During a recent exchange on Social Media critical of a piece on my blog (https://atomic-temporary-37778625.wpcomstaging.com/2024/03/28/in-simplest-terms-why-never-mr-trump/), I encountered the usual nonsense and vitriol. But I was also challenged to answer questions about perceived policy actions by President Biden and his supporters.

While the “questions” were framed as to be about Mr. Trump, the implications were obvious. It is one of the beautiful aspects of language that we can write one thing while conveying an entirely different message. Subtle and effective

At the time, I deferred my answer under my new policy of not wasting precious time responding to the irrationality of the idiocy of political discussion on such platforms. Since I find most responses, in the words of Shakespeare’s Macbeth,

“It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

Shakespeare, Macbeth

Yet, this more rational and  nuanced response came from someone I have always respected as a professional. I worked with him for many years when I was a police officer he was with the A.G.’s office.

From my perspective, I find individuals like him most troubling to reconcile. I struggle to understand their positions not in opposing Mr. Biden but their willingness to vote for Mr. Trump despite the outrageous actions of the former President to overturn a legitimate election and incite an insurrection.

If it were just a policy difference, I could accept that. However, one cannot ignore the former President’s actions just because he says things that suit one’s personal beliefs. Even if some of his policies were effective, you cannot ignore his actions. Richard Nixon did some effective things, but Watergate was grounds to exclude him from office.

We have a more significant responsibility to the country and our future and respect for elections is key.

But I was asked me a series of questions. At the time, I did respond “no” to all of them and resumed enjoying the moment. But I thought about the origin and evolution of such ideas and decided it merited a more in-depth answer.

This will preclude the overwhelming majority of those who prefer childish memes and alternate “facts” from reading it since it exceeds two sentences, but so be it.

Thank you to those of you who will read it through. For those who disagree with my response, which is what makes this country great, I’d be happy to post your response on the blog. It is not that one party has all the correct answers; it is that together, we can arrive at a solution.

Mr. Trump has turned politics into a zero-sum game and put our democracy at risk.

The tone of the questions implies that Mr. Biden has committed these violations. I beg to differ but admit my initial answer was partially wrong. But that is the danger of debate on social media: little time for developing ideas. My original answer was no, Mr. Trump did not do all these things. That was not so much wrong as incomplete in many ways, and here is the clarification.

Did Trump try to deny you your right to vote for the candidate of your choice?

Not personally but in essence, yes, he did. By promulgating—and continuing to proclaim—false statements lacking any evidence that the 2020 election was fraudulent, Mr. Trump would deny the American people their choice of Joe Biden as President.

And, more troubling, his spreading of uncertainty through this false narrative sparked criminal acts against poll workers and those who are the foundation of our election process. Don’t take my word for it, read all the court cases or, if you prefer a single source of proof, try the book Disproven by Ken Block.

Did Trump try and have his political opponents removed from the ballot?

Political campaigns are often hard-fought blood sports. The abuse and attacks on the opposition are nothing new. But this question itself is disingenuous.

The underpinning of this question is that the Biden administration, through the Department of Justice, conspired with various state attorneys general to indict Mr. Trump. Just take a moment to consider what that would involve: hundreds, if not thousands, of well-respected, career Assistant U.S. Attorneys, Assistant Attorneys General, Trial Judges, Appellate Judges, FBI agents, state and local law enforcement, paralegals, and court clerks all working in concert to subvert justice.

Anyone who has ever spent five minutes in a meeting at a prosecutor’s office would know such a vast conspiracy would remain secret just for the time it takes to speed dial the local news reporter.

And if someone “knows” this can happen, or has happened, during their time in such a capacity, then shame on them for not raising the issue when they were involved.

Did Trump try and imprison his political opponents?

Not yet, but he has openly stated a plan to do that. Lock her up seems obvious on its face. In a recent interview with Glen Beck he said,

Beck said: “Do you regret not locking [Clinton] up? And if you’re president again, will you lock people up?”
Trump said: “The answer is you have no choice, because they’re doing it to us.”

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/you-have-no-choice-trump-tells-glenn-beck-he-will-absolutely-lock-people-up-if-returned-to-white-house/

Did Trump open our borders to 10 million+ illegal aliens?

