Passing on a Crap-Sandwich Isn't a Dereliction of Duty

It's a respectable choice, in fact.

Back in March I wrote about the presidential election-year tradition of this website’s readers getting very angry at Bernard Goldberg and me for our individually arrived-to decision not to vote for Donald Trump (nor his Democratic opponent). It will always be a little strange to me that others care so much about how we fill out our ballots, especially when we’re not exactly casting the deciding votes in these races, but it is what it is.

What’s a bit different this year is that a number of readers haven’t found that position sufficiently resolute. They want to additionally know which major-party nominee we believe to be the “lesser of two evils.” And once that question is answered, they move on to, “Which one do you think will do the least amount of damage?” Then there’s “Whose victory would you be least upset about?” and “Do you care one way or another who wins?”

That’s a lot of distinctions without much difference, and I’m not sure why any of them matter. Our unwillingness to vote for a major-party candidate in a presidential election, after the two of us reliably did so every four years up until 2016, should say plenty about the state of our politics.

Still, out of a sense of obligation to subscribers, I’ve responded to all of the questions, entertained the various distinctions, explained my answers in excruciating detail, and yet… none of it seems to satisfy anyone. More often that not, my responses are met with an “Aha!” or “I knew it!” that leaves me scratching my head.

As I wrote in that March piece, I think these people’s anger and/or badgering has a lot more to do with a need or desire to have their own voting decision validated. And I’ll add today that I also think some have convinced themselves that making the “binary choice,” that the parties have given us, means one cares more about the country than those unwilling to do so.

I disagree with that, of course. While I completely respect the personal decision of those who believe they’re throwing their vote away if they don’t support a major-party candidate for president, I’d argue that those of us who choose not to force one of two giant crap-sandwiches down our gullet, and decide not to sign-on to saddling our great nation with an unfit leader, are something closer to humanitarians.

I’ve been using that “crap-sandwich” line for a while now, and believe me when I say I’d love to retire it. But that’s what the Democratic and Republican parties have been serving us a steady diet of since 2016. So when it comes to the top of the ballot, I’ve been ordering off-menu items.

That’s not a display of indifference. It’s one of disgust — disgust at the institutional fecklessness, political infotainment, and brain-dead, grift-feuled tribalism that keeps putting our country in this predicament. We remain an exceptional nation, but our politics and political leadership are as unserious and ill-equipped as ever.

The other day I saw an online clip of actor Dennis Quaid speaking at a Donald Trump rally. The words that came out of his mouth struck me as remarkably representative of today’s political culture, and not in a good way.

Quaid, who recently endorsed Trump for president, demanded that Americans “pick a side.” He then qualified the choice by asking a series of questions. Literally the first one out of his mouth was, “Are we going to be a nation that stands for the Constitution or for TikTok?”

“This is an argument in support of Donald Trump?” I thought to myself.

Trump, after all, tried to overturn U.S. democracy to stay in power (for which he’s currently facing multiple criminal charges). He’s openly called for parts of the Constitution to be “terminated” in order for him to return to power without an election, and routinely floats patently unconstitutional ideas in speeches and interviews. Also, he reversed his opposition to TikTok earlier this year after meeting with a megadonor who has a significant stake in the influential, Chinese-owned, data-mining platform.

I don’t mean to pick on Quaid specifically. Lots of celebrities who enter the political fray say totally unself-aware things… and most of those people reside on the left. If you ever need a quick reminder of that, just flip on The View or tune into a televised awards show. What bothers me is that such dopey, nonsensical platitudes, that fall apart under even the slightest bit of scrutiny, have effectively become party platforms. It’s the type of rhetoric confidently flung from the mouths of the establishment and base alike. All mindfulness of irony and hypocrisy has been washed away along with the capacity for shame and the actual meaning of words.

To those of us who aren’t deeply partisan, today’s partisans sound indistinguishable from the air-head Hollywood elites that we on the right have long made fun of. That’s largely because good-faith, intellectual assessments of both tribes’ leaders — and the mostly ridiculous and illiterate, converging policies they’re running on — deliver completely depressing results.

For example, in order to argue that Kamala Harris, on her own merits, is fit for the presidency, one must pretend that her inexplicable inability to answer even very basic questions about how she plans to govern (including what she would do differently than President Biden), and how she came to reverse a whole slew of her political positions virtually overnight (including very radical ones), isn’t terribly concerning. I mean, how can a presidential nominee, at this point in the campaign, not have intelligible answers to the most predictable questions imaginable? How can a Democratic presidential candidate go on Fox News, and not be prepared to effectively field questions on legitimate issues the network covers extensively? There is no excuse for deer-in-the-headlight responses and non-answer filibusters three weeks out from election day, and three and a half years after being sworn in as Vice President.

In order to argue that Donald Trump, on his own merits, is fit for the presidency, one must pretend that all kinds of things that happened when he was in office last time (especially between November 3, 2020 and January 6, 2021) didn’t actually happen — at least not in the way the facts objectively confirm they did. One must deny that he tried to overturn the results of an election he unequivocally lost, the efforts of which led to countless death threats and other harassment aimed at public officials and election workers who were simply doing their jobs. One must deny that he provoked a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol, through months of lies and insane conspiracy theories, that resulted in death and injured almost 150 police officers (some so badly that they had to retire from the force). One must shrug off the fact that he watched that attack play out for hours on television, and refused to lift a finger to stop it, while staffers, friends, and family members begged him to intervene. One must dismiss the reality that 40 of the 44 cabinet secretaries that served in his first administration (along with his vice president and all of his chiefs of staff) refuse to support his 2024 campaign… with half of them going as far as calling him “dangerous” to the country.

But somehow, people like me, who look at these contests through clear eyes and reject the repugnant dishes placed on our table by the parties, are the ones who don’t care?

We’re not the ones serving up crap-sandwiches to voters, and saying “Bon appétit!” They are.

Millions of voters somehow manage to look at one of those sandwiches and think, “Yum!” Millions of others carefully consider the bread, toppings, and other preparations before counting to three and reluctantly taking a bite. Hey, to each their own.

But you’ll have to forgive me if I reject scorn and sarcasm over my personal voting decision from people with crap stuck in their teeth.