Like others, I’ve complained about having to choose between the “lesser of two evils” in elections. In most cases, it’s because corporations, unions* and other special interest groups have paid for the “privilege” of creating policy via puppet politicians.

Bolstered by the Citizens United decision, big-money donors have created a corrupt government that’s responsive to them, not We the People. I’m altogether certain that the founders did NOT view “throwing money around” as a synonym for free speech — regardless of what the Supreme Court might say.

The irony is, we now have someone in the oval office who’s NOT beholden to corporations... and it’s worse. Because he’s beholden to no one but himself. Not his constituents. Not the Constitution. Not any sense of morality or ethics.

A sociopathic president

Having someone who isn’t corrupt in office only works if that person is a) competent, and b) not a sociopath.

Yes, I called him a sociopath. No, I’m not a clinician. But by God, I’m sick and tired of being told I’m incapable of using simple common sense to describe something that’s as plain as the nose on your face. You don’t need an advanced degree to tell someone, “There’s a fly in your soup.” And you don’t need an advanced degree to say, “There’s a sociopath in the White House,” either.

As a point of reference, here’s how the Mayo clinic describes sociopathy: “Antisocial personality disorder, sometimes called sociopathy, is a mental disorder in which a person consistently shows no regard for right and wrong and ignores the rights and feelings of others. People with antisocial personality disorder tend to antagonize, manipulate or treat others harshly or with callous indifference. They show no guilt or remorse for their behavior.”

If that doesn’t describe Donald Trump’s harsh treatment of children in cages and victims of a hurricane in Puerto Rico, or his callous indifference to black Americans and coronavirus victims, I don’t know what does. Antagonize? Check. Manipulate? Check. Sense of right and wrong? According to Trump, there were “very fine people on both sides” at Charlottesville. I could go on.

Mary Trump’s truth

Trump’s niece, who DOES have a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, has written that Trump’s father Fred was “a high-functioning sociopath.” Further, Mary L. Trump observes (and she was a firsthand observer) that Donald Trump survived and prospered by modeling his own life after this sociopath. Is it any wonder than he became exactly what he wanted to become? He became someone who used others for his own ends, who demanded but never conferred loyalty. It was, and is, a one-way street.

“That’s what sociopaths do,” Mary Trump wrote, “they co-opt others and use them toward their own ends, ruthlessly and efficiently, with no tolerance for dissent and resistance.”

Even if that resistance means abandoning your hopes, dreams, and principles. Even if it means subjecting yourself to repeated humiliation. That’s the fate Fred Trump inflicted on his eldest son, and it’s what Donald Trump has visited on Republicans like Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Lindsey Graham. Those who dare to stand up to him — Jeff Flake, Justin Amash, etc. — are banished from the party, just as Fred Trump banished his eldest son. Those who don’t are left looking like fools, hypocrites, and cowards, because that’s what it takes to survive. (In this case, survive the Republican primary.)

Just as Fred Trump turned Donald into a sociopathic clone of himself, Donald is turning his “children” — his Republican enablers — into sociopathic clones of himself.

Media parlor games

It’s become almost like a parlor game for media talking heads to speculate on what makes Donald Trump tick. Does he kowtow to dictators like Vladimir Putin because Putin’s got something on him? Maybe. If there’s evidence of this, it’s more than worth investigating. But if you’ve read Mary Trump’s book, one thing is indisputable: This is the kind of relationship Donald Trump understands.

His father may be dead, but there are others — Putin, the Saudi crown prince, Kim Jong-un, Jeffrey Epstein — who act the same way his father did. They play by the same rules: that is to say, their own. They operate with impunity, without regard to ethical considerations or how they affect others. Trump learned to survive by pleasing one such person, his father. But his father’s dead, so now he tries to please Daddy Vladdy instead. It’s both utterly pathetic, and incredibly dangerous.

Media news channels have to fill up 24 hours talking about it, so they keep asking the same questions over and over again, even if the answers have been clear as day for a very long time. What makes Trump act this way? They might think it makes them look more objective or open-minded to say, “Well, maybe it’s not this. Maybe it’s really that.” In reality, it makes them look wishy-washy and timid. And Trump exploits this by presenting himself as the opposite, authoritative and decisive, at every turn — even if his decisiveness is based on nothing more than conspiracy theories, the whims of conservative punditry, and his own need to appear great and wonderful.

The media are playing right into his hands, accentuating their own impotence.

What about Joe?

You might have noticed I haven’t written anything here about Joe Biden. That’s because I’m not a big fan of the former Delaware senator. But I’ll be coloring in the bubble next to his name on my ballot, and my vote will carry more enthusiasm than any other vote I’ve ever cast. An SSRS poll in June showed I’m not alone: 60% of Biden voters said they will be, primarily, voting against Trump. Only 37% said they’ll be voting for Biden mostly because they like Biden.

Back in April, I wrote that I couldn’t blame progressives if they chose not to vote in this election. I wrote that voting for Biden would be a vote for the corrupt establishment that’s brought us to this point: to the edge of a cliff. But while a vote for Biden may keep us on the precipice, a vote for Trump will very likely push us over it, and it’s a lot better to be in danger than to be dead.

This isn’t a choice of degree, between the lesser of two evils. It’s a qualitative choice between two fundamentally different options: flawed or failed.

Biden may be flawed, but Trump has failed time and again. He’s failed at business (bankruptcies), he’s failed at policy (the coronavirus), and most importantly, he’s failed at being a reasonable, caring human being.

I won’t shame you or belittle you if you disagree. That’s Trump’s game, not mine. We still have a secret ballot in this country, and everyone’s free to vote their conscience, and to disclose — or not — how they’ve voted. I’m disclosing my intentions here, not because I’ve stopped believing our system is fundamentally flawed and in urgent need of reform, but because I believe the only way to reform it is not to destroy it in the meantime.

I fear Donald Trump is hell-bent on doing exactly that.

* Speaking of unions, it would be hilarious how quick anti-union Republicans are to defend police unions, if it weren’t so sad. And if they weren’t so eager to throw teachers unions under the school bus. Guns over books. That’s just how they roll.