A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

This question appeared on my Quora feed today. I've answered variants of it on the questions-and-answers site several times already, but I haven't chosen a good topic for today's blog post, so here goes: To the people who voted for Clinton during the 2016 election, why did you choose to vote for her in the first place, and what do you think of the current president of the United States, Donald Trump? Do you support him now? I voted for Hillary Clinton because, after being a lawyer, First Lady of Arkansas, First Lady of the United States, junior Senator from New York, and former Secretary of State, she was far more qualified, smarter, and far better prepared for the Presidency than Donald J. Trump. As for what I think of the current President: He is absolutely the worst President ever elected to the office. He’s a con man, a divisive person who - despite the public image he has cultivated as a dealmaker and successful businessman - is not as wealthy or successful as h...

(C) 2002 Anchor Books I rarely read books about politics or political figures, even though my main interest in the non-fiction genre – military military history – is, in essence, an account of political decisions gone wrong. When I do read books about Presidents, it's usually about the Cold War ( The Crisis Years: Kennedy and Khrushchev – 1960-1963 ) or specific events such as the Cuban Missile Crisis or that awful day in Dallas. Very rarely, though, do I read books about the personal lives of America's Chief Executives. I used to, as a schoolboy, read very generic accounts of those few Presidents I found interesting (Washington, Lincoln, the two Roosevelts, Ike, and JFK), but as I grew older I became less a generalist history buff and became more of a World War II/Cold War/Persian Gulf War specialist. Still, sometimes it's beneficial to step away from the familiar and explore uncharted territory from time to time. Kati Marton's 2001 book Hidden Power: Preside...

What do I say to liberals to get them to understand we did not vote for Trump, we voted against Hillary and everything she represents? This, in my opinion, is perhaps one of the worst examples of political contortion and justification for a conscious choice that  you  and many like-minded people made in November 2016. Maybe you’re being disingenuous, to put it mildly. Or maybe this is what you tell yourself to assuage your own doubts about your choices, considering how poorly the man  you  helped elevate to the highest elected office in the United States is regarded by most people who are not: Republican* Conservatives Evangelical Christians Die-hard Trump supporters who hate Muslims, liberals, Barack Obama, Mexicans, LGBTQ, intellectuals (because they tend to lean toward the liberal side of the political spectrum), and anyone who doesn’t buy “their” President’s Make America Great Again snake oil The truth of the matter is, you can tell me all you wa...

During the long and divisive 2016 Presidential campaign, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton was given the nasty nickname "Crooked Hillary" by then-candidate Donald Trump and his followers. The former First Lady, ex-Senator from New York, and President Barack Obama's first Secretary of State was hit by broadsides from all sides from the moment that she announced her candidacy in April of 2015 all the way to Election Day last November. The criticism covered a wide range of issues, including the use of a private email server during her stint at the State Department, her handling (or mishandling) of a terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, and even wacko stories about her knowledge that the Democratic Party was running a child-sex ring out of several restaurants in the U.S. One story in particular that was disseminated by the alt-right during the election was an accusation that Clinton benefited from a uranium deal with Russia while she was Secretary of State. In a nuts...