Today I had a very strange day. I met several Hillary Clinton supporters and spoke with them about their reasons for voting Clinton. Some of them shared the same convictions and I was awestruck by a few of them.
#1 Mind Blower: Trump is responsible for Russia and Iran hating us. His rhetoric is so hateful that they have are becoming our enemies. If Trump is elected President, either Russia or Iran will bomb us. (Several Clinton supporters held this view and none disputed their logic.)
Reaction: I stood there in utter amazement. For more reasons that I care to go into, this line of thinking is flawed. The four who were pressing this as a reason were so sure of their facts that they appear to believe Russia and Iran have been our allies for decades and only this year have developed problems with us. I couldn't bring myself to mention the Iran Hostage Crisis or the Cold War. I have to admit that I couldn't confront them on this reasoning simply because I couldn't bring myself to speak. How can you dispute something that has no basic in logic?
#2 Mind Blower: Trump is too wealthy to be President. Anyone as rich as he is would be too smart to be President; they wouldn't want to lock themselves into 4 years of hell. He must be corrupt and have an agenda. Yes, he's too smart to really want to be President so he must have an ulterior motive.
Reaction: I stood there for a moment and thought this through as two supporters discussed it. I then brought out how Clinton was wealthy and they laughed saying she was broke in 2000, so she can't be rich. My wife mentioned Ross Peroit and that was ignored. The result of this discussion is that I burst out laughing and walked away.
I remembered a 2010 study that said Washington was our wealthiest President who was worth about 560 million in today's dollar. In perspective, Clinton is worth about 111 Million and Obama is estimated at just under 500 million. As of July 2016, court filing show Trump to be worth about 2 Billion.
#3 Mind Blower: Voting for Clinton get's us Bill Clinton back as President. "Everybody knows" he will be the one in charge in the White House. Who cares about Hillary Clinton's issues. She won't be the one in charge and her husband will be back in control of the country.
Reaction: I tried to point out that Bill is barred by law from being President again. They told me that she would always do what he told her to do so she'd be President in name only. I tried to point out how that kind of logic flies in the face of Hillary's own movement of being the first woman President. I was given a pat on the shoulder and told "They are old school. Hillary will do exactly what her husband tells her to do." I tried to argue this one with them saying Bill isn't running and won't be able to sit in on many of her meetings and briefings. Absolutely nothing I said could penetrate what I felt was their delusion. In a group of about eight Clinton supporters, all agreed that a vote for Hillary is really a vote for Bill.
There were one or two people who espoused the opinion that Trump was unfit but would give no specifics. One young woman (I didn't think she was old enough to vote) said that she was going to vote for Hillary because she's a woman. One couple said they were voting for Hillary because they were Democrats.
There were two Hillary supporters who acted as the focal point of my experience today. I was in their business shopping and met several groups of people who came in to discuss politics with them. In my hour sitting there talking with people I can't remember how many came through just to talk politics. All of those who came in did so apparently JUST to talk politics and they were all Clinton supporters. I was told by the store owner that they normally don't talk politics but people have learned they can drop by to talk about Clinton so on the weekends that's what they do.
Tomorrow I will try to discuss with people I know support Trump their reasons for voting to see if I can get a comparison.
