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.’

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.

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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

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.