Biden? Trump? The Heck With It.

Readers of this blog may have noticed (they have even been grateful) that I have not been posting as much lately.  After getting back from our break and seeing that things are pretty much the same as they were before we left (which was to be expected), I can see why: Biden v. Trump, again.  Progressives v. right-wing populists constantly. 

When George W. Bush was president and while Barack Obama was president, I posted a lot because there were things I wanted to say.  That even continued, for a while, under Doanld Trump.  But then I got tired complaining about Trump, especially when the other side didn’t seem any better. 

When Joe Biden came in, I posted things, but the number of them has dropped.  He’s been bad, his policies have been bad, but so many on the other side seem bad, too.

Which is where I am now.  I could never support Donald Trump.  He doesn’t have the character to be president.  Some  of his domestic policies, at least in his first term, were okay, but I don’t know what he would do in a second term – other than his protectionist trade policies, which I very much disagree with.

As for foreign policy, who knows what he would do.  His fiercest opponents seem sure what he is going to do, but I’m not.  I am sure, however, that his unpredictability and his randomness would not be good for foreign policy.  Nobody, whether friend or foe, would know what he might do or whether they could trust the United States to keep its word.  That is not a leader I want.

But Joe Biden is no better.  His domestic policies are terrible.  I have not liked the policies of his first term.  I can only assume the policies of his second term would be worse.  Like Trump, he believes in protectionism, and he believes in industrial policy even more than Trump.  I don’t believe in big government; Joe Biden does.

In foreign policy, there are times that Biden’s initial response is okay (though it certainly wasn’t in the withdrawal from Afghanistan¹), but he doesn’t follow through.  For example, he talked big about helping Ukraine, but our policies have been hesitant and halting.  We are finally prioritizing air defense shipments to Ukraine.  But why did it take two years to do that?  That should have been done on day one, not day number 800-something,  I could go on and on with the problems with his foreign policy (and I have posted on them occasionally²), but why?  It doesn’t matter, and there is no reason to think Trump would be better.

So, why waste my time complaining about either Biden or Trump, when they are both unfit to be President, and I can’t vote for either of them.  Biden’s policies are horrible, but I can’t vote for Trump.  Many of Trump’s policies are really bad (and his character is worse), but I won’t vote for Biden.

I will probably post a few things now and then, but  mostly I’m just going to sit back and wait for the constitutional crisis that is sure to come after the election – no matter who wins.^3,4
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¹ I realize it was Trump who first agreed to surrender to the Taliban, but that doesn’t excuse Biden following through on it and doing it so poorly.
² See, for example, “Joe Biden: Getting Foreign Policy Wrong for 50 Years” (3/22/24); “Biden’s Foreign Policy Just Isn’t Working – And It’s Not Deterring Anybody” (2/1/24); “Why Should Anybody Trust Us? The Joe Biden Edition - #2” (1/27/24).
³ See “The Coming Constitutional Crisis of 2024 – And American Foreign Policy” (4/3/24); “Avoiding ‘The Coming Constitutional Crisis of 2024’” (2/6/24); “If Trump Is a Threat to Democracy, What If He Wins?” (1/22/24);  “The Coming Constitutional Crisis of 2024” (12/20/23).
⁴ Is it too much to hope that the Cubs turn it around and give me something else to pay attention to in October, as they did so well in 2016?  Unfortunately, it probably is.  (See last night’s game in San Francisco.)