He’s not my type

The coming 2024 presidential election looks particularly grim to me. We need to choose between a decent man and a brute, both of whom need to be retired, one with thanks for his service, one minus the gratitude.

To tell you the truth, Donald Trump is not my type. He’s really quite gross, with his heavy pancake makeup and abominable head of bleached hair that clearly never was styled by Mother Nature. He is exactly what he calls everyone he deigns to have an unfortunate opinion of him — a disaster.

As a womanizer he’s doomed to failure, although it doesn’t stop him from trying. In my opinion he’s particularly unattractive to look at, and definitely not charming, intelligent, or witty; he’s also totally unsophisticated. Yes, with all that money, he’s a loser, a man with no class.

And he comes with a multitude of other sins. He’s a proven liar of immense proportions, a cheat, and a crook. He’s under investigation in multiple states for a wide variety of criminal acts.

Needless to say I won’t be voting for Trump for president.

But that’s only part of my problem. Nice-guy Joe Biden is the other part. I like him. Indeed I do. He has triumphed over a multitude of bad things happening to good people and he really deserves another chance to make this world a better place. Problem is, he just is not up to the job. As his contemporary, I understand. I wouldn’t have the koach, the strength, for the hard work of the presidency either. As we age, we all succumb to assaults on our bodies and minds. It’s inevitable. Life and living take their toll.

You may not remember the Peter Principle, which was an “item” in 1969. It said basically that a person will be promoted at his job until he reaches his level of incompetence. This could be attributable to lack of necessary skills, age, or any number of other factors. It’s reasonable to say that Joe Biden has “petered” out. He is basically incapable of sparring with the press, so he has abandoned press conferences entirely. He has always been gaffe-prone, but he, and his advisers, are acutely aware of his problem and rely on teleprompters to make him look better. Sorry, Joe. That doesn’t really do the job! Essentially he’s pulling the country down, and obviously his problems will worsen with time.

Unfortunately, Kamala Harris was the candidate for president who we didn’t choose in the primaries of 2020. And she has done little to make herself more electable in these past few years. Old Joe put himself into that hot seat when he declared that his vice president would be a Black woman, not the best woman, or perhaps not even any woman at all, merely a Black woman. That limited the field dramatically. And so he wound up with Kamala, and the American electorate seems unsupportive of her becoming our first woman president, as in being a heartbeat away from the presidency, the presidency of an old man. I confess. I agree. I don’t want to see Kamala in that job either!

I remember a few years back, when, despite my previous voting tradition, I was leaning toward voting for John McCain for president. He struck me as wise, heroic, and capable. I thought he was a good man, which is parameter number one. But then he messed up! He chose Sarah Palin to be his running mate. Gevalt! I, like many others, could no longer support McCain and gamble with America’s future by allowing Sarah Palin to possibly become vice president. It was unthinkable. It still is.

So, then there’s Kamala. I believe in diversity in government. I really do. But Kamala just seems way too average intellectually. Her communication skills are severely lacking, and that’s with the guidance of speech-writers. One shudders to imagine how inarticulate she actually is. And for me, the fact that her husband is Jewish is less than irrelevant. I wish he was not a Jew! I’m not a fan of intermarriage, and after all, Kamala is intermarried. What does that say about his Jewish commitment? He seems like a nice guy — but so what?

So, for the top officers of our government we have Joe and Kamala. Just not good enough for our country. We’ve already given them a trial run for two years. That’s quite enough.

Exacerbating our nation’s problem is that no brilliant or amazing candidate is willing to challenge a sitting president, even when there are serious doubts as to that person’s competence.

Look, I’m 83 years old, just a bit older than Joe. When I see Joe walk off an airplane, even attempt to run, I understand perfectly. The old legs get stiff from all the time on a plane. They don’t stride like they used to. Forcing them to perform looks clumsy, even ridiculous. Clearly a human is less limber at 80 than at 50, or even 60. Old age creeps up on all of us, faster than we’d like.

And then there’s my thinking power. It’s just not as sharp, nearly, as it was in years gone by. I may fool some of my readers but often words just don’t come to me. So I can identify with Joe’s woes. Believe me, I understand. But I’m not running for president, and the thought of someone my age being the head honcho in this country is not merely alarming, it’s actually terrifying!

Our country is in terrible shape. We are drowning in immense problems with no workable solutions in sight. Guns. Deficits. A Supreme Court with a well-earned shattered reputation. Crude and rude Republicans — people like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Jim Jordan, Kevin McCarthy, and uncountable others. Persistent criminal acts against minorities and profound antisemitism. Etc., etc., etc.

And while Joe Biden’s age is an issue, Trump is a mere four years younger. He’s also an old man. A fat man. A man whose health is similarly at risk. Personally, I regard 76 as too old to become president, even without all the supportive data that indicates that this man does not have the moral stature to lead our country.

So here we have outlined the unsolvable problem. Two old men running for president. One is decent. One is a scammer with numerous criminal and civil charges against him. For vice-president we only know one option to date and she’s not a star. The other option, whoever she/he is, cannot mitigate electing Trump.

What do I do? I will vote, but never ever for Trump.

Comments? rosanne.skopp@gmail.com

Rosanne Skopp of West Orange is a wife, mother of four, grandmother of 14, and great-grandmother of three. She is a graduate of Rutgers University and a dual citizen of the United States and Israel. She is a lifelong blogger, writing blogs before anyone knew what a blog was!

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