Last night, 40 million viewers were riveted by one of the most exciting World Series games of all times as the Chicago Cubs erased 108 years of disappointment by winning their first World Championship since 1908 in a thrilling 10-inning victory over the Cleveland Indians, who were trying to erase a 68-year drought of their own. This game of course took place just 6 days before Election Day and the nail-biter, the most watched baseball game in 25 years, featured six wonderful, positive and uplifting campaign advertisements from our magnificent two presidential candidates.
NOT.
There were six TV spots during the Game 7 finale of the Fall Classic and they were anything but uplifting, a fitting end to one of the most bitterly contested and deplorable presidential campaigns in any of our memories. As we contemplate our terrible choices of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, we can only wish we were back in 1908, when the Cubs won the World Series and William Howard Taft bested William Jennings Bryan to become our 27th president. Or maybe 1948, when Harry Truman bested Thomas Dewey. Negative advertising in politics dates back to the early years of our Republic but, during a classic tilt from our national pastime, it would have been nice to see messages that were less negative than what we saw last night and what we see every day, both in the ads and with the candidates’ speeches on the stump. Policy positions? What are those?
So here we are; a great baseball season is over and our long national nightmare is just beginning. Regardless of who wins on Tuesday, more than half of the people in our nation will be abjectly horrified, depressed, frightened, or disgusted. And there are tens of millions of Americans (such as myself) who will feel those emotions regardless of who wins. Our country is screwed either way.
As those of you who are my regular readers know, I have never been on the Trump Train and I have also suffered from a long-term psychological disorder known as “Hillary Derangement Syndrome.” I’ve been in the #NeverHillary camp for decades but only joined the #NeverTrump camp earlier this year. Trump appealed to me initially. He was talking about things that nobody else would talk about. His utter lack of a filter on his words made me cringe but the appeal of an outsider coming in to change the way Washington does business was appealing. This doesn’t mean that I was ever a supporter: my top two choices were always John Kasich and Marco Rubio because I felt either one of them would have easily defeated Hillary in a general election while I also felt that Trump always had a high ceiling of support.
Still, early in the nominating process, as it became apparent that Trump was emerging as the front-runner, I remained intrigued. But over the past 12 months it’s become crystal clear that the reality TV star is better off in that medium and has no business whatsoever being President of the United States. And no, it’s not because he was caught on tape bragging about hitting on married women and grabbing others by the you know what. It’s not because he mocked a disabled reporter, it’s not because he said John McCain was not a war hero and not because he got in a Twitter feud with a Muslim Gold Star family.
I could be convinced to look past all of Trump’s misogynistic and infantile behavior if it weren’t for the following reasons.
First, Trump is a con artist. He has masterfully channeled the large swath of the Republican electorate who feel that GOP politicians have let them down. The con is his promise that he can fix everything himself. He’s promising to bring all the jobs back, to reduce crime, to destroy ISIS, to build a wall with Mexico’s money, etc. I could go on. In many ways Donald Trump is the the 2016 version of Barack Obama. Both talked incessantly about “change” and got tens of millions of true believers to buy into the notion that everything would be all right once they became president. It was a pipe dream with Obama and it’s a bigger pipe dream with Trump. Every time he talks he reminds of a timeshare salesman. It sounds great but you’re not going to like it after you buy.
Second, Trump is a fraud. When he started the campaign, he claimed he was “really rich” (true) and worth $9 billion (not so true) and would be completely self-funding his campaign. Of course, he didn’t have to during the Republican primaries because of the $2 billion in free media he received. In the general election, however, with a legitimate chance to become the President of the United States, Trump had contributed just $56 million to his campaign as of October 20th (this exact figure according to Politico, CNN and CNBC). It’s not clear whether the $56 million includes the money he spent during the primaries or just during the race with Clinton. Now, $56 million is a lot of money but, if his net worth claim is to be believed, it represents 0.6% of his net worth. This is the equivalent of a person with a net worth of one million dollars contributing $6,000 to a campaign for a local assembly race.
The answer is that, while it may be possible that assets with Trump’s name on it are collectively worth $9 billion it isn’t clear at all what percentage of those assets he owns and what percentage is leveraged through debt. He has, after all, said he is the “king of debt.” He flies in a 737 that bears his name but that doesn’t mean he owns it. I’ve written about this before but it bugs me so I’ll bring it up again. Trump reportedly claimed a $915 million loss on his taxes in 1995 and therefore may have avoided paying any federal income tax for 18 years. However, New York Times reports have indicated that he exploited loopholes (since closed) that literally allowed him to lose other people’s money and claim it as his own loss.
The point of this is that, regardless of where the $915 million loss came from, if he really was able to use that loss to shield himself from 18 years of income taxes, that means that his income would have averaged $50 million per year during that time period. Now, that’s a lot of money and I’d love to have some of it but it doesn’t add up to $9 billion. I’ll say with all bitterness that the idea of Trump not paying any taxes for 18 years pisses me off. I’ve paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes since 1995 and never made more than $225,000 per year. Trump has been extraordinarily successful at self-promotion and making money off his own name. If he was running for president of the United States of Trump, that would be an asset, but he isn’t.
