#MakeAmericaGreatAgain -By not Voting for Trump
At the age of 18, I carried out my duties as a responsible citizen and proudly cast my first vote in the 2008 presidential elections for Republican nominee, US Senator and Veteran John McCain. Now, with less than eight months left, Americans will once again vote to choose their next President. Almost three weeks ago, elections in over 24 states (so dubbed “Super Tuesday”) took place, where 52% of all pledged Democratic Party delegates and 49% of the total Republican Party delegates were at stake. If the “Super Tuesday”-results are any indicator of what is to come, it will be a contest between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, or even Bernie Sanders given his surprising results in the Democratic primaries. Now I do not identify myself strictly across party lines, but I do lean towards the right. However, if Donald Trump seals the Republican nomination for POTUS 2016, then for the first time, I may not vote at all.
Looking at the recent results, it is not difficult to see that Americans are fed up with Washington. Both successful candidates Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders stand to the far right and left of their respective parties and claim to stand for America’s middle class (the biggest voting block) while separating themselves from the rest of the ‘establishment’ candidates like Hillary Clinton, John Kasich, and Marco Rubio. Many of my friends back home, as I have noticed on my social media feeds, are Trump supporters. Many of them are rightly worried about the direction of the United States and an elitist leadership class that is not serious about tackling real issues affecting Americans outside of DC. Not to mention the popularity of Reality TV, many see Trump’s rise as a failure of the Obama administration to meet the expectations of the American middle class after the 2008 financial crises where the wealth gap between median and upper income families grew exponentially and its ‘lead from behind’ foreign policy that has diminished Americas reputation as a dependable ally and security guarantor in the international arena. While many Americans may want a strong leader and someone to shake and wake DC up to the realities of the middle class, which my family and vast majority of friends are a part of, I, still cannot support Trump.
By politicizing fear and attacking the different ethnic groups that make the United States one, Trump has relentlessly focused on dividing Americans and on tearing down rather than building the US back up. I cannot vote for a candidate who divides rather than unites a country, who prioritizes defending the size of his genitals during the presidential debates, who states that Putin, who has killed opposition leaders and is pillaging Ukraine, is a great leader, and who has said that our military will obey his orders even if illegal because as Trump said (in the 11th Republican presidential debate in Detroit, Michigan 03/03/16) referring to the expansion of the use of torture against terrorists: “I'm a leader. I'm a leader. I've always been a leader. I've never had any problem leading people. If I say do it, they're going to do it. That's what leadership is all about." That is not leadership, that is totalitarianism. He may claim to represent those with conservative values but quite frankly, I believe that he is as genuine about those values as much as Reality TV (where he gained his popularity) is genuine about being real.
Even more so, I am upset by the choice of Republican candidates that might successfully challenge Trump to the Republican nomination and, further by the dismal quality of the Republican debates, where the most outrageous and outlandish remarks are rewarded with more speaking time while judiciousness and reason are allocated less in large part due to TV ratings. Regardless, the Republicans will soon have a tough choice to make. They either nominate a candidate who is unpredictable and erratic, but has the best chances of beating any democratic nominee, or they potentially end up with a vacant seat in the Oval Office for another eight years.
So far Trump has managed to make a mockery of the Republican debates, and he surely will make a mockery of the White House, if elected. I – as much as my fellow Americans – want to “make America great again”, but it will not happen if Mr. Trump becomes President. So I truly hope that my fellow Americans will realize sooner rather than later that he is not the right person to lead our country. Unfortunately, if the Republicans fail to nominate a candidate besides Trump, and I fail to do get charmed into #feelingthebern or #Hilary2016 before Election Day, this time around, I might be forced to forfeit my right to vote.
PS. If you are reading this post, please do not worry too much, all is not lost if Donald Trump becomes POTUS 2016. There is a reason why the United States has remained the oldest modern democracy. By putting limits on the power of the President by introducing a separation of powers and a system of checks and balances, our Founding Fathers enacted measures in the Constitution that would prevent any future President from becoming a ‘king’ over the course of a presidency.
Photo Credit: Freaking News
