For What I Am Not Going to Vote

 A friend asked me for whom I was voting. I told her my vote was as private as the color of her underwear – no, not really, but that’s what I later thought of having said. Upon reflection, I will tell you what I’m not voting for.  

I’m not voting for a felon to become President of the United States, an office I respect and honor, one whose occupant I was raised to look up to. As I grew older, I came to see the occupants as humans flawed in their ways, but still deserving respect as exemplars of public service, earning respect for shouldering the awesome responsibility of the worst job in the world. I believe, moreover, in the rule of law and cannot countenance a felon in that role.

I’m not voting for a person who objectifies people, as in viewing casualties of war as “suckers”; as in labelling heroes “losers”; as in objecting to the funeral expenses of a murdered US servicewoman, “a fucking Mexican”; as in saying of beautiful women that “When you’re a star . . . you can do anything. You can grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.” As in calling immigrants who have the courage to leave home and struggle to come to America “vermin.”

I’m not voting for a person who admires flagrant autocrats such as Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orban, Kim Jong Un, and Xi Jinping, all of whom are openly hostile to our democratic ideals and to our role in the world.

I’m not voting for a person who views Roy Cohn as a role model; yes, that Roy Cohn: hypocrite, amoral, manipulative, self-absorbed.

I’m not voting for a person who fails to win the respect and allegiance of his staff, people who filled key positions of trust and accountability and who now testify to that person’s lack of trustworthiness and leadership capability.

I’m not voting for a person who is a serial liar, who tells the big lie over and over, as in who won the 2020 election, and little ones again and again, as in whose inaugural crowd was larger, his or his predecessor’s.

I’m not voting for a radical willing to throw over the systems and institutions that have served us rather than, as true conservatives do, work to improve them increment by increment.

. . .

And I suggest you don’t either.