[This "AMERICA'S CLOSING ARGUMENT AGAINST DONALD J. TRUMP" is in the works. As my drafting progresses, I solicit suggestions from readers. Also, I will collect "closing arguments" of other Alabamians and put links to them or even possibly set them out in full at https://trumptweet.blogspot.com/2024/10/closing-arguments-of-other-alabamians.html. I will make discussion of the same at the foregoing link.]
AMERICA'S CLOSING ARGUMENT AGAINST DONALD J. TRUMP
The approach of this closing argument against Donald J. Trump is first to indicate the history of my opposition to Trump, next to discuss Trump's unchecked power seeking, then to discuss substantive issues that favor Trump, and finally to evaluate whether Trump's unchecked power seeking outweighs the substantive issues that favor him.
History
In the above PEOPLE'S CLOSING ARGUMENT AGAINST HILLARY CLINTON AND FOR DONALD TRUMP from 2016, I said:In 2016 I had a PEOPLE'S CLOSING ARGUMENT AGAINST HILLARY CLINTON
— Rob Shattuck (@RobShattuckAL06) October 20, 2024
AND FOR DONALD TRUMP, which is set out at https://t.co/mtXLyWC8T6#alpolitics
The iron triangle of the politicians, lobbyists and "special interests" in Washington DC have the people over the barrel. They profit greatly in corrupt ways, and the people are harmed by bad laws, bad regulations, and government waste and fiscal irresponsibility that result. The establishment keeps the people polarized so they don't unite to "drain the swamp". The establishment thrives in rancorous and destructive hyper-partisanship, and even foments the same.
, , ,If one believes that the political system is broken, almost every other issue raised in this election is secondary. There needs to be honest acknowledgment that the issues present difficult problems that are not susceptible to easy solutions and that ultimately have to be worked out in the political system that includes the President and Congress. A polarized electorate, a failed Congress, and turmoil will persist until the country, including Congress, addresses the broken political system.Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump have already turned a lot upside down in Democratic and Republican politics. If Donald Trump is elected President, much will be thrown up in the air in Washington DC. This will be particularly true about Congress, which will be confronted with a political earthquake having occurred and will have to decide what has gone wrong in the country's political system and what the country should do about its political system.No one knows what will be the outcome of the political earthquake if Donald Trump is elected President.There is risk for all concerned. The paramount question for everyone should be, "Do I want the failed, corrupt status quo to continue with Hillary Clinton and perhaps never have a chance again for the people to make a change? Or do I want to take a chance with the political earthquake of Donald Trump being elected President?"The country has never been presented with such a Presidential candidate as Donald Trump. On the one hand, he did what no one 18 months ago thought ever possible, and has turned the Republican Party upside down. On the other hand, Donald Trump has been appalling to millions of people in how he has conducted his campaign.As appalling as Donald Trump may be, he also may be the people's last chance at getting back a government of, by and for the people. Bernie Sanders previously bore the people's mantle, but now it is down to Donald Trump.Those who are appalled by Donald Trump have to confront this question: If you are appalled, are you nonetheless willing to allow Donald Trump to be President because he is your last chance to get back a government of, by and for the people?
By February 2017, I had turned against Donald Trump, and have been making the case against him ever since, as laid out in this blog and in many entries in my blog at https://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/
Trump's unchecked power seeking
History is filled with the quest of human beings for power.
While power can used to benefit others, the risk is that power can be easily sought for selfish and self-seeking reasons in the extreme, in which case the power seeker cares not at all about whether others are benefitted or harmed by the power-seeker except to the extent the power-seeker makes self-interested calculation about how benefit or harm to others helps or hurts the power seeker in his power seeking.
Further, the more that power seeking is selfish and self-interested, the more inclined the power seeker is to lie, "con", manipulate, and coerce others in order for the power seeker to increase his or her power.
Also, the more that power seeking is selfish and self-interested, the more that more power is desired.
Selfish and self-seeking power seekers are further especially prone to obtain the service of persons who are similarly selfish and self-serving in their own quests for power, and who are similarly inclined to lie, "con", manipulate, and coerce others in order to increase the power of the person they are serving and helps in own power-seeking as well.
