One of the most distressing and disingenuous things I have heard on the campaign trail is “I don’t like either presidential candidate, so I’m not going to vote.”
Forget for the moment that American soldiers and civil rights workers have died to preserve this right. Put aside the notion that if people don’t vote, they have no grounds to complain. Instead, I implore people to stop pretending there is no real difference between the candidates or their parties. This is pure poppycock.
Let me be clear: Donald J. Trump fits the definition of a sociopath. If anyone thinks I am exaggerating, read Jane Mayer’s interview in The New Yorker of the ghostwriter who actually wrote “ The Art of the Deal.” That’s the 1987 book that portrayed the real-estate mogul as a “charming brash entrepreneur with an unfailing knack for business,” a myth that made Trump famous, attracted unwitting students to the fraudulent Trump University and brought him unexpected majorities in Republican primaries. Ghostwriter Tony Schwartz got to know his subject well, and he asserts that Trump is pathologically impulsive and self-centered. Even if Trump’s so-called positions or his misogyny, racism and ignorance don’t repel voters, consider his profound personality disorder.
“I put lipstick on a pig,” Schwartz told Mayer. “I feel a deep sense of remorse.” If he were to write another version of the book, he would title it “The Sociopath.”
David Brooks’ recent New York Times column “ Trump Is Getting Even Trumpier!” echoes this concern: The candidate “is slipping off the rails.” Dissecting Trump’s speech patterns — which invariably conclude with a boast about himself, no matter what the initial subject — Brooks concludes that Trump is an unstable narcissist. He has, Brooks writes, “passed from the category of rant to the category of full on drunk wedding toast.”
And Hillary Clinton? Is she equally unreliable? In her quest for high office, Clinton undoubtedly has bent the truth over matters that could be embarrassing, too private or worse. I get that. Politicians dissemble. That’s not an excuse but a reality.
Personally, I try hard to be totally frank and honest, but the stakes for me are much lower. I have never feared defeat. But for others in the political world, spinning goes with the territory and sometimes goes over the line into falsehoods. But people know that already. Why is it that Clinton gets pilloried for her prevarications while Trump’s blatant, daily, multiple lies are brushed off? As Schwartz remarks, “Lying is second nature to him. … Trump has the ability to convince himself that whatever he is saying at any given moment is true, or sort of true, or at least ought to be true.” Do we really want someone like that in the White House?
I knew Clinton when we were students at Yale Law School. She is not warm and fuzzy; people might not choose her to be their best friend, though many good people, like my classmate, did. She did have close friends, including a classmate of mine from Yale. He practiced law with my father-in-law. He was no luminary — just a nice, down-to earth guy. When my friend died too young, she came from the White House to his funeral. No press.
At Yale, Clinton was a natural leader in the troubled 1970s. And she has been a leader ever since. Imperfect, but always trying to make the world better. Trump is no Clinton. He has amassed — and repeatedly lost — fortunes by tricking his fellow investors and refusing to pay his own workers. That is the sum total of his accomplishments.
In contrast to Trump’s dubious preparation for the presidency, Clinton, as a former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state, is one of the most well prepared candidates we have ever had. Hearing her speak — without notes — on an array of topics of the day, as I have at the King Middle School in Portland last year, I can appreciate the enormous depth of her knowledge and understanding. She is clear-headed and focused, and she has a vision of America that is inclusive and fair. She is prepared to defend our national interests without being trigger-happy.
Is she less reliable than Trump? Not in this universe.
So think long and hard about whether to vote. And think even harder about the choice. We have learned over and over that every vote counts. Don’t blow it away.
Janice Cooper is a Democrat completing her second term in the Maine House of Representatives, representing Yarmouth, Chebeague and Long Island.