Anything But Trump

Let me be clear, I'm not here to convince you to vote for Hillary. You're either already voting for Hillary, or there's no chance you will. What I am here to do is convince you that Trump is the worst possible choice for President. Here's why:

1) Policy

There really hasn't been much talk about policy this election. It's been widely overshadowed by mudslinging and personal attacks, to a much larger degree than other elections. In fact, I don't think we even know much about Trump's policy.

Oh we know he wants to build a wall, and deport illegal Mexicans, and to defeat ISIS. But what about actually running the country?

Well, it's tough to say because he mostly avoids actually taking any stances. To the point where it's pretty clear he doesn't have any plans, and is just saying anything he thinks will get him elected. Here's a rundown of his various, ever evolving, positions.

To the extant that he does have plans, however, they look like they'll be disastrous. 300 economists, including Nobel laureates, have gone on record stating that Trump's economic policy would be disastrous for the country.

2) Integrity

Yes yes, we all know Clinton is a liar. Crooked Hillary and all that. But what does Trump have to say about her?

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I'm sure you'll hear differently now, of course, but that's the point. He lies constantly. More than any other politician in my lifetime! So much so that he's claimed not to have said things he said on camera an hour earlier:

[Not paying taxes] makes me smart!

I never said that at all

Now look, I'm not here to claim politicians are honest. In fact, I'd argue that being capable of dishonesty is important to being a world leader. If you're good at it. After all, when negotiating it's generally better to keep your cards hidden.

The problem here is that Trump is a bad liar. He lies in situations where it will be easily caught, such as the one above, or where it's needless; Like when he gave an entire speech in front of a table with all "his" business ventures, and dared reporters to fact check it. They did so, and found that most of the businesses were failed or were actually owned by other people. There was literally no reason for him to do this, given that he could lean on the real Trump empire.

In fact, while we're talking about lies...

3) The Two Trumps

Dr. Ben Carson, while endorsing Trump, had this to say:

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There has been much been made of Hillary's comment that sometimes you need a public policy position and a private one. Somehow the same people who are angered by that seem to have let this slip past. The Trump you see speaking, is not the real Trump. It's a character, a persona he's found effective at getting him votes.

However that begs the question... how can we evaluate him at all as a leader if we only know this persona?

4) Responsibility

The President of the United States of America is often referred to as the Leader of the Free World due to America's hegemony within the global community, and as America goes so goes the world.

The point here is that this is a huge responsibility.

The problem is that Trump doesn't seem capable of taking responsibility. As I brought up in my last Steemit article Trump shifts the blame constantly. According to Trump Hillary is to blame for every single bad thing he's ever done because she didn't stop him. This is a very dangerous attitude, even aside from nukes, for someone who aspires to be the most powerful man in the world.

In fact, some would put it at odds with conservative ideals as a whole. Personal responsibility, rather than reliance on the state, is at the core of what it means to be Republican.

5) Freedom

Trump is the greatest threat to our freedom since the Cold War. Here's a quick rundown of ways in which he wants to take away our rights:

First Amdendment: Right off we can see that a big part of his platform would violate it. He has promised to refuse entry to Muslims, and to close down Mosques. Doing so would be a direct assault on the First Amendment. That's even before we get to his remarks about shutting down the internet.

Second Amendment: While much will certainly be made of Liberals and the 2nd Amendment, Trump's stance is also somewhwat problematic. He wants to increase stop and frisk policies with the specific goal of taking guns away from people. If Hillary had said that we'd never hear the end of how she's coming for our guns.

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Fourth Amendment: See above, stop and frisk is actually unconstitutional because it violates the Fourth Amendment!

Sixth Amendment: He wants to try any American citizen accused of terrorism in Guantanamo, rather than in the normal court system. Think of a world where the government could accuse anyone of terrorism and send them to a military court in a nother country. Now remember that the guy who wants to do this has also said protests should be shut down and accused political opponents of founding terrorist organizations. This is the kind of thing dystopia novels use as a fundamental plot.

Eighth Amendment: Again he wants to allow torture, right along with the previous constitutional violations.

These are some of his more dangerous positions, but there is a more detailed list including a few I skipped on reddit.

This kind of dismantling of our rights is exactly what will destroy America in the long run. We simply can not have a President who wants to violate so many of the rights guaranteed us by the Constitution.

6) Divisiveness

Pay attention to this exchange from the third debate. Hillary is speaking about how Trump is divisive and has a dangerous vision for our country... watch Donald's reaction:

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He nods. This is the man who cuts her off every other sentence to say she's wrong, but when she points out he's divisive and has a dangerous vision for our country he nods.

I'm not going to lay the entire blame for this at Trump's feet, however. The GOP has been at this at least as long as I've paid attention to politics.

You're either with us, or against us. - George W. Bush

First it was the fear of communism, then the fear of more terrorist attacks and now terrorism and illegal immigrants. For several generations, at least, the GOP has been using fear to garner votes and what we're seeing now is simply the escalation of those fears. The GOP has gotten to the point where they refuse to even govern, instead trying to block anything and everything the current administration does. They are now afraid Clinton will be picking the next Supreme Court justice, specifically because they maintained divisiveness and blocked Obama's nominee. A nominee specifically selected because he was widely respected by Republican leadership.

Trump and his campaign are merely the logical endpoint of the Republicans' fearmongering and factious attempt to maintain power.

The problem is, as Dr. Carson said during his endorsement, a house divided cannot stand. The manner in which the majority of the GOP have conducted themselves in their pursuit of control has weakened us as a country.

7) Trump Supporters

Lastly let's talk about Trump's supporters. Here's a Facebook exchange with a couple former coworkers of mine:

Note how nicely this guy's wishes dovetail with the ways in which Trump wants to dismantle the Constitution. Concentration camps? Execution without trial?

I will tell you that this guy is terrified. Utterly convinced that the terrorists are coming for us all and we're all going to die any day now. It might be worth noting that discussion happened months ago, and we're all still completely unharmed.

OK, that's just one guy right? Well... there have been spikes in violence against Muslims after Trump speeches. Trump supporters are being motivated to intimidate voters at the polls to prevent them from voting. Plus with Trump's blathering about election rigging militia groups are preparing for the day after the election and buying more guns and ammo.

That is how divided we have become. Trump supporters are spitting on the Constitution, violating the rights of their fellow Americans and preparing to start a new civil war... because this is what Trump has exhorted his followers to do.

But some, I'm sure are good people

Like I said at the beginning I'm not here to get you to vote for Clinton. I'm writing this for the good people who simply don't agree with Hillary's policies, or believed all the Wikileaks stuff and thought Trump is a slightly better option.

Anything but Trump

Gary Johnson is relatively OK, especially if you're the small government type. He may not know what Aleppo is, but he can be briefed on that.

Jill Stein, I honestly know very little about. She's the green party though so if you're the socialist type she might be perfect for you.

If you're a Bernie supporter who is die hard opposed to Clinton, write Bernie in.

Otherwise, the only other option I can offer, and because I want to end this on a lighter note, is [Mayor Duke] of Cormorant, Minnesota. He's honest, loyal and has more experience in government than Trump to boot.

So if you really hate the major party candidates, and are unimpressed with the third party... Vote Duke for President!