No, he didn’t open the borders. The borders have always been open, and it would have a chilling effect on the economy to “close” the border. Millions of people cross the Mexican border annually, most do it legally. The better question is, what did Mr. Trump, and by extension, Mr. Biden, do about illegal border crossings?

The border issue has been a persistent, if fluctuating, problem for decades. It is a complex problem. There is more to preventing illegal immigration than “closing” the border. As a nation, we have always embraced a humanitarian approach. But there need to be limits.

The problem preceded Mr. Trump. Yet, for all his bluster about closing the borders, he did nothing. In his first two years in office, he had a Republican Congress and could not pass significant legislation.

Not one Mexican peso paid for anything.

The vaunted wall was a failure before it started and then abandoned.

Mr. Biden, on the other hand, did not open the borders either. He returned us to a more humanitarian course, much to the dismay of those who see “foreigners” as the enemy and buy into the nonsense that the majority are criminals. And while crossings have increased under Biden, so have apprehensions and deportations.

Biden also worked with a bipartisan group of Senators and Congress members to craft a bill which would address the issue. A bill endorsed by the Border Patrol union. Republicans in the House, at the behest of Mr. Trump, fearing such a bill would boost Mr. Biden in the polls, voted it down.

Did Trump conspire with the news media to censure your speech?

He gets another no on this one.

He is such a proponent of free speech that he is consistently “free” with the truth, crafting a message targeting the raw, unsophisticated emotions of those who cannot or will not look beyond Facebook, Twitter, Fox News, or Breitbart for political information.

He’s also a big proponent of free speech to attack judges’s families.

But again, the implication is that Mr. Biden did. No, he did not.

I am not a lawyer, but I understand the breadth and limitations of free speech. One cannot yell “Fire” in a crowded theater. And while the analogy is tired and outdated, it still applies. Although the trend in recent decisions by this conservative majority court seems to chip away at such freedom.

If one publishes something as fact and it poses a danger to individuals or groups, it is comparable to yelling fire in a crowded theater. I do not think the government should be in the business of determining what that is, certainly not under any concept of prior restraint. A better solution, one that has worked for years addressing an entity’s unwillingness to address dangerous issues, is litigation.

Let lawyers file suits against the platforms and writers who promulgate dangerous false statements, and let a trial decide the validity.

Did Trump conspire with social media platforms to censure your speech?

See above and nope, neither did Biden.

Did Trump try and mandate what type of vehicle you can drive?

This one stumped me. If one narrows the question to “try, ” the answer is no. But let’s explore the “hidden” agenda. Did President Biden commit the same intrusion? Also no. I bought a car a few years ago, but nobody told me what I could buy.

I never saw one FBI agent, black helicopter, or TSA (Tracking Sales Auto) agent manipulating the process. Due to government intervention, I was required to buy a car with airbags, seat belts, safety glass, catalytic converter, and other safety and pollution control devices. Still, other than that, I was free to buy whatever I wanted.

(P.S. I hope my next car will be a self-driving, solar-powered electric model. I am going to buy whatever one has a built-in coffee maker. As a side note, drive-up lanes should be illegal. Might help those addicted to fast food shed a few pounds.)

Did Trump get us involved in any new wars?

This is easy, nope. We already had a couple of spares with lingering and never-ending commitments in Afghanistan and Iraq courtesy of a previous Republican administration. Our time there was so long that a service member who enlisted in 2001 could have served their entire career there and retired with a pension without an end in sight.

This is not the forum for a discussion on the conduct of those wars, but Mr. Trump didn’t start them, nor did Mr. Biden. 

However, suppose the implication is our involvement in Ukraine is a “new” war. In that case, there is a powerful argument that Mr. Trump’s negative effect on NATO and his fundamental misunderstanding of the necessity for its survival opened an opportunity for Putin to push Russian aggression to the border of a NATO country (Poland) because of the instability.

But don’t take my word for it; read what Mattis, Pompeo, Tillerson, Coats, McRaven, Votel, or Allen say about Mr. Trump’s dirge of geopolitical insight and inability to understand complex matters. Or, take the word of Mr. Putin, which is your choice.

I will concede one thing here. Mr. Biden is wrong to continue supplying weapons to Israel absent a ceasefire. Despite the heinous acts of Hamas, no rational person can justify the continued devastation of Gaza as a reasonable military response.

Final note.

There is one way to ensure Mr. Trump never commits any of these acts…but you already know the answer.

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