I keep hearing from some MAGA friends that they’d consider voting for a Democrat if they’d just run a “halfway decent candidate.” That they don’t love Trump, but he’s still the lesser of two evils.
Let’s take a step back. The lesser evil? Trump?!
We’re not talking about a normal politician here. We’re talking about someone who:
• Fired 17 independent inspectors general in his first week back, gutting the people responsible for keeping government corruption in check.
• Gutted the federal workforce by imposing a hiring freeze and replacing career officials with political loyalists, dismantling expertise across agencies.
• Abandoning Europe to Russia, signaling that NATO allies should fend for themselves, emboldening Putin’s expansionist ambitions.
• Allowed China to strengthen its dominance in the Pacific while stripping U.S. influence abroad.
• Tried to freeze $3 trillion in federal funding, threatening the economy until a judge had to step in and stop him.
This is not the lesser evil. This is reckless, vindictive, and dangerous.
The Socialism Scare Tactic
One of the most common defenses I hear for Trump is that Democrats—Biden, Harris, all of them—are taking America toward socialism or communism. But let’s be real: we already have elements of socialism in our country, and they aren’t the problem.
• Social Security, created under FDR and strengthened by Republican presidents, is one of the most popular programs in U.S. history.
• Medicare, signed into law under Democratic leadership but expanded under Republican administrations, ensures seniors don’t go bankrupt from healthcare costs.
• The G.I. Bill, passed under a Democratic president but championed by conservative lawmakers, helped millions of veterans buy homes and get an education.
• Interstate highways, police departments, fire departments, public schools—all forms of government-funded programs that people rely on daily, and no one is calling them communism.
In reality, the U.S. has always been a mixed economy—capitalist at its core, but with government programs that provide a safety net where the free market fails. That’s not socialism; that’s smart policy.
And if the fear is that Biden or Harris are secretly planning to turn the U.S. into Venezuela, let’s look at actual policies:
• The stock market rose under Biden. That doesn’t happen in socialist economies.
• Corporate profits grew under Biden. That doesn’t happen in socialist economies.
• The private sector added millions of jobs under Biden. Again, not socialism.
If we’re being honest, the real economic disaster right now isn’t creeping socialism—it’s Trump’s reckless spending, debt ballooning policies, and economic chaos.
Would Kamala Harris Really Have Been Worse?
Let’s assume, for a moment, that you don’t like Harris. Maybe you think she’s ineffective, uninspiring, or not the right choice for president. Fine. But would she have been worse than Trump?
Would she have:
• Put American democracy in jeopardy?
• Tried to block government funding to score political points?
• Torn down U.S. alliances while cozying up to authoritarian regimes?
• Handed over federal agencies to unqualified cronies?
No, she wouldn’t have. We may not agree on policies, but we can agree that basic government functioning shouldn’t be at risk every day.
This Is Bigger Than Policy Disagreements
This isn’t about loving the Democratic Party. It’s not about being thrilled with Joe Biden or Kamala Harris. This is about the fact that our country is being deliberately weakened—economically, diplomatically, and institutionally—by someone who is putting his own interests above everything else.
And the worst part? He’s not even hiding it.
So when I hear people say they’d consider voting for a Democrat but just can’t stomach it, I have to ask—how bad does it have to get? How much more damage do we have to see before we stop pretending that Trump is just another politician?
This isn’t about left vs. right anymore. It’s about whether or not we still have a functioning democracy when all of this is over.
Mike McCready 
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