[Hoot Gibson]

Good morning, Granny. That was an excellent post. It sounds like we put in similar due diligence both in deciding how to vote in 2016 and with regard to COVID vaccination. We reached similar conclusions in our respective voting decisions, but much different conclusions in our COVID vaccination decisions.

I agonized over my decision whether to vote for Donald Trump after he ran what I considered the most childish and dishonest campaign in the history of Republican primary campaigns. When I ranked the available Republican candidates, I had only two or three below Trump. (My top choice in that field was Ted Cruz.) However, I ultimately decided to vote for Trump because I could not bring myself not to vote for somebody who had a chance to defeat Hillary Clinton, a woman who I honestly believe should have been behind bars years before the 2016 campaign began.

I also supported the impeachment of Bill Clinton because our system cannot work fairly if individuals commit perjury in a civil trial with no consequences. However, I also believed that Bill Clinton was a very competent president, despite my many fundamental philosophical differences with the man. His wife Hillary has all of Bill's character flaws but possesses none of his positive traits. In my opinion, she committed multiple serious felonies that should have landed her in prison.

My main issues with Trump are the childish name-calling directed at anybody who disagrees with him, his extremely self-centered style, his obvious dishonesty (he is a clumsy liar as opposed to the polished liar, Bill Clinton), his disloyalty to those whom he hires, and the lack of loyalty that he inspires among those he personally hired. The list is much longer, but those are the high points of my issues with the man. If I added my issues with Trump to the issues that I had with Bill Clinton, the list would still not be as long as a list of my problems with Hillary Clinton. This nation dodged a bullet when Trump beat her in the 2016 election.
I agree that this election is very important. I guess one could argue that this is the most important election ever, but the 2020 election was extremely important, and the Republican and Democrat parties once again provided us with horrible alternatives. There was no good choice in 2016 or 2020, but I believe that the nation chose the lesser of two evils in 2016 and the greater of two evils in 2020. This country has never made a worse decision than the one that made Joe Biden president.

Once again, the two parties have failed miserably in providing good choices in the 2024 election. Kamala Harris is not suffering from dementia—and that is where her list of good points starts and ends. Donald Trump's list of positives is much longer, but he has obviously not learned any lessons from his previous term as president. I cringe every time I hear him call a political opponent a childish name. I cringe even more when he calls a former employee who he hired a childish name.
In a nation with a population of over 300 million people, the fact that our two major political parties cannot offer better candidates over a 12-year period than Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris would scare the living daylights out of a well-informed, well-educated populace. The fact that each of these candidates has large devoted followings with people obviously revering them as great American heroes is even more frightening to me. What have any of these people done to inspire devoted followers? I just do not get it.

Finally, one of my biggest issues with Donald Trump was his handling of the COVID pandemic. The sight of him standing on a stage supporting Dr. Anthony Fauci day after day, and the fact that he never fired or demoted the evil scientist turned my stomach. (I spend a lot of time cringing during Trump's public appearances.)

After much research, I initially decided not to receive any COVID vaccination. I subsequently contracted a severe case of COVID and spent 12 days in a hospital. After I was discharged, I knew that I would be naturally immune from COVID for six months or more, so I still refused to get a vaccination. Ultimately, the federal government gave contractors the option of being vaccinated or finding other employment. I caved and elected to get the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccination. I have not, and will not, receive any booster vaccinations. I have since had one very mild case of COVID.

One point on which we disagree is Walter Cronkite. The national news media in Cronkite's day was just as biased to the left as it is today. Cronkite, Chet Huntley, David Brinkley, and the rest of the news anchors of the 1960s were just much more polished and subtle in those days with their left-wing bias, and the distance between the political center and the right and left wings was not as great as it is today. I did not reach that realization until years later, but the news media has never been conservative in this country, in my opinion.