- Feb 5, 2002
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This is a post about my feelings, and if you aren’t too thrilled with these feelings, welcome to the club. I write about them not because I’m going to tidy up the loose ends at the conclusion with a neatly reasoned-out policy recommendation, but because I think I am not alone in feeling this way, and so I think my current feelings are pertinent to the public discourse.
Here is the feeling I am having: I am a never-Trumper who is probably going to vote for Trump.
Longtime readers know that I find Trump, as an individual and as a leader, to be abhorrent. You also know that I have repeatedly made the case for voting third party. My reasoning is that we’re in a Don’t Blame Me I Voted for Kodossituation, and that voting third party provides valuable information and incentives to the major parties about how they need to shift their platforms, and thus provides a longer-term policy-directing effect.
The reason I am feeling pushed towards Trump, and at such a late date, and despite my strong inclinations otherwise, is that I no longer feel this is a Kang v. Kodos scenario. From the right, I continue to see the usual callous indifference to the lives of ordinary people, but it’s just indifference. The message I am getting from the left is that I am a target they mean to destroy.
I’m not real comfortable with that.
***
One of my frustrations revolves around the Affordable Care Act. I absolutely agree that our health care system did and still does need reform. I am grateful for the expansion of government-provided healthcare coverage to the poor, even if that expansion comes with significant weaknesses. You can always improve on an imperfect first step without hating the first step. However, I also know middle-income families who were literally being bankrupted by the no-win choice between paying a hefty fine or making a mandatory purchase of a product they could not afford and could not afford to use. Lowering the penalty to zero at least allowed them to not lose all their savings and go into debt while they continue to lack access to medical care.
Continued below.
Feeling Pushed Towards Trump
Here is the feeling I am having: I am a never-Trumper who is probably going to vote for Trump.
Longtime readers know that I find Trump, as an individual and as a leader, to be abhorrent. You also know that I have repeatedly made the case for voting third party. My reasoning is that we’re in a Don’t Blame Me I Voted for Kodossituation, and that voting third party provides valuable information and incentives to the major parties about how they need to shift their platforms, and thus provides a longer-term policy-directing effect.
The reason I am feeling pushed towards Trump, and at such a late date, and despite my strong inclinations otherwise, is that I no longer feel this is a Kang v. Kodos scenario. From the right, I continue to see the usual callous indifference to the lives of ordinary people, but it’s just indifference. The message I am getting from the left is that I am a target they mean to destroy.
I’m not real comfortable with that.
***
One of my frustrations revolves around the Affordable Care Act. I absolutely agree that our health care system did and still does need reform. I am grateful for the expansion of government-provided healthcare coverage to the poor, even if that expansion comes with significant weaknesses. You can always improve on an imperfect first step without hating the first step. However, I also know middle-income families who were literally being bankrupted by the no-win choice between paying a hefty fine or making a mandatory purchase of a product they could not afford and could not afford to use. Lowering the penalty to zero at least allowed them to not lose all their savings and go into debt while they continue to lack access to medical care.
Continued below.
Feeling Pushed Towards Trump
I it was in the non-partisan section so I randomly picked the first two, but I found out later that one of the two is supported by the Democratic party 
