Election 2016 is fast approaching. It's probably too late to change anyone's mind. But if on the off chance, there's anyone out there who's somehow still undecided, contemplating voting for a third party in a swing state, or thinking of sitting this one out, here goes:
On the one hand, we have one of the most qualified presidential candidates in history: A distinguished graduate of Yale Law School, she co-founded the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families; she became the first female chair of the Legal Services Corporation (a national nonprofit that provides legal assistance to low income people); and she was the first woman partner at one of the oldest law firms in America. She was the First Lady of Arkansas and of the United States, a two-term Senator from New York, and the United States Secretary of State. She is a smart, competent, capable woman, who does her homework and who knows her shit.
The main knock against her in this race is that she used a private email server as Secretary of State. Although she was cleared of criminal wrongdoing, her actions were careless. It was a mistake for which she apologized. In addition, she regrettably voted to authorize military force in Iraq and has taken some other positions over the years with which many on the left disagree, including yours truly. I also wish she was less cozy with Wall Street and more transparent. However, these shortcomings pale in comparison to those of the man against whom she's running.
Her opponent, in contrast, is literally the least qualified person ever to run for president. More importantly, he plainly lacks the basic temperament and fitness necessary to hold the office, and it's honestly hard to to imagine a bigger asshole.
This is the man who literally lead the racist "birther" movement, falsely claiming for years that our nation's first black president was born in Africa. This is the same man who repeatedly refused to denounce David Duke and the KKK in a CNN interview, who once said that laziness is an inherent trait in black people, and whose company was penalized by the Justice Department for housing discrimination against African Americans.
We have a recording of him bragging about sexually assaulting women, and over a dozen of his victims have recently come forward. He used to walk, unannounced, into the dressing rooms of teenage beauty pageant contestants. Throughout his presidential campaign, we have heard him insult, demean, and body shame women, including a female journalist and a primary opponent, and he has a long recorded history of engaging in this same misogynistic behavior. He refers to woman as "dogs," "pigs," and "sluts" and rates them on a scale of 1-10. There is a recording of him saying that it would be "very hard" for a "flat-chested woman" to be a 10. He called the former Miss America "Miss Piggy" when she gained weight and "Miss Housekeeping" because of her Latina heritage, and he recently tweeted a lie about her and a "sex tape" at 3:00 am in the morning. He also said he thinks women should be punished for having abortions. And, on top of all that, he was a defendant in a federal court case in New York in which he was accused of raping a 13-year old girl. (The accuser, now an adult, recently dismissed the suit after receiving death threats.)
He launched his presidential campaign by calling Mexican immigrants "rapists" and criminals. He proposed creating a federal deportation force to round up and forcibly remove 11 million undocumented immigrants. He plans to build a giant wall across our southern border and claims that "Mexico will pay for it." And he repeatedly questioned the integrity of a distinguished federal judge based on his parent's Mexican heritage, prompting the Republican Speaker of the House to say it was "the textbook definition of a racist comment." He continued with this racist attack even after his supporters begged him to stop, and he never apologized for this deplorable behavior.
During the presidential primary, he called for a total ban on Muslims (a religion of over 1.5 billion people) from entering United States. He lied about Muslims dancing on rooftops in New Jersey after 9/11. He advocated spying on Mosques, bringing back torture "much worse than water boarding," in violation of the Geneva Convention, and killing the family members of "suspected" terrorists. And he attacked the Gold Star parents of a Muslim-American soldier-hero who sacrificed his life for our country.
The targets of his bombastic vitriol are not just racial minorities, women, and immigrants. There is a video of him openly mocking a physically disabled journalist, crudely mimicking his congenital musculoskeletal disorder. He insulted a war hero for getting "captured" in battle. He repeatedly said Ted Cruz's father was involved in the JFK assassination, citing the National Enquirer as his source. And he constantly hurls juvenile petty insults at political opponents and journalists, often in the form of tweets between 3:00 and 4:00 am.
He is the target of several unresolved fraud cases. There are at least two ongoing federal cases in two different states against Trump "University," which defrauded thousands of students. He has engaged in multiple forms of charity fraud, and the NY Attorney General recently shut his "charity" organization down in his home state. He committed insurance fraud after a Florida hurricane. He deleted emails involved in a casino scandal. He regularly stiffs contractors after they've done the work, and he uses campaign donations to enrich his own businesses. He's filed for bankruptcy six times times. He's under audit for potentially cheating on his federal income taxes. There is ample evidence that he hasn't paid federal income taxes in 20 years, and he will go down as the first presidential candidate in modern history who refuses to release his tax returns.
The list goes on: He has a strange fascination with ruthless foreign dictators, often praising their "leadership" skills. He has a unique fondness for Vladimir Putin, and his original campaign manager, Paul Manafort, is being investigated for illegal corruption with Russia. He bragged that he knows "more about ISIS than the generals." He lied about his opposition to the Iraq War, which he supported in a pre-invasion interview. He favors nuclear proliferation. In an intelligence briefing, he asked three times why we can't use our nukes if we have them. He wants to disband NATO. He's questioned the freedom of the press. He's the first presidential candidate ever to say he might not accept the election results. He calls climate change a Chinese hoax. And he has demonstrated an exceptional lack of awareness about all aspects foreign and domestic policy.
I understand that some of you may be angry with the status quo. You may feel like the political elites in Washington have let you down. You may be mad about what happened with Bernie Sanders. Or, for whatever reason, you may feel like a protest ("fuck you") vote is in order.
But please think very carefully about the potential implications of Trump being elected on November 8th. There is no post-election do over. Do you really want a man who can be baited with a tweet to have his hands on the nuclear code? Do you honestly want to put a thin-skinned, racist, narcissistic sociopath, with no geopolitical experience, in charge of our country and our military?
Think of how the rest of the world will view America if we elect Donald Trump. Imagine how our NATO partners and our Muslim allies (upon whom we rely in the fight against ISIS) would react. The implications of this are not a joke. This is the real world, not a reality TV show.
Think of what it would say to our daughters and granddaughters if he gets elected and compare that to the message it would send to them if we finally shattered the nation's highest glass ceiling.
Please, just please, do the right thing here.