Should we vote for Donald Trump?

The populist iconoclast is back. But what is the case for voting for him?

Written by Bo Winegard

PHILO: After a long, depressing, but never boring few months, the choices for the American presidential election are set. Donald Trump versus Kamala Harris.

Perhaps this will not surprise you, but I will argue that we should vote for Donald Trump. To be clear, I will make this argument without the certainty of an ideologue or the ardor of a romantic. Trump is boorish and selfish. He is crude and lazy. He is immature and incompetent too. I have no particular fondness for his character or his rhetoric. In fact, I find him loathsome. He is, at best, a profoundly imperfect presidential candidate, and in a better world, he would not be the leader of the populist movement in the United States. But we must take the world as it exists, not as we want it to be.

And in the world as it exists, the choice is between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. It is binary. There is no alternative. And, as I see it, Trump is like an ugly wall defaced with graffiti that just might save us from a deadly flood. It is hard to celebrate, for it is indeed a rebarbative wall. But I’ll take it over certain ruin. Therefore, I will vote for Trump, and I will urge others to do the same. The most important thing is to stop the progressive coalition and that means stopping the Democratic Party.

MEANDER: And in this simile, the certain ruin is the Democratic Party?

PHILO: Yes.