Elections

My presidential indecision ends here

On his Friday HBO show, Bill Maher addressed the few remaining “undecideds,” such as me, whom he called “those curious few, bisexuals of the political world.’

Bill Maher addresses me on his HBO show

It’s OK. He’s a comic. I can take a joke.

Then he addressed people like me directly.

“You obviously don’t like Trump, or you’d be in that camp already, but you’re still torn.”

Yes, exactly.

“And I’m the guy who keeps saying, I get why. You wanted more reassurance that the Democrat isn’t going to go along with every aggressively anti-common sense idea that comes out of the woke mind virus, which, yes, is a thing.”

Bingo!

“And if she loses, that will be mainly why.”

He then did a few minutes trying to prove the economy is actually pretty good, but that’s wasted energy because too many Americans are spending too much on necessities. It’s a tough sell when 70% of Americans, including me, say America is on the wrong track, although my reasons might be different from most. For me, it gets back to Democrats’ constant and unnerving slide to the weird precincts of the Far Left, the world of gender politics, CRT, DEI, LatinX, and personal pronouns that don’t resonate with the average American.

Maher says things aren’t so bad, “but they might get a helluva worse under the rule of a mad king. Do I love everything about Kamala? No. Who told you you get to love everything? Do I wish she came up with a better reason to be president than ‘I’m not Trump’? Yeah.”

A liberal, but not a progressive, Maher says voting against Trump is still a pretty good reason.

For me, it has had been not good enough.

I question Kamala’s authenticity, specifically, her head-spinning reversal on almost every position she held during her train wreck run for president in 2019. Americans ran away from her extreme ideas like she was peddling Covid popsickles.

Am I supposed to believe she has sincerely changed on fracking, EV car mandates, ending ICE, Medicare for all, free transgender surgery for detained illegals, and much more? Am I supposed to believe the leopard has changed her spots?

Well, in my role as unpaid and unauthorized political consultant, I suggested exactly how she could do that. You can read it here.

—-

A week earlier, on ABC’s “This Week,” former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican foe of Trump’s, said he is where I am was: He won’t vote for Trump, but Kamala had not closed the sale with him. Why?

She’s squishy.

“What she has to do is directly answer the immigrant question. Answer it! They fumbled it at the beginning. Now she says she wants to get tougher, stronger, better on it…. She couldn’t answer the question on the wall, but here’s what you have to do when you’re a leader … if that’s what it takes to get things done, I’ll give them the wall.”

Illegal immigration has been a strong issue for me for almost two decades. Barack Obama did some serious deporting and enforcing, and Donald J. Trump finished the job, driving illegal immigration to near historic lows. 

Following on his campaign promise, Joe Biden reversed Trump’s border enforcement, which resulted in an immediate explosion of illegal crossings. See for yourself

Illegals skyrocketed when Biden took office

That was an unforced error, and illegal immigration — finally — became an important issue for Americans. 

Smelling the coffee, as Christie said, Kamala now wants to curtail illegal immigration and, yes, promised some $650 million for construction of a wall, plus other border-enforcement enhancements.

I have written about my Kamala misgivings before, I have many friends tell me that a vote for a third party, or writing in the name of my wife or Nikki Haley (a nonwhite woman), is actually a vote for Trump. (Trump people say a third-party vote is actually a vote for Kamala.) No, it isn’t. It is a protest vote against both of them.

But Maher’s voice is in my head.

He shares my distaste for woke (I should say neo woke, to distinguish it from the old, good woke),  and progressives, who are close-minded and driven by Left ideology, as opposed to liberals, who are open-minded, and sane.

I would prefer neither Kamala nor Trump as my president.

I felt the same in 2016, but I voted for Hillary believing she was both qualified and centrist, although very annoying.

I don’t believe Kamala is centrist. I know Trump is not centrist.

I have struggled with this choice for weeks, privately and publicly. One of my closest friends has said, in effect, if I don’t vote for Kamala we can’t be friends.

His first reaction, when I told him I was not sold on Kamala, was that I was sexist.

Classic knee-jerk, close-minded, identity-based Leftism. I calmly reminded him I had voted for Hillary. And I had voted for Barack, to close the “racism” door.

Maher again, on wokeism: “And if she loses, that will be mainly why.”

If Kamala’s loss would cause a restructuring of the Democratic Party into something more centrist and sane and middle class, that would be a good thing. But I can’t quite bring myself to root for that.

If Kamala’s victory would encourage the Squad and the anti-democratic, anti-Israel and (dare I say it?) anti-white male wing of  the Democratic Party, that would be a bad thing. I can’t root for that, either.

A Trump victory would be worse. I want him to be gone. Not because he’s Hitler. He’s not. Not because he’s going to round up (fill in the blank) journalists, political enemies, gays, talk-show hosts, U.S. generals. He’s not. To me, he is an American abscess who generally sides with dictators over democracies, and offers four years of chaos abroad, and turmoil at home.

Reluctantly, hesitantly, without joy, I cast my vote for Kamala Harris. I hope she earns it. If not, next time, Nikki Haley.

Stu Bykofsky

View Comments

  • You finish with, “I cast my vote for Kamala Harris.” But you don’t drop the mic because you wish you felt better. I am the same way, “I cast my vote for Donald Trump" and gently place the mic on the stool beside me. I wish I felt better.

