Fr. Dwight Longenecker: Why I Voted for Mr. Trump This Morning 

By Fr. Dwight Longenecker, Blog, November 3rd, 2020

I was about tenth in line when I turned up to vote at 6 am, and by the time the polls opened at 7 the line must have been 200 strong. Reports are that the turnout for this election is enormous.

I didn’t vote in 2016 because frankly, I couldn’t bring myself to vote for either Hillary or Donald Trump.

Anyone who has read this blog will know that I am far from being a Trump supporter. There are many reasons why I’m not a Trump fan. The superficial ones are that he is crass, vulgar and inarticulate. His personal history is a blend of showman, playboy, gangster and shyster and he has no background, qualifications or skillset for the office of president of the USA.

More than these problems, I’m wary of the MAGA crowd phenomenon. It’s not part of my nature to jump on anybody’s bandwagon, and there’s enough of the Amish in me to be suspicious of every politician, billionaire and fat cat. The MAGA crowds give me the creeps–not because I’m unpatriotic, but because I fear uncritical patriotism and uncritical adulation of anyone–pop star, pope, politician, president or prime minister. I’m not a joiner and I worry about mass movements of the majority–knowing that down through history this is the kind of thing that produces demagogues. …