As I have been scrolling through my news feed today, every time I see another article about how well Donald Trump is doing, or who else is endorsing him, I feel a little jolt of panic run through my body. I have never talked politics on this blog, and never intended to, but what is a blog for if you can't use it to speak the things that you want people to hear.
Trump's loyal followers seem to be impervious to criticisms of him, so I don't expect to change any of those minds. For those of you are still floating around the possibility of voting for Trump, let me share with you why I won't be voting for him.
1. I don't trust his word.
When you are voting for a candidate, you are doing so because of what they have said they are going to do once they are elected. The reliability of a presidential candidate's word is critically important. People love Trump because he says whatever he wants. But what I see is a man saying whatever he needs to in order to get what he wants. If you want to laugh but also be a little terrified, watch him "debate himself" on the Colbert Show in this little clip.
One day he says Ted Cruz is a "friend of his and a good guy", the next he says that Ted Cruz is "a nasty guy". He called Jeb Bush "exactly the kind of political leader this country needs", but later calls him "pathetic". He said that Hillary Clinton performed well as Secretary of State, but later calls her the "worst Secretary of State in the history of the United States".
He may be speaking his mind, but if you like what's on his mind today be careful, because he may change it tomorrow. He changed his mind as many as 20 times in a two month stretch alone.
Maybe that doesn't bother you, but maybe it should because he's also changed his stance on almost every policy issue within the last several years. Which brings me to point #2.
2. I don't trust his political positions.
Sure, it's okay and understandable for someone to change their mind, but when you can't trust someone's word (see #1), you can look to their track record instead. As recently as the 2012 election, he was calling the GOP "mean-spirited" on immigration, and spoke on Fox News about the need for a softer approach on illegal immigration. His hard line "deport everyone, make Mexico build a wall" stance on immigration has been one of his CORE campaign promises, and as of only four years ago he himself thought that approach was too "hard". And then there's his book The America We Deserve, where he calls for single-payer healthcare, tighter gun restrictions and waiting periods, calls himself pro-choice on abortion, and suggests a special tax on the wealthy. He even flip flopped on same-sex marriage, and on the Republican party as a whole. Just within the last week he has changed position on what to do with Obamacare.
He himself declares that he is "capable of changing to anything [he] wants to change to".
So if I can't trust his word, and I can't trust his record, do I just hope that he gets into office and makes good decisions?
#3. I don't trust his moral judgement.
If I am casting my vote as a way of electing someone who I believe will make good decisions; the kind of decisions that I as a voter would approve of, I am going to look at the character of other decisions they have made. The President of the United States inherently acts as a role model, and as an example of America to the rest of the world, so what kind of example would Donald Trump set?
Donald Trump has bragged about sleeping with other men's wives. He has blatantly lied, on many occasions. He insults people left and right, calling them dummies, lightweights, and morons.
He readily admits to using his wealth to buy privilege in Washington, but only stopped participating in that corruption when he opened his presidential bid.
I don't have confidence that Trump will exercise wise and moral judgement as President, but I also think that he will enact some particularly dangerous policies.
#4. I don't trust him to protect liberty.
People like to call the President of the United States the leader of the free world, but I have a feeling that under Donald Trump things would feel a lot less free. In the name of security, he wants to step on religious liberties by closing down mosques, and has suggested banning all Muslim travel to the U.S., he even wants to track all Muslims in a database. He has said that he thinks that shutting down the internet could be a good idea. He supports (and has used) eminent domain, which seems to be just about the only issue he has stayed consistent on over the years. He has called for boycotting Apple until they create a backdoor for the federal government to use on Apple devices (and tweeted it from his iPhone no less). And of course he supports bringing back the warrantless collection of phone records by the NSA, and torture, because even "if it doesn't work, they deserve it anyway".
While I'm starting to think at this point that any other candidate would be less dangerous to America than Donald Trump, I don't feel much differently about Hillary Clinton. If those two are going to be the nominees, I'm going to jump on the bandwagon for a third party candidate. Maybe they both have low enough favorability for that plan to have a chance.
Labels: Politics