  • I can't read you anymore since you voted for Kamala. HA ! Your 'friend' is like many on the left That's the difference, if Kamala wins, I get up Wednesday and live my life If Trump wins, many people I know will be at their therapists office,

    • I see what you said was satire. The REAL peoblem with America is the extremists, Left and Right.

    • Agreed "Friends".
      I also made the choice, and chose Trump.
      Largest rationale: Mainly the people he is surrounding himself with.
      If she wins, I hope for the best. If "OMB" wins, I've already had a few friends tell me the resistance begins and I won't get a call from them for a while. (because I'm voting for him)

      • I'll do it for him.....it should be all about POLICIES, not whose gender or personalities. Whose POLICIES are best for America, not you personally, but for America. No sane person can tell me that Kamala's policies, as you have indicated on the border, price controls (she wants to go after the 'big corporations to lower food prices', when she doesn't even know that they presently average 1.6% margin, foreign policy- can you honestly think that giving Iran billions of dollars so they can try to bully the middle east (Israel), thank Obama for that, but I'm sure she would go along because she doesn't have an original thought in her head, fracking/throwing American money are climate control as if they are God, and I could go on and on, but judge the candidates by their POLICIES. Trump's policies bring prosperity to America....Kamala's will destroy our country in short order. We will be a Marxist/Socialist country before she leaves office if she is elected. Chew on these realities before you cast an unqualified gender vote.
        You sound like a smart man, now vote like it. BTW, if the POLICIES for each candidate was reversed, I would be voting for Kamala, even as dumb as I think she is personally.

  • You made the correct decision Stu, although you will obviously will catch hell from the MAGAets here.

    Stu have you noticed that the orange-skinned POS seems to becoming more and more mentally unglued?

  • Stu, you stated the reasoning for your decision and did it well. Good enough for me, everyone has their vote, that is what democracy is about.

    • Hey, Joe...apparently, based on some of the anti-Stu answers posted here today, democracy is as defined by those voting for tRUMP - NOT the kind you are logically referring to for the rest of us. That's a shame.

  • I'll take your arguments a step further Stu. Yes, I'm a Democrat with a strong disdain for the Progressive element of the party (I still just don't like the term "woke", even though it's a thing). But I also have strong disdain, perhaps a bit stronger, for the MAGA element of the Republican Party, which has, for now, taken over most of it. I said in the spring, and I still claim today, if real Republicans, not MAGA extremists, would have regained control of their party, they would have nominated Nikki Haley, and she'd have my vote in a heartbeat. But I want Donald Trump as far away from the White House as I can get him, and if voting for Harris, flaws and all accomplishes that, it'll have to be good enough for the time being. And I already cast my vote, in person, two weeks ago.

  • I appreciate you referenced Bill Maher, as I consider myself a Bill Maher Democrat. Trump has been so stubborn in not asking Nikki Haley to campaign with him at least in PA where she did very well against him. Maher makes the case. As I tell my friends leaning Trump, the country can take four years of policy you might not agree with, but I do not think we can take a Trump Presidency with no competent guardrails. Just take note of his rhetoric this week, you want that for at least four years? Give Harris her four years to prove she has some centrist credentials while hopefully the GOP can come out of their eight year nightmare and return to the center/right party they once were.

    • The problem is that if Harris wins, we don't 'turn the page' in '28 We still have Harris/Biden/Obama running again and can't have a reboot until '32. Can we make it to '32 ? The best thing for the country would be a Trump win and 2 fresh new young bodies in '28.

  • In the 1944 presidential election, FDR dumped Wallace from the ticket because Wallace was too pro-Soviet. The beneficiary was the USA because Harry Truman was named VP on the ticket and assumed the presidency when FDR died. (Truman belongs in the top 5 of all US presidents in my opinion.) Now we are faced with two horrid individuals, either of whom may bring the nation to its knees if elected. So, my decision will be based on the same three reasons my Jewish friend Allan from Brooklyn stated to forcefully at our weekly poker game last week: Israel, Israel, and Israel.

    And to correct a misunderstanding of why Allan hated the Brooklyn Dodgers: not because they moved to LA, but because they made the fans give back any foul ball that did not go into the stands. No kidding.

    • According to a recent poll, 2/3s of Israelis prefer Trump, but I am not an Israeli, and I am not a single issue voter. I believe U.S. support will continue under Kamala, but not S unquestioning as under Trump.
      I also did not know about the Dodgers and foul balls.

    • Hey Vince, I have Harry at #1. A man amongst men. Hell, a group of liberal hippies who happened to be great musicians even wrote a song about him: Harry Truman - Chicago VIII 1975 (written by the great Robert Lamm). A very good tune.

    • Nit a Truman fan. After WW2 ended, he let the Euros take back their colonies from Japan (FDR said we're not fighting this war to give them back their colonies). Truman let the French back into Vietnam, even though we supported Ho Chi Minh against the Japanese and flew in a medic to save his life). Truman also refused to give S. Korea heavy arms and left them off of our then security zone. How'd all that work out?

  • Open borders, hundreds of thousands of Americans overdosing on drugs. High crime high prices high interest rates paying for wars that should have never happened. This is the country the democrats have given us the last 4 years and people are voting to continue this . What are you people thinking. I pray to god Harris is not elected.

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