The Founding Fathers knew well about power seeking by human beings, the risk of power seeking being selfish and self-seeking in the extreme to the detriment of others, and the extreme perniciousness of what selfish power-seekers will do for more power, and the Founding Fathers gave great attention in Constitution they drafted to checking the powerful drive of human beings to gain and increase their power.
American history has 250 years of history of power seeking by human beings in various situations; there have been many accumulations of great power; and America has gotten through the same.
Trump is unprecedented in American history in his unchecked power seeking that is selfish and self interested in the extreme. Trump has conned millions of Americans into believing that there is nothing Trump has ever done is wrong and that Trump will be able to immediately fix America's many difficult problems, when, in fact, these many difficult problems will take arduous work by the President, Congress, and the American people.
Kamala Harris has her own power-seeking motivations, but those will be checked in the regular ways that 250 years of power-seekers in America have been checked.
This difference between Trump and Harris is enough, I believe, to tip the balance in favor of Harris after consideration of the substantive issues that favor Trump discussed below. More discussion about this follows.
Substantive issues favoring Trump
A. Economy and inflation
There is a great financial and psychological malaise of the American people connected to prices being much higher compared to four years ago.
The factors that have brought about the higher prices are complex, and governmental actions taken during the past four years were far from being black and white in their rightness or wrongness for Americans, and, as is frequently the case, such actions were in the face of uncertainty about what would exactly result from the actions.
COVID-19 put our country in an unprecedented dire condition in 2020, and no one knew exactly what governmental actions should be undertaken to extricate the country from its dire condition. https://trumptweet.blogspot.com/2020/05/our-countrys-dire-condition.html.
The selfish power-seeking Trump has conned millions of people into believing that the Democrats been evilly intent on destroying the country during the past four years with the governmental actions that have been undertaken to extricate the country from the dire condition it was in.
In this regard, Trump has made millions of Americans stupid on this subject. https://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2024/10/you-stupid-stupid-people.html
Understanding the complex factors that have brought about the much higher prices compared to four years ago leads to questions about what can and should be done going forward to lessen the financial and psychological malaise of the American people connected to prices being much higher compared to four years ago.
Conventional economic wisdom about how to bring down inflation is for interest rates to be raised and that there be a slowdown in the economy, and maybe even a recession is needed to get control of inflation. This happened in the late 1970's when interest rates were raised to near 20%, the economy went into a recession at the start of 1980, which lasted a number of months until the American economy pulled out of the recession.
In the inflation that started in 2021, the governmental response has been to raise interest rates, and since then the country has been looking out for whether the economy would have a "soft landing," (i.e., inflation being gotten under control without a recession). The country is still poised on that concern.
The governmental and societal challenges in this regard are in the face of evolving conditions that add difficulties.
One evolving condition is that of artificial intelligence and the uncertainty and anxiety that AI has introduced regarding people's jobs.
Second is the long term effects of remote working that has come about from the pandemic. Employees have come to like the freedom and flexibility of remote working, and employers are hard at trying to evaluate the effects on productivity.
The selfish power-seeking con man Trump wants to deceive millions of people into believing that all they have to do is make him President and he will immediately fix everything and make everything beautiful for the American people. Con man Trump talks about his being a smart President who can do this for the American people when what con man Trump really wants is for American people to stupidly believe the things con man Trump says to them.
B. Immigration
Burgeoning global population, widespread local wars, poverty, food insecurity and climate change are causing large scale migrations of people around the world. Developed nations, including the United States, have been under intense pressures from this.
America's immigration laws need comprehensive reform, and that has been held hostage by the political extremes. https://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2018/01/joint-town-hall-script.html.
Kamala Harris says, if she wins, she will immediately seek passage of the bipartisan bill that Trump told the Republicans in Congress that they should not pass.
