If the most ardent Hillary and Trump supporters were given truth serum, they would admit their candidate is seriously flawed. Each comes with a background and history; a record of achievement as well as lousy performance and poor judgment. On that, if we’re honest, we can agree. So now what? The easiest thing is to retreat to our partisan corners. We fall back on considerations like appointments to the Supreme Court and other excuses to vote the party ticket. But as each day brings new accusations on both sides, ignoring them becomes equivalent to sticking our collective heads in the sand. Being partisan, without acknowledging the candidate’s characteristics we’ve come to know and hate, is truly the definition of putting party before country.
Given what I’ve just said, I thought long and hard – over a period of months – about what to do. I was and still am a committed Bernie supporter. It has been agonizing, especially given what was suspected and now known about the DNC’s actions to sabotage his candidacy. It hasn’t been proven definitively, but it’s hard to believe those actions took place without the knowledge and approval of the Hillary campaign and Hillary herself. So yes, that upsets and angers me. It reinforces my greatest areas of concern; her lack of honesty and trustworthiness and transparency. I don’t like her. Yet given all that and more, I voted for her. And I’ll tell you why.
Never in Donald Trump’s long and privileged life, is there a record that he has given a single day to public service. He never ran for or held a local office, he avoided military service using a bone spur as an excuse, he never volunteered at a soup kitchen or an animal shelter, never read to kids in kindergarten, never mentored high school students in an inner city.
He’s never taken one step to correct a problem that didn’t affect him directly. Think about that. Take as an example a problem he identified as a national priority and which he could have taken personal and total control: every item manufactured under his name is made elsewhere, including much of the steel used for his hotels. He admits importing foreign workers on a regular basis. He doesn’t have to do this. He could have used his money to show that quality products can be manufactured here, even if they may cost more. He chose not to. He could have provided precious jobs for local workers, even if it meant paying more. He chose not to. He says he wants to help America. He bemoans our educational system, our roads and highways, our rail and airports as ‘third world’ yet this multi-billionaire chooses to pay nothing in federal income taxes for years on end. Because he can. He could have chosen not to take full advantage of a tax system he bemoans, but he didn’t.
He has never led positively by personal example. He says he’s given millions to charity, but there’s no way to substantiate that because he refuses to release his tax returns.
He’s not intelligent. An intelligent adult, among other things, speaks in full, grammatically correct sentences, has a vocabulary that surpasses a 4th grader, can speak using nuance, can think and express ideas logically, can stay on topic and doesn’t need to constantly rely on the same adjectives and clichés in conversation.
He’s mean and miserly and he’s rich enough to get away with it…there are too many documented examples of refusing to pay the full price, or any price, for work done and when contractors complain, his response is ‘sue me.’ So much for ethical business practices. He worked hard to delegitimize the presidency of Barack Obama and never apologized for those actions or any actions that turned out to have been a mistake. The Central Park 5 case is a horrendous example.
In his personal and business life, he treats people as objects, as pawns in a chess game. And he has enough money to assure he always wins. He’s a manipulator and a bully. Then there are The Women issues. And The Black issues. And The Inner City issues. And The Hispanic issues. And The Anti-Semitic issues. And The Religion issues. And The Muslim issues. And The Scapegoating-The-Press issues. And the ——-fill in the blank. And repeat. He has been endorsed by the KKK and more than one White Supremacist hate group – they say he supports their principles. They should know. He seems to lack concern or awareness of other people and their feelings; his lack of empathy is stunning.
His current top tier advisors and campaign heads include Steve Bannon, the former chair of Breitbart News, the voice of the Alt Right. David Bossie is next in line. He’s the former president of Citizens United…the case that ended up in the Supreme Court, opening the door to unlimited and anonymous campaign contributions… the personification of ‘rigging the system’ ….against the little guy and for special interests and lobbyists. Even the most ardent Trump supporters see that he isn’t much interested in pursuing a deep understanding of policies or issues. His guidance will come from the people who hate the current system – the Breitbarts of the world – who are happy to tear down what is left of the Republican Party and this country and rebuild both in their image. Staff members complain they can’t keep him ‘on message,’ and that he has an attention span of a flea. How do they think any of that will change once he’s in the White House?
Trump supporters say they like him because ‘he speaks his mind.’ That’s not a measure of a person. What comes out of his mouth, is. They say they like him because he’s a billionaire. That’s not a measure of a person. How he earned the money and what he does with it, is. Here may be the ultimate questions to ask before voting… “Is this the person I want representing me and my country? Is this the person I want my grandchildren to look up to and emulate?” Actually, that is already happening; teachers are calling it the ‘Trump Effect’ – the recent increase in bullying and name calling and racism. The man is unfit for public office. Period.
Donald Trump is a very frightening man. The country he envisions is one that results from stoking anxiety and hatred and paranoia. He encourages and reinforces bigotry and fear. If elected, he will destroy this country and our standing in the world. He says, “Elect me. I’m the only one who can fix this.” Those are the words of a dictator. For him, this election has always been about him, not about the country. Not about us.
So no, I had no qualms voting for Hillary. The conundrum is resolved. For me, the goal is to defeat Trump and everything he stands for. Regardless of Hillary’s faults, and she has many, I know we will still have a Republic at the end of her term. And we may have even solved some problems and made things better along the way. For me, given the alternative, that is enough.
Villager Marsha Shearer is a frequent contributor to Villages-News.com
