I finally put my finger on it

So let me preface all this with the following disclaimer.  I in no way can bring myself to support a single Democrat candidate currently in the field.  I do not think a single one of them should be put into the White House.  But I'll tell you, I honestly think that if Donald Trump wins the Republican nomination, I won't be able to bring myself to vote for him.  But for the longest time, I couldn't really pin down specifically why.



Sure, he's a demagogue.  Sure, he says outrageous things.  Sure, he's playing to a certain base.  But that's politics.  So what bothers me about him?  Leave aside all the conspiracy talk that he's a stalking horse for Hillary Clinton.  Yes, it has a little sense to it, but then without a kernel of truth or believably to a conspiracy theory, no one would ever buy it.  And I still believe that outrageous claims of conspiracy require extraordinary proof.  And as of yet, I haven't seen any.  So... why does he bother me?

This morning it hit me.  Because he's Barack Obama.  Now hear me out.  He's a narcissist, beyond a doubt.  If he ever has a self-reflecting moment, I've never heard of it.  He believes himself to be smarter, braver, kinder, and just plain better than anyone else he knows.  And he won't hesitate to tell you all about it.  And it's not just him being cocky.  This is a man who reacts instantly and vitriolically to personal insults and snubs.  Just like the President does.  His opponents aren't just people who believe differently in his view, they're evil or stupid... they're the enemy.  And frankly, eight years of that is more than enough for me.

And it doesn't stop there.  We all mocked Obama's "Hope and Change" campaign, because it was meaningless rhetoric.  Hope for what?  What kind of change?  We never heard any specifics, and lo and behold, his Hope and Change amounted to pretty much nothing.  It was empty words that reflected his complete lack of any sort of plan for anything.  And yet we have Trump with his "Make America Great Again".  Ok, how?  What specifics?  We don't really have any.  Oh, sure, he's opposed to illegal immigrants.  Fine.  But what else?  Well, just trust him.  ...  ...  Yeah, no.  Every other policy he's outlined is an off the cuff response to whatever was in the news.  His plan exists only in the imagination, and whatever way he reacts to events around him.  More of the same.

I'd love to say that at least he's going to be able to handle international politics better than he does his domestic rivals, but I've seen exactly no indication of it.  Sure, I expect he'll be smarter in handling America's enemies than President "why can't we all just get along" has (because say what you will of Trump, at least he's not a doormat), but I think he'll do as equally bad a job as the current POTUS at handling our international friends.  Because all it will take is one snub, one harsh comment, and he's going to turn it into an international incident.  And I don't know how many of our allies will put up with another four years of being treated with more distrust and hostility than we give our enemies.

So that's what bothers me.  He's a stuffed shirt running on empty promises, and I've already had eight years of that.  I'd prefer just about anyone (save for a Socialist and a grasping, power-hungry harpy who has contempt for both the laws of this nation and the Constitution) to another Obama.  This may be the first election in my adult life that I just sit out.