Let's get out the vote

You’re reading the Village News; odds are that means you’re a voter. Unfortunately a large percentage of vote-eligible citizens regularly decline to exercise that right (and responsibility).

But the 2024 Presidential Election will put our future as a democracy on the line. No one should sit this one out. So, let’s all work to get a super turnout to defend our democracy in no uncertain terms.

The Republican Party has chosen Donald Trump as their candidate. I’m surprised that the party’s billionaire supporters allowed this to happen. In his previous term, he showed he is a loose cannon. Perhaps they think they’ve found a way to control him.

If you’re considering voting for Trump, here are some points to consider. “From the 1970s until he was elected president in 2016, Donald Trump and his businesses were involved in over 4,000 legal cases in United States federal and state courts, including battles with casino patrons, million-dollar real estate lawsuits, personal defamation lawsuits, and over 100 business tax disputes.” (Wikipedia). Trump the astute businessman? Hardly.

And, after completing his term in office, he remains supremely ignorant in almost all areas that a president must have a working knowledge of. Here are just a few examples:

1. Artificial Intelligence (AI). Involves science, technology, and engineering.

2. Electronic chips. Multiple “super” chips are required for development and use of AI. Involves technology and engineering.

3. Global Warming and associated Climate Change. Involves multiple sciences, including meteorology.

4. Global politics and economy. This involves so many facets it’s analogous to three-dimensional chess.

And then there are Trump’s personal attributes. He is an extreme narcissist and an inveterate liar. He apparently is delusional, still clinging to the notion that he lost the 2020 election due to massive election fraud. And there’s his volatile temperament. No man with a temperament like that should ever have access to the presidential nuclear football. In fact, his personal traits alone should be sufficient to reject his candidacy out of hand.

On the other hand, there’s President Biden with years of hands-on governing experience besides his current stint as President. He has already put in place the base of his master plan, the $1+ trillion dollar Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (March 2021), that provides America a prosperous way forward for decades. This is also supported by lesser bills such as the Chips and Science Bill (9 Aug 2022) designed to bring semiconductor manufacturing back to the U.S.

John H. Terrell