C: The last time I saw you, you were extremely depressed about your options with the election. Has anything changed?
M: Things are better, but hardly good.
C: Let’s break that down into its two components. Why are things better?
M: Because Biden is out of the picture. He clearly wasn’t physically or mentally capable of governing America for another four years, and he didn’t have any use for businessmen like me.
C: Is Harris an improvement?
M: I don’t know yet. She can’t be much worse.
C: So why are things hardly good?
M: Let’s talk about my alternatives. I’ll start with Harris.
C: OK.
M: I don’t have any idea what she stands for. My guess is that she’s sort of an opportunistic centrist who will say anything to get elected. I’ve heard some things about her being more friendly to business than Biden–particularly with regard to Silicon Valley–but she hasn’t said anything meaningful about the economy that sets her apart from him. Until she tells me otherwise, I have to assume she supports raising my taxes and sticking her nose in my business. I obviously don’t support that.
C: So she has a lot to prove to you?
M: Exactly.
C: What about Trump?
M: He wouldn’t raise my taxes, but he would be a disaster in two different ways.
C: Which are?
M: First, his tariffs. Cars are built with lots of imported parts. The tariffs will raise car prices, which will cost me business and money.
C: Makes sense. And the second one?
M: His phobia about electric cars. Our company is committed to EVs. We can’t be a world leader without them. Trump hates them. He wants to rebuild the economy of the past. He’ll just crush our business and leave everybody poorer.
C: But Trump has eased up on EVs since he got Musk’s support. Doesn’t that make you feel better?
M: No, because I don’t sell Teslas, and Musk is only in it for himself. There’s nothing to prevent Trump from taking actions in office that make money for Musk and hurt all of his competitors. Besides, you can’t trust anything Trump says about anything. He could go back to bashing EVs at any moment.
C: So who is the lesser of the evils?
M: I don’t know yet. I need to hear a lot more from Harris. I probably won’t decide for another month or so.
C: Thanks for your time.