I had the honor of participating in the Rutger's Eagelton "Morning After" program this morning with Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg and reporters Michael Symons and Michael Hill. You can watch the lively discussion here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWfkX0bSmJ4
Here are my opening remarks:
I will be 62 this summer. This will be my 12th Presidential election. It will the first in which I will not cast a ballot for President and Vice President. That is sad.
I am an optimist by nature. I choose to go through life hoping for the best. It is just a better path. You get to the same place anyway regardless of your outlook. You might as well be cheerier on the way.
But I am as pessimistic about the future of America as I have ever been in my 61 plus years. Apparently I am not alone.
They ask this question on polls: “Do you believe the country is headed in the right direction or the wrong direction?” Some pollsters even rotate “right” and “wrong” in order to be fair. The most recent time that question was asked was just last week and it was asked by Rasmussen of 2,500 Americans - a pretty large sample size. 66 percent - two out of every three - of Americans believe we are headed in the wrong direction. Only 27 percent believe we are headed in the right direction.
That would be astonishing news if it were not for the fact that Americans have given pretty much the same assessment the last 100 or so times they were asked that question over the past year by more than a dozen pollsters.
Americans are angry. They are depressed. They are pessimistic about the future. They feel the real pain of a stagnant economy. A CNBC survey found that 40 percent of the unemployed have stopped looking for a job - that translates into four million of our friends and neighbors and family members. They’ve quit on America.
Americans are confused - and some are frustrated by a culture that is changing near daily. Their belief systems are challenged routinely. Some feel unprotected against what Peggy Noonan described as a “hostile dominant culture.” Americans are numbed by technological innovation that has given us the greatest ability to connect with one another in world history, but an inability to communicate.
And I am sorry to report to you Mr. Hill and Mr. Symons, that Americans simply do not have a great deal of trust and confidence in the media to report the news fully, accurately and fairly. Sadly, the last time Gallup asked that question - just this past fall - the number of Americans who trusted the media fell to an ALL TIME HISTORIC low at 40 percent. Most Americans - a majority - do not trust the press and that has been true in survey after survey since 2007.
And now many - not all - not even a majority I suspect - because many have found solace in the nominees, but more Americans than during any national election I have witnessed are disappointed, angry and bitter about a process that has left them with two candidates for President they simply cannot support. And that is true on both sides of the political aisle.
I am one of them.
I cannot support my party’s nominee. The reason are many and I guess if I am forced to, I will elaborate, but I am mindful that I was invited here this morning to present a Republican point of view - I believe I am alone in that task - But barring a reawakening in Cleveland this July that would rival the Second Coming, Mr. Trump is going to be our nominee.
I can sum up my thoughts on Mr. Trump - who I have met - with whom I have dined - and whom I have been personally lobbied by - in the words of someone else - someone I respect greatly: Charles Murray:
“In my view, Donald Trump is unfit to be president in ways that apply to no other candidate of the two major political parties throughout American history.”
And so while I cannot and will not make the case on why he should win in November and become President of the United States - because I do not believe that - I will try to explain why so many support him and believe in him. In that way, I hope to at least partially fulfill my obligation to Eagleton for a balanced point of view on this panel.
The second part of my task is easier:
I cannot support Mrs. Clinton. I find her to be dishonest and I find her to be corrupt. I would NEVER vote to grant her more power. I do not believe she has “OUR” collective best interests at heart and I believe that has been borne out time after time after time during she and her husband’s long political career.
Some have characterized this election as a classic “lesser of two evils” election, but choosing the lesser evil is still choosing evil and I choose not to do so.
