As I have noted previously, it is interesting how persons with reasonable intelligence, good educations, and similar values can look at current events and arrive at opinions that are so diametrically opposed. One’s viewpoint is largely dependent on his or her news sources.
An example is afforded by different perspectives on the 2020 election. Trump and many of his supporters believe there is evidence of massive cheating and that Trump was the actual winner. Others believe that the election was conducted fairly and that anyone who says otherwise is either lying or deluded. A third group consist of people like me who remain undecided – believing that there were serious problems with the election but not absolutely convinced there was cheating of such magnitude to change the outcome; and though we insist on an audit, we doubt that anything can be done to reverse the results.
The most disturbing thing to me is the difficulty in discerning truth from falsehood. Some news sources are reporting alarming stories about election fraud, whereas other news outlets ignore these reports. Who can you believe? I wish I knew.
I am certain of one thing. If the mainstream media and the social media moguls had not suppressed negative information about Joseph Biden and his son Hunter, Biden would not be President. They even went so far as to label the Hunter’s laptop story as Russian disinformation. That was a palpable lie, and now we are suffering the consequences of their dishonest reporting.
I know a gentleman for whom I have great respect. He is compassionate, well read, possesses many talents, and has had broad experience. He is not a close friend, but I have been around him enough to form a very high opinion of his character.
He is very free with his opinions on American politics and social issues, and we obviously listen to different news programs and read different political commentaries. Our viewpoints are totally opposed.
He dislikes former President Trump with a passion and considers him to have been the worst chief executive in American history. He also believes there is no doubt about Trump’s electoral defeat and Joseph Biden being the duly elected President.
What is my opinion of Donald Trump?
When he announced his candidacy, I knew very little about the man. I did not believe he had a chance to win the Republican nomination. As a contender, he seemed to violate every political rule and tradition; but his often outrageous conduct gained him continuous press coverage at no cost to his campaign. I was very surprised when he won the nomination and then went on to defeat Hillary Clinton.
I considered Trump to be a true Washington outsider, and many people in the “establishment” (Democrat and Republican) appeared to fear him. They tried to sabotage him before and after he assumed office. Some of them honestly believed that Trump was a grave threat to the nation and to world peace. Based on their concerns, they were willing to go to almost any length in attempting to remove him from the Presidency. Trump’s enemies had the almost total cooperation of the mainstream media in their efforts to defeat him.
I dislike many things about Donald Trump. He often appears arrogant, is a braggart, seems devoid of magnanimity, and is a divider. Nevertheless, I never thought him to be a real threat to constitutional government. I was amazed that he accomplished so much in the face of such rabid opposition. He exhibited more energy than any President since Theodore Roosevelt. I approved of most of his policies as chief executive, and I voted for his reelection. The most important factor in this decision was that I feared the opposition party much more than I feared Trump. Recent events have justified my apprehension. The Biden administration is doing great harm to our country, and we the people are now more divided than ever.
I would prefer that someone other than Trump run for President as the Republican candidate in 2024. I would like a soft-speaking, straight- talking individual capable of uniting the country. Men like Marco Rubio and Ben Carson come to mind. Nevertheless, if Trump is the Republican candidate, he will doubtless receive my vote. The Democrat Party is totally bankrupt. I cannot think of one highly placed Democrat official or legislator for whom I have high respect.
Jordans-Journey 
Could not resist returning to this post, and LIKEing it again.
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Hello from the UK
Thank you for your very balanced post. As a UK citizen I was never going to vote in the US presidential elections. I have said the following elsewhere but worth repeating I think.
I would not have known which way to vote in 2016 as I saw both candidates as being the devil and the deep blue sea. As it turned out Hilary Clinton was the devil and the deep blue sea Donald Trump. Swimming in the sea turned out to be just fine!
The demonising of Trump as viewed from the UK seemed more and more ridiculous the more I thought about it and heard the positive facts, once the media bias was scrapped away. There are quite a few over here who support what Donald Trump did, his actions prove he was the right choice.
I ended up writing about both Biden and Trump on my site. I did not do Trump full justice due to time constraints but I tried to be fair to both parties, although Joe Biden seemed dubious.
Ever since what I regard as election fraud on a grand scale, I have taken to ridiculing Joe Biden to expose the ridiculous, let alone gross evil, of his mal-administration.
I agree that Trump as you say ‘…often appears arrogant, is a braggart, seems devoid of magnanimity,…’ I think ‘appears’ is the operative word. The biased main stream media have done all they can to vilify him and I seriously question whether he really is as alleged.
As to being a divider I would be less sure, except that perhaps he has divided those who have self-interest at heart (all too often democrats) from those who have the interests of the USA at heart.
In having the interests of the USA at heart I believe they also have the world’s interest at heart as we want a stable USA.
The worst thing has been the vaccine issue. I did not think vaccines were of great concern until I researched last year in my 60th year. I had thought they were of some use. I changed my mind.
You might well be interested in my post, a link to which I attach. If you are interested in what I have done on Joe Biden and Trump then you can use the search button which will bring up posts and pages.
https://alphaandomegacloud.wordpress.com/v-is-for-vaccination/
Kind regards
Baldmichael Theresoluteprotector’sson
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Thank you. I appreciate you input and intend to check out your post. By the way, I do believe that Trump’s enemies exaggerate his faults and often lie about him. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that he is a polarizing figure.
Regards,
\Sandy Jordan
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Dear Sandy
Thank you. I shall be off to bed now (!) but I agree that Trump is a polarising figure. Sadly in life there are those who persist in evil who must be separated from those that do good.
Trump’s character leaves much to be desired on the face of it, but I believe in my limited view from over here, that this was necessary to expose the evil undercurrents in the USA which were not evident to so many before Covid 19.
Yours
Baldmichael
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Intelligent people having strongly different beliefs formed from the same data seems impossible. But, long ago, when I was a new Christian, a woman told me that you don’t have to be highly intelligent to go to heaven or only intelligent people would get to go. I’ve often thought of that and considered it when I see radically different positions established as Ms Jordan just described. So, my conclusion is both Heaven and Hell will have an abundance of intelligent people.
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