'm willing to learn. I also recognize that my church may or may not change its policies regarding gay marriage in the future. In either case, I believe that God loves ALL his children and requires me to do the same. And that I can and will do.
Abortion
I'm pro-life, with caveats. I believe that a baby is a living human being before it's born. I support a woman's rights over her own body...I just don't believe the baby inside her is the same as her body. I'm open to compromise here. I'm open to discussion and learning. But I just can't support late-term elective abortions just because somebody changed their mind. That said, I recognize that late-term abortions are rare and usually precipitated by difficult, extenuating circumstances that are not likely to be made better by the government getting involved.
Society
I believe that societies derive their strength from virtuous individuals and that families, not communities, are the basic unit of society. I see individual morality and building strong families as the most important prerequisite to strong communities. Morality, of course, requires a definition of what is moral, which opens the door to religious beliefs. That said, I believe that, "the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil."
Death Penalty
I'm not strongly opposed to it, but I do favor punishment that does not kill. Oddly, part of my rationale is that a quick, painless death seems like an easy way out for some people.
Taxes
I'm usually an advocate of low taxes...when paired with reduced spending so that a balanced budget is the result. Trump-style tax cuts paired with runaway spending is neither fiscally conservative nor sustainable.
Government Regulation
Generally, I'm wary of too much government regulation, but I'm also (and increasingly) aware of its need to prevent abuses brought on by unscrupulous, corner-cutting greed. So it's situational with me at this point, but moderation seems to be key.
Healthcare
I'm a proponent of private health insurance with lots of options and across state lines...if insurance companies would do it fairly and effectively without prioritizing profits over people's health. And since they generally do not do this, I'm open to an affordable public option, but not in favor of the public option being the only option. I believe that insurance policies should protect people with preexisting conditions in most cases.
Immigration
I'm pro-immigration and anti-illegal immigration. Honestly, I think most illegal immigrants are not fans of migrating illegally. Given a reasonable option, they'd come here legally, but legal immigration is so difficult/restricted that they see crossing the border illegally as their best option. If we need 2 million workers to do the back-breaking, low wage-earning jobs that American citizens are not willing to do, then by all means let's bring them in--legally. Don't make them sneak across the border, then exploit them. I want to know who's coming into the country and be able to control it. Those with a criminal background (on either side of the border) should not be allowed. But those willing to work hard, keep the rules and add to our economy should be given some type of work visa and be treated/paid fairly.
Race/Gender Equality
I favor equality of opportunity, but not equity of result. Laws should protect against discrimination of people based on race, gender, religion, nationality, nationality, etc. That said, I chafe at contemporary societal pressures on people to be a certain way. For example, if a woman chooses to be a stay at home mom, she should not be looked down upon. That's discrimination.
Foreign Relations
I'm a moderate globalist and believe that good foreign relations, treaties, trade agreements, alliances, etc. are in the best interest of the United States (and every other country). Although I am not a fan of the United Nations (hypocrisy, poor execution), I'm intrigued by the idea. I believe that rising tides lift all ships (the converse is also true). I think Trump's nationalist "America first" policy is short-sighted and will backfire in the long run.
Environment
I believe that global climate change is a scientific reality and that humans play a significant part in it. This is based on empirical evidence and an overwhelming consensus in the scientific community. I understand that regulating carbon emissions will have a significant cost, but I also believe that it will prompt innovation that will drive a win-win (economy-environment) scenario.
Public Lands
As an avid hiker/backpacker/mountain biker, I'm an advocate of public lands. The role of the bureaucratic federal government should be to keep beautiful places out of the hands of those private interests who will absolutely exploit them (destroy them) for monetary gain.
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