Maybe you’re shaking your head at the country, wondering how we ended up in a presidential race such as this. Maybe you fully support Clinton or Trump. Either way, I want to explicitly state what you are saying when you cast your ballot for Donald J. Trump on November 8th. If you are okay making the statements in the following paragraphs, then vote for Donald Trump; If not, you need to rethink who you are leaving the future of our country to.
Trump is not a career politician, so it’s impressive that he has even been able to retain a firm stance based on the one platform he’s running on. It’s a word that starts with ‘h,’ but let me tell you—I ain’t talking about “huge.”
Trump’s entire campaign, like the burrito launched at Fat Amy in Pitch Perfect, is fueled by the fire of Hate. I capitalize the word “Hate,” because it isn’t a verb or an adjective here: it’s a movement.
Trump speaks about his hatred for people of other ethnicities and races, and waits for die-hard conservatives to cheer in agreement so he can keep going. He has, on film, made fun of people with disabilities, speaks about black people as if they are a singular unit all living in poverty in “the inner city,” has grouped all Mexicans into the category of “drug users and rapists,” and speaks about women as if they are objects. Trump even said that one woman was so unattractive that it made sense when her husband left her for a man, which is not only offensive to women (whom we’ll talk about more later on), but to the LGBT community. Trump’s comments though, pale in comparison to his running mate’s, Mike Pence, who advocated using tax dollars to fund electroshock therapy for LGBT people, quite literally trying, unsuccessfully, to shock the gay out of them with equipment similar to what we use to execute murderers.
The reason the people who back Trump are so die-hard in their support is not because they support a particular policy he has on taxes or foreign affairs—it isn’t a partisan issue anymore:, it’s because they mutually hate people who aren’t exactly like them. Everything else Trump says is just white noise, and he is okay with that.
That is why he has encouraged violence against people who do not support him. He has even said, “If you see someone ready to throw a tomato [at one of my rallies,] knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously, just knock the hell [out of them.] I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees. I promise.”
If you are comfortable putting your vote towards this hate, then cast your vote for Donald Trump.
As we’ve seen in the presidential debates, Trump loves to claim that “he never said that,” when something unsavory is mentioned. Guess what, he has. In a majority of the cases when Trump has thrown out a confident, “Wrong!” it is in fact something he said. He has denied saying he would pay for the legal fees of his violent supporters, even though he said it at the Iowa caucus rally as I mentioned before. He has denied global warming’s existence and called it an “expensive hoax” on Twitter, and then denied that he said any of that as well. In fact, just like Mike Pence spent most of the Vice Presidential debate denying that Trump has said things he has very clearly said and supports, Trump has spent most of his campaign denying things he regrets saying. Not because he regrets the statement, but because he regrets what it does to his image in terms of the polls.
If you are comfortable supporting this behavior, please vote for Donald Trump.
Republican politicians who still support Trump, and please know that at this point they are few and far between, like to completely deflect any question they’re given about the way Trump speaks about others. When a reporter mentions the way he spoke about Alicia Machado, a former Miss Universe, calling her “piggy” and “miss housekeeper,” then tweeting about her and her “sex tape” at 3:00 AM, or, worst of all, his recording speaking about women with Billy Bush, any Republican speaking in his honor on these news stations answers the same way: “Well, the real problem is…” and then says something unrelated. They ignore the question because his words indefensible.
Trump is making statements about previous times when he assaulted women: because make no mistake, “grabbing a woman by the pu***” without being asked, popping a breath mint and kissing them, again without being asked, is assault and is absolutely not acceptable. Assaulting anyone is not okay and is the actions themselves are made worse by how dismissive Trump has been of their importance. Trump has said absolutely disgusting things about women, even his own daughter, and has been brought up in many rape and sexual assault charges.
If this is behavior you stand behind, vote for Donald Trump.
In one TV interview after the tape of Trump talking about assaulting women was released, Ana Navarro, a Clinton supporter, and Scottie Nell Hughes, a Trump supporter debated with each other about the audio. Navarro spoke about the horrible things Trump said about women, using the same language that he used in the tape. When she did, Hughes looked repulsed and said, “Stop using that word: my daughter is watching.”
The president is supposed to be a role model. All of our daughters and sons will be watching the president, maybe even hoping to be him or her one day. If we cannot even stand to hear this language on TV from a random citizen, how could we possible accept it from the leader of the free world, the person who will be a role model for the next generation? Do we really want to tell the world that this is what we deem appropriate behavior for the person we choose to elect?
What are we going to say to the future generation? “Hey Joshy, I know your dream is to grow up and be president, so you better start assaulting women and disrespecting everyone who isn’t your ethnicity and race. You’ll be more than qualified then.”
If you would be comfortable saying that to your little sibling, your niece or nephew, or your child, then by all means, vote for Donald Trump, because those are the things he represents. When you vote for him, you are pledging your support, saying that you stand behind him: but more importantly you are supporting and fueling the fire of Hate.