Jun 11, 2020 2 min read

In her June 8 letter, Lucy Northrop Corwin wondered how “any educated person” still supports the president of the United States. Implicit in her statement is the notion that only uneducated people support him – as if “uneducated” is synonymous with “uninformed” or “injudicious.” Her statement whiffs of elitism. She also references the snarky “no words” 2016 editorial as if she somehow knew all along that calamity was brewing for 2020. Forgive us if we are skeptical of her precognition after the fact.

As an educated person who voted for Donald Trump in 2016 – and who will likely do so again – I’ll try to explain that. To begin with a paraphrase: It’s the economy, Lucy.

Prior to the global pandemic and the horrific murder of George Floyd, the economy – as measured by most standards – was humming along nicely. Another reason some of us educated people continue to support the president is that we agree with many of his national security decisions and his approach to positioning America on the global stage. We like his protection of religious freedoms and the possibility of his future judicial appointments. Still another reason could be that many of us have long viewed the politics of Washington, D.C., as a broken system and, yes, a “swamp” that needed to be shaken up by an outsider who, prior to 2015, wasn’t a professional politician. Finally, one might choose Trump because we disagree more with Joe Biden. In short, it is with many of his administration’s policies – and not his personality – that one may find enough agreement to vote for him.

It is, of course, possible to vote for someone who doesn’t strike you as warm and tender. Trump is assuredly not the first officeholder to be vain or pugnacious at times. Like many, I wish he would temper his tweets. I think him sometimes thin-skinned and “punching down” when his attention could be focused elsewhere. However, I tend to appreciate an authentic, unfiltered remark more than polished prattle read from a teleprompter. I found Barack Obama, for example, to sound consistently more presidential, but I disagreed with more of his policies than I do with the disagreeable Trump. I would rather vote for bluster and effectiveness than for smoothly packaged ineptitude.

Lindsay Pecosh

Cecil