My list of reasons to vote against Donald Trump – good reasons – had grown to 84 on my web site prior to his winning the GOP presidential nomination in July. Like many Americans, I was confounded and dispirited by that outcome and I stopped counting.
But his pending visit to West Bend tonight (he did poorly in Washington County in the primaries) got me to rethinking my lapse. There are another 92 days left in the important but disheartening 2016 campaign, so there are plenty of reasons and plenty of time to keep the count going. More information keeps coming out about the GOP nominee, and he keeps making news on his own, for better or for worse.
Here are still more reasons to vote in another direction:
85. Trump is uncoachable. Family members and advisors have tried to get him to stick to a more temperate script. It obviously hasn’t worked. He is constitutionally unable to control his outbursts. The family must be giving up in their efforts to have him come off as “presidential.”
86. His loose lips, whether advertently or inadvertently, could have sparked a thought in a Second Amendment gun nut to use one on Hillary Clinton. His “white out” corrective statement was that he was encouraging Second Amendment advocates to vote, not shoot. Who knows what inarticulate comments would come out if he were in the Oval Office?
87. His biographer, Tony Schwartz, spent 18 months in Trump’s hip pocket and never saw a book on his desk, in his office or in his apartment. He said Trump’s attention span is so short that it left him with “a stunning level of superficial knowledge and plain ignorance.” He said the biography “The Art of the deal,” should have been titled “The Sociopath,” because Trump is totally self-centered.
88. Trump and his children portray him as an exemplary family man. His biographer said he spent very little time with his family and had no close friends. He has been quoted as saying he had little time for child care.
89. Most damning of all from Schwartz was this assessment: “I genuinely believe that if Trump wins and gets the nuclear codes, there is an excellent possibility that it will lead to the end of civilization.” That’s a damning evaluation from a man who knows the Trump DNA.
90. As he sinks in the polls, insiders are reported as saying he is starting to sound like an inevitable loser. As supporters jump a sinking ship, it could become a stampede. His thin skin would not serve him well in the presidential hot seat.
Voters attending the Trump rally tonight at the Washington County Fairgrounds will have a chance to make their own evaluations up close and personal. They need to ask him had questions if they get the chance.
And they need to get beneath the showmanship, because he is a gifted show man. That should be his career, not presidential politics.
Keep your reasons coming to me at jbt01@serigraph.com. Will we get to 100?
