Subject: Re: More on the Arlington Cemetery incident
hopefully one of you political wiz kids will convince me.

I hold no hope of convincing anyone who thinks Trump is in the slightest way acceptable, but I will write a few words about the reverse.

I could have voted for John McCain even though I disagreed with several of his positions on issues I care about. I could have vote for Mitt Romney, same. I didn’t have to, because the Democratic candidate wasn’t a raving lunatic. I was initially intrigued by Ross Perot until he self-destructed in a blizzard of paranoia and mindless rants. I may have voted for H.W. Bush in that election I honestly don’t remember. I *do* remember being unimpressed by Clinton, but he did get my vote the second time. I simply thought Bob Dole too old and too wedded to the misfits in his party to get my vote.

And there are people I would *never* have voted for, such as Bush Jr., Dick Cheney, or Richard Nixon, who I knew to be a shape shifter fro the 50’s. I’m happy to report that history has verified my choice(s) there. Needless to say, Trump trumps them all; he is arguably the most venal, brainless, horrible candidate in this century, and probably in the century prior to that, and perhaps even the century before that. That I disagree with many of his “policies” (and I use the word loosely since he really doesn’t have any) is beside the point, he’s simple a horrible human being, worse than the crazy Uncle who disrupts Thanksgiving dinner with his endless stream on inanity and stupidity.

I hated LBJ and would have voted for someone reasonable, had Nixon not been his opponent; when LBJ dropped out I held my nose and voted for Humphrey. I didn’t care for Carter, but I could not forgive Ford for pardoning Nixon and Carter got my vote. In retrospect, and with some political maturity, I now realize that Ford’s pardon was actually the right thing to do for the country, but I was too young to understand it at the time.

I voted for Carter over Reagan, mostly because Carter actually put his Presidency in jeopardy by appointing Volker and his promise to raise rates drastically to stem inflation. It worked, and Carter lost. I did not like Reagan’s first term, nor Mondale, and I may not have voted in that election, I don’t remember.

It’s OK to choose one or the other, at least for me. There is no candidate who matches my policy preferences perfectly, and I would happily choose a candidate who seems modestly competent over one who is so embroiled with his own ego and disdain for ordinary norms as Trump is.

It is not much of a stretch to say I would vote for Mr. Potato Head over Trump, if only because Mr. Potato Head is inert, and Trump is actively malignant to the Democratic process.