As I sit on my couch, prior to the second presidential debate, I ask myself: what sort of country do we want?
How on earth could any American with an inkling of intelligence feel Donald Trump is the right choice for America? Because he’s a good business man, right? Wrong, Trump is a terrible businessman.
He touts how he’s built a tremendous company with real estate all over the world, so on and so forth. He’s built something alright, but it’s not what most people think. He claims to have employed thousands of people. OK, but when he runs his companies into the ground and claims bankruptcy. Who pays the price? Working middle class families. When he refuses to pay hundreds of contractors, architects, and various others working on his properties. Thereby forcing many of them to lay off their workforce (thousands of people) and close their doors. Who pays the price? Working middle class families. When he had the opportunity to manufacture products in America with his name on them, he instead made them all overseas. Who pays the price? Working middle class families.
Trump believes in a National Right to Work law that would absolutely decimate Labor Unions and plunge the working class into perpetual struggle. How do we know that isn’t just a campaign promise? Because he has been fighting our unions and stripping working people of wages and benefits for decades. Again, this is where his business record comes into play. Now I hate to sound like a broken record, but who pays the price? Working middle class families.
Trump enriches himself by sucking the very life out of the American worker and small business owner. Ronald Reagan got it wrong, Trump is the “Welfare Queen” who leeches off our society. He abuses our bankruptcy laws to extract what he wants and leaves the rest of us holding the bag. He is the conman who peddles his brand of snake oil as the cure all to our problems, when in actuality it’s a bottle of poison. A businessman, he is not.
With my background in Labor, I typically stick to socioeconomic issues, but a candidate has never offended me in such a way before. I have a feeling many people feel this way. From his racist remarks to attacking a handicapped reporter. Harassing the Khan family to disrespecting our veterans. Allowing certain people in our populous to feel their bigotry, misogyny, and hatred are justified. That is not someone you want as your president. This is a man who could very well be appointing two to three supreme court justices in the next few years. Not to mention have the ability to launch nuclear weapons. This shouldn’t be a difficult choice, but there are still people sticking with him...what does that say about them?
If you’re just voting for him because of your party, take the blinders off. The man is not fit to lead in any capacity. He has zero governmental experience and is very unpredictable in his actions and words. These are not good qualities for a leader to have. He will aid in running our economy into the ground and tarnish our reputation around the world. He speaks to ideas of trickle down/supply side economics which have been proven time and time again to simply not work. It’s time to start voting for whats best for our country and not what’s best for your “team.”
And now this brings me to Friday when the news broke about the tape from 2005 where Trump said some very disgusting things that absolutely turned my stomach. That’s what he actually thinks of women and honestly he hasn’t really been hiding it all this time. We’ve all seen it, but he’s always somehow been able to play it all off. Which he’s certainly tried again. This man (I use that term rather loosely) is a fraud who puts on a show to get what he wants. The tape with his own vile and misogynistic words pouring out of his mouth is placed at his feet and he then tries to shift the attention to Bill Clinton. Now he further tries to misdirect by compiling a panel of women that were allegedly wronged by Bill and Hillary Clinton over the years. So where exactly does that get us? This circus is absolutely ridiculous, just like “The Donald.”
No one candidate is perfect, we’re human beings where not everyone is going to like you or agree with your decisions. But when you compare the two candidates side by side there is no doubt in my mind that Hillary Clinton is the best person for the most important job in the entire world. All you have to do to really compare them is to watch the debates. Secretary Clinton has been very calm and collected. Always trying to answer the questions and talk about the issues, even under fire when Donald throws childish barbs her way. You can see which one is the adult on stage, who has the temperament, experience, and knowledge to be President.
I cannot stress enough how important this election is for our country. We aren’t just voting for ourselves, we’re voting for the future generations who will inherit what we’ve left them.
Being the father to a six year old daughter, I want her to have a real role model to look up to, not someone that feels it’s ok to violate women and disrespect anyone they please. I want her to see that even she can reach the highest office in the land and that her gender won’t hold her back from her dreams, whatever they may be. Trump is the worst kind of human being, not just because of his actions and words...but because he thinks those actions and words are acceptable. That is not what our nation and the world deserves.
Your vote matters, make it count.