Trump says, if he wins, he will undertake mass deportation of illegal immigrants. Currently, this is supported by a majority of Americans. Majority of Americans support mass deportation, poll shows (thehill.com)
Some argue that mass deportation would be an economic disaster for the country. Trump’s Plans for Mass Deportation Would Be an Economic Disaster | Washington Monthly
Trump has done a lot of fear mongering about illegal immigrants. We watched 20 Trump rallies. His racist, anti-immigrant messaging is getting darker. - POLITICO
Voters should consider how selfish and self-serving Trump is in his power-seeking, whether Trump is trying to them for his selfish reasons about the immigration issue, whether voters' views about the immigration issue have been unduly distorted by Trump, and whether the voter should vote for Trump based on the immigration issue notwithstanding Trump's selfish power-seeking.
C. [other substantive issues to be discussed]
Evaluating Trump's unchecked power-seeking
Most people have a lot of information for making their own evaluations about how selfish and self-serving Trump is in his power-seeking and the extent to which Trump cares or does not care about others in Trump's exercising his power and how much Trump lies, "cons", deceives, manipulates, and coerces others in order to increase his power and the extent to obtained the service of persons who are similarly selfish and self-serving in their own quests for power and who similarly inclined to lie, "con", manipulate, and coerce others in order to increase Trump's power as well as their own power.
In making that evaluation, one may think about Kamala Harris in comparison and her power-seeking, how selfish and self-seeking it is in disregard of others and what lying, "conning," deceiving, manipulating and coercing of others Kamala Harris is willing to do.
Most successful politicians are ambitious and want power and their care for others in how they exercise their power is variable. They are, however, subject to restraints in how they accumulate their power.
Kamala Harris has been a very ambitious politician and has sought to increase her power. One could even say that, in 2019, Kamala Harris did her share of political pandering to advance her ambitions.
Trump has persuaded his followers that he made enormous personal sacrifice in running for President and he was not at all motivated by selfish and self-serving power-seeking.
I would say Trump, in running for President, was almost exclusively motivated to serve himself and by lust to be the most powerful human being on the planet.
Further, Trump has succeeded in an unprecedented way to free himself from shackles and constraints on his power seeking.
Take, for example, when all his advisors were telling him he lost the 2020 election and he should accept that he lost. Trump, in his lust for power and to keep power, did not accept the constraint of his defeat in the election, undertook to overturn the 2020 election and got his minions to aid him in doing that.
Trump was willing to risk that he engaged in criminal activity in seeking to overturn the 2020 election. If Trump wins the 2020 election, he will be validated that there is nothing that can constrain his power-seeking, and no one around him if he wins will dare suggest to Trump that he cannot or should not do anything that Trump wishes to do.
There is no predicting what Trump will wish to do if he is elected, or what will motivate him about what he wishes to do. Trum may decide he wants mass deportation to take place, or he may decide he does not wish for mass deportation to take place. He may decide that he wants to impose huge tariffs to be imposed to show he can do whatever he wants, even if the economy is very badly affected, and any Republican Senator who votes to override his tariffs will be mercilessly punished by Trump.
Maybe Trump will want to use his Presidential position to benefit his businesses and increase his family's wealth. There will be no advisor around Trump who will suggest he has a conflict of interest in exercising his Presidential power in that fashion.
Maybe Trump is angry about the embarrassment that Zelenski and Ukraine caused Trump in the form of the first impeachment, and Trump will withdraw support for Ukraine for that personal reason and Trump will not care whether such withdrawal of aid to Ukraine is or is not in the best interest of the United States.
Hopefully voters will think about the unchecked power-seeking by Trump that they will enable if Trump is elected President in 2024.
Conclusion
I think the deleterious situation of politics and governance in America that existed in 2016 that caused me to vote for Trump in 2016 is largely unchanged in 2024.
I have concluded, however, that what America has learned and experienced with Donald Trump in his four years as President is that Trump abjectly failed to do positive things that he could have done for the politics and governance of American because Trump was selfishly interested only in his own power and increasing that power, and Trump instead has greatly damaged politics and governance in America, and Trump is much worse for America than the deleterious situation of 2016 that continues in 2024 and that is need of much work by the President, Congress and the American people to make improvements.
[to be continued and further revised]
No comments:
Post a Comment