My third issue is that Trump has a massive ego and no humility whatsoever. If he’s a con artist and fraud that is hardly unique in the world of politics. But his utter lack of humility is deeply troubling. Trump brags about how he knows more about ISIS than the generals, that all of leaders are weak and that only he understands how to win. If there is one job in the world where you need to know what you don’t know, it’s the presidency. Trump is the most dangerous type of “know it all.” That’s not to say that he can’t be disciplined. Remarkably, he has been on message for the last ten days while Hillary has been besieged with bad news but I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Trump has not intellectually prepared himself for the presidency.
Now, having made the case for why I will never join the Trump Train, that doesn’t mean I’m going to support Hillary Clinton either. I’ve referred to my “Hillary Derangement Syndrome” before and I will be the first to admit that there’s a part of it that isn’t really logical. But when you have a feeling about something and then are presented with facts to confirm your feelings, it takes a deep root. I’ve always felt that Hillary was dishonest, secretive, two-faced, and corrupt.
Secretive? Well, when the email story broke, she claimed to have set up a private email server while serving as Secretary of State for her own convenience. This was utterly laughable and has been proven false. We all know why she did it. It was to have control about what would be available to the public.
Dishonest? Virtually everything she’s said about the email server has been false at worse or lawyer-speak at best. And this will tweak some of you who support her but there’s also the matter of telling the families of the Behghazi victims about how they were going to “go after” the author of the internet video that allegedly sparked the Embassy attack.
Two-faced? Just look at her own words about how taking a both a “private” and “public” position. How about her position on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, something she previously referred to as the “gold standard” of trade deals but which she then disavowed when it was politically untenable with the Bernie Sanders wing of her party.
Corrupt? This is just coming to light now, how the FBI has been investigating the Clinton Foundation for over a year regarding “pay for play” allegations in which the Clinton’s used their Foundation and (to a lesser degree) her role as Secretary of State to enrich themselves.
This is not to mention that Clinton’s actual record as a Senator and as head of the State Department is rather spotty, lacking in genuine accomplishments. Yes, yes, I know that she was one of those who advised Obama to kill Osama Bin Laden. Tough call, that one, would never have argued for it myself. Pardon as I extract my tongue from my cheek.
So, we have a choice between two people who lie constantly and are fundamentally dishonest. So imagine this: let’s say that you took all of the sitting members of Congress and all of the current Governors and put them on the field at Nationals Park in Washington. Then you release a blind cat onto the field. Let’s call him Leo; he is an old and very wise cat. Whoever Leo finds first becomes the President of the United States. You could see the headline: “Leo Gets the Next President” (Lethal Weapon 2 reference if you missed it). This method would likely have resulted in a better president, one that more of the people could be proud of, than the choices we have now.
After all of this, I’m going to bare my soul to all of you my readers. My feelings about this election are emotional, not logical. Despite my degree in Political Science from Yale and the hundreds of hours I’ve spent studying this election, my opinions about the candidates are visceral. I do not like them. I don’t like the sound of their voices. The thought of either one being president makes me nauseous. It’s sad because it didn’t need to be that way. I used to like Donald Trump. I liked him a lot, as a reality TV host of the The Celebrity Apprentice. As a potential president, I’m disgusted. There’s a lot about his outsider message that I like, it’s just that I no longer like the messenger because he’s mostly spewing a bunch of nonsense.
As for Secretary Clinton, my feelings date back to her days during her husband’s administration and I will freely acknowledge that there might have been a small bit of sexism on my part, that she wasn’t a Nancy Reagan or Barbara Bush type of First Lady. But my anti-Hillary feelings are rooted in her disdain for transparency, her ease with obfuscation and outright lies and her feeling of entitlement, as if she was placed on this earth to be the first female President and shame on all of us who are part of the vast right wing conspiracy.
Hillary is likely to win (although this is not certain as it seemed to be a few weeks ago) but I’m telling you all right now I’m going to puke when she talks about shattering glass ceilings. She is not deserving of the historic honor of being the first female president. If her last name wasn’t Clinton, she would have never been a Senator from New York, never been Secretary of State and never gotten the overwhelming support of the Democratic party establishment for this second run for the Oval Office. She may be qualified for the presidency by virtue of her resume but she is distinctly unfit and unworthy of the office by virtue of her actions.
So I’m not on the “Trump Train” and I’m “Not With Her.” I’ll be voting for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson with a worthy goal in mind. If he manages to win 5% of the vote nationwide, the Libertarian party will be eligible for federal matching funds and automatic ballot access in future elections. In 25 years when my friends’ grandchildren ask me about the election of 2016 and who I voted for, I will proudly say “neither.”
Thanks for reading and letting me rant.
Chris Bodig