From a reader of my blog:
“I personally believe Mr. Trump is grossly unfit to serve as President and if elected, it would be more than a huge problem. Since he lies or changes his mind on most everything, I worry when you say anything such as your comment that he won the debate. He is for the second amendment, he favors tax cuts, etc and there is nothing that sheds light on whether he even understands the complexity of these issues, let alone has any notion of how to create and implement a policy to accomplish these things. I believe many people are making comments that have the effect of normalizing his behavior and candidacy.”
I began writing this blog, It Does Not Add Up, almost four years ago, right after the presidential election of 2012. By now I have written over 500 posts, mostly on fiscal and economic issues but occasionally branching out into important social issues as well.
As I see it, I have four choices when I vote for president this year. I can:
- Vote for Hillary Clinton. She is safe and predictable but the policies she promotes will do very little, if anything, for the faster economic growth which we so badly need. She wants to raise taxes on the wealthy. Fine, but this is only in order to increase spending for new programs, which is likely to lead to even bigger annual deficits and more accumulated debt.
- Vote for Donald Trump. Like so many others, I assumed initially that his candidacy was a joke and that he would quickly fade away. But now he is a major party nominee and has some good policy ideas as well as some very bad ones! As president he would be constrained by Congress. In particular the Republican House has many excellent ideas on how to get our economy back on track.
- Vote for Gary Johnson. The Libertarian candidate also has good ideas on how to solve our fiscal and economic problems but has essentially no chance of being elected.
- Refrain from voting for president. But voting is a citizen’s first duty.
Conclusion. I fully agree that Donald Trump is a very risky bet for president. But the alternative is to elect Hillary Clinton and hope for a better choice in four years. What should I do?
It Does Not Add Up 
Many Republican leaders feel strongly that a vote for Trump is way too risky. He is not conservative and he is dangerous. He could (and in my opinion would) do irreparable harm to the United States. No other candidate poses this level of risk to our country.
I’m not concerned about his lack of conservatism but he certainly is risky. It is also risky to elect a slow growth progressive. Which is the most risky thing to do?
In some ways, the two major party candidates represent two very disruptive personalities for our nation’s future. Given that view of innovation and change, which of the two candidates represents the opportunity to be at the forefront of our nation’s future evolution rather than bringing up the rear of it? For November, the showdown most likely comes down to choosing who we most prefer to select the next Supreme Court nominee. Choosing the correct person to fill the role of a disruptive leader is secondary for now, but it is definitely the big picture 4-8 years from now. The pace of world-wide change has already and will continue to marginalize our role in the world-wide market places of RESOURCES, KNOWLEDGE and HUMAN DIGNITY. How we manage this process of change will ultimately determine our nation’s level of “autonomy” within these market places.
We definitely need disruption in order to change our national direction. I hate to have to wait four years or more to achieve this. I don’t want the U.S. to be marginalized anymore than necessary. Resources, Knowledge and Human Dignity are important but I think pure economic strength is even more important.
I would shift from domestic issues and consider matters of world leadership. I would also think of who Trump would consider for Supreme Court Justices. In both areas I would argue that Hillary’s judgments and experience make her the far more qualified leader.
Doug
To my mind, faster economic growth will solve a lot of our problems. So the question is, which of the two candidates will be able to achieve the fastest economic growth?