Why I Am Voting for Trump a Third Time

If only to delay the enforced death march toward a suicidal socialist utopia

Trump walking to his seat for the inaugural swearing-in ceremony, January 20, 2017 (source)

I seldom write about modern politics. It’s not my specialty, there are others who do it very well, and, at the end of the day, I suppose I find it so depressing that I’d rather talk about church news — which is also depressing, admittedly, but less so, because one is dealing with a supernatural mystery and thus is always coming up against reasons for hope. None of that is true of secular politics: in a certain sense, it is doomed. The United States of America, long the “top dog” empire, is now in its late Roman decadent phase, ready to fall apart and be torn apart by the barbarians, whatever form that takes in decades to come. We are in the waning phase of our nationhood and our empire. At least, that is how it seems to me.

Nevertheless, out of “enlightened self-interest,” to use an Americanist phrase par excellence, I do not want the collapse to be any quicker or any worse than it has to be. No one wants to see the world in which he and his family and friends and fellow Catholics live collapse into chaos, anarchy, civil war, nuclear war, or foreign domination. So while I am deeply pessimistic about my country, I will still vote for as long as that right has not been stripped away.

There is, I suppose, no conservative or traditionalist who does not recognize that Trump is a deeply flawed and divided man. He is not actually pro-life (though the steps he took that resulted in the reversal of Roe v. Wade earn him an immortal place in the annals of those who did something rather than merely blow rhetoric). He seems to be a thoroughgoing pragmatist and populist. But this is what I appreciate about him: he is someone who, through life experience, knows how to work, how to get a job done, how to work with ordinary people. He is rich but not part of the silver-spoon political elite. As far as I can tell, he’s one of the few who has ever come into politics from outside of the world of political dynasties with inherited entitlements.

Though he has the typical vices of the rich, he is manifestly different from the other politicos — and that is why they hate him so vehemently. The peculiar intensity of their hatred is very telling, is it not? It isn’t simply the usual bickering between candidates, the fisticuffs of rivals. No. They see Trump as something other, as “not one of them,” as a threat to their elitist machinations, their opiate dream of a socially engineered future utopia in which they cynically call the shots and pocket the advantages.

Trump visiting the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, May 22, 2017. The Franciscan doesn’t look too pleased…

To this extent, I make my own the Facebook comments of my friend Daniel Lendman, a Thomistic theologian and family man, whom I have always respected for his moderate and thoughtful “takes”:

Finally, for me, this election doesn’t come down to policies. I think Trump will be significantly better in foreign policy, and mildly better in domestic policies, that is not why I vote for him.

I will vote for Trump because it is clear to me that Harris is a stooge for unelected elites. This might well be the last free election we have a chance at.

I have witnessed most of the major media platforms and unelected officials do all they can to convince everyone that a woman who, until yesterday, no one liked, was somehow someone great and admirable. I have witnessed how the media and the Harris campaign have consistently and baselessly called Trump and his supporters Nazis and fascists, and a threat to democracy. This inflammatory rhetoric led to two assassination attempts against Trump, one in which he was shot.

It is clear to me that unelected elites are attempting to orchestrate the election outcome, and they fear Trump.

Well, I did not vote for Trump because of what I feared, but his first term was, really, fine. He was great on foreign policy, and fine domestically. Even with Covid he did fine, and claims to the contrary are nonsense. If he wanted to be a dictator, he would have used Covid for that purpose. The man does not crave power, he craves being successful, and that’s not a terrible thing to have in a president.

Harris is willing to imprison the innocent, allow the innocent to die, and suppress free speech in order to silence her enemies. She has an illusion of what it is to be strong or tough, and makes herself look foolish when trying. She does poorly without prompts because she does not really believe in anything. She wants power. This is the most dangerous kind of person to have as president.

I get the concerns about Trump. But he represents the last opportunity for fair and free elections, as far as I can tell.

(I would disagree with Daniel about the handling of Covid — the name Fauci comes to mind — but let’s leave that point aside for the moment.)