Why, Specifically, I Didn't Vote for Donald Trump

I voted for Hillary Clinton for president. There are numerous reasons for this, including that I agree with her policies and that she’s a competent adult who has the knowledge and experience to weather a crisis. She knows things.

That is a very brief statement of the positives. But if you know me, I think I’m much more entertaining when I can go on a rant and be negative about something. I’ve been trying to restrain myself from talking about the election lately because professionals have been offering better commentary and sometimes politics can alienate friends from other friends.

Well, the shackles are off. Here is a partial list of why I didn’t vote for Donald Trump. I have reservations about Clinton, of course, but they’re nothing compared to the howling supernova of problems that Trump presents. If you’re a Trump fan or don’t like reading about politics, you might want to skip this, and that’s completely understandable. The rest of you, buckle up.

Donald Trump doesn’t know anything. Over the course of the campaign, he has demonstrated a deeply alarming lack of knowledge about foreign and domestic policy, the Constitution, and how the world works in general. He also seems to have no interest in educating himself. When he tries to explain a policy or position, it’s word salad. He doesn’t know what he’s doing.  

Donald Trump, even before the results are in, is claiming without proof that if he loses, it will be because the election is rigged against him (because nothing is ever his fault) and may not accept the results. This threatens the peaceful transfer of power in our country in a way that no presidential candidate ever has. At the debate, he said, “I’ll keep you in suspense” about conceding, since it’s all about him and not about democracy. These are the actions of a child who doesn’t get his way. This is horrifying, jaw-dropping, completely disgraceful.

Donald Trump promised, on live TV, to appoint a special prosecutor to jail his political opponent. This means he’s already promising to use presidential power for revenge, which is dangerous, undignified behavior that undermines how our government works. Even President Nixon would wince at this abuse of power. This behavior threatens the separation of powers and crosses the line into dictatorship.

Donald Trump’s Republican Party has enshrined in its platform the position of overturning gay marriage and Trump has promised to appoint Supreme Court justices who will overturn the gay marriage decision. The party has also implied that it opposes adoption by gay couples. So not only do they officially want to break apart our family, they want to prevent us from expanding that family. Even if this is just pandering, even if it could never happen, given a choice between the party that would divorce us and the party that would not, guess which one I’m voting for? When Republican candidates tell me they want to help families, they don’t mean my family because to them, family is a country club and you can’t have the wrong people getting in.

Donald Trump allegedly (and to me, plausibly) sexually assaulted a bunch of women, talking advantage of his powerful status (his excuse for not assaulting one of the women was that she wasn’t attractive enough for him). He also allegedly went backstage at a teen beauty pageant while girls were changing, telling them, “It’s nothing I haven’t seen before.” There is also a video of him telling a 10-year-old girl he would be dating her in 10 years. I don’t think I can bring up enough vomit to express how I feel.

Donald Trump has, in addition to the assault accusations, made appalling statements about women. He has called them fat pigs and slobs, suggested that one had her period when she was tough on him during a debate, made nasty comments about the faces of fellow candidates and their wives, and once hounded a Miss Universe winner into losing weight to the point that she developed an eating disorder. He tried to excuse calling one celebrity a pig because “nobody likes her anyway.” He once said “Women: you have to treat them like shit.” The final insult was Trump bragging about sexual assault and the grabbing, all captured on audio and video. Add up all these actions and comments and you get a clear picture of what he thinks of women: their only value to him is how they look and what he can get out of them. Trump has been telling us all along, in his own words, exactly who he is.

Donald Trump has a history of racism. Sometimes this takes a blatant form, like when he was sued in the ‘70s for redlining. Sometimes it sounds like a dog whistle, like his comments on “law and order,” an old trick that goes back to Nixon. Sometimes it takes the form of suggesting his supporters monitor the polls in “certain communities.” Sometimes it takes the form of condescension, telling black people that they — all of them — are living in hellish circumstances.

Donald Trump has a “secret plan” to defeat ISIS. Sure, buddy.

Donald Trump has a pattern of making tyrannical threats against anything that would inconvenience him. If he gets press criticism, he’ll “open up libel laws.” If he gets advice from his military advisers that he doesn’t like, he’ll fire the generals and get different ones. There are countless examples and they defy the rule of law and the Constitution.

Donald Trump’s key idea of building a wall around Mexico and having a “deportation force” is asinine, wasteful, impractical and cruel. He also vastly overstates the threat of unchecked illegal immigration, claiming 650 million immigrants could come to the United States in one week. There is no way this is possible.

Donald Trump has made “jokes” about the assassination of Hillary Clinton.

Donald Trump’s plans to keep Muslims out of the United States and closing mosques violate Constitutional principles. The idea that we would accuse an entire group of criminal acts based on their faith, without evidence of these people having actually done anything criminal, goes against both common decency and the principles of America itself. This is not who we are as a country.

Donald Trump has the official endorsement of the Ku Klux Klan. Trump did reject the endorsement but it’s alarming that the KKK apparently sees something in his campaign worth supporting.

Donald Trump does not understand concepts like the nuclear triad or nuclear deterrence, and has an alarmingly casual attitude toward other nations getting nuclear weapons.

Donald Trump suggested that Russia commit espionage against his own country to discredit his political opponent.

Donald Trump picked a fight with Gold Star parents and actually tried to argue that achieving financial success was a sacrifice on par with the sacrifice the Khan family made of losing their son. Regardless of one’s position on the Iraq war, the least — and I mean the absolute least — a presidential candidate can do is not trash talk grieving parents. 

Donald Trump believes we should just take the oil from Iraq. This is prohibited as a war crime under the Geneva Convention.

Donald Trump tends to make national tragedies about him. For example, after the Orlando shooting, his first reaction was not sorrow or horror or resolve. It was, “appreciate the congrats on being right” about terrorism. Well, good for you. Meanwhile, 49 people are dead.

Donald Trump has pretty much confirmed that he used his massive business losses in the ‘90s not to pay taxes for years afterwards. Of course, there’s no way to know for sure, since he won’t release his tax returns.

Donald Trump lies about easily provable things. He denied saying climate change is a hoax promoted by the Chinese, despite the fact that he tweeted that exact statement. Like, it’s part of the written record. He lied about his opposition to the Iraq War, even though he gave a live interview on it.

Donald Trump used money from his foundation to self-deal, specifically to pay for a large self-portrait. There are also allegations that he paid for the Florida attorney general to stop investigating his university for fraud.

Donald Trump blames all his failings on other people. He didn’t lose the first debate because a well-prepared woman danced rings around him while he gave word salad answers to questions, revealed his lack of knowledge, became defensive and interrupted repeatedly. No, there was a problem with the microphone. And everything’s the media’s fault. Or he blames it on a conspiracy of “international bankers” (which is an anti-Semitic code). And everything is rigged. Poor put-upon Donald.

Donald Trump will always take the bait. Hillary baited him by bringing up Alicia Machado during the debate and instead of trying to sweep it under the rug, he doubled down re-humiliated the woman by calling her fat again (calling a private citizen fat has to be one of the least dignified moments ever for a presidential candidate). His ego and stupidity makes him fall for this stuff every time and that will make him a sucker for any world leader.

Donald Trump fanned the flames of the racist birther conspiracy in an attempt to de-legitimize the first black president. He cried this from the rooftops for years, even after Obama produced the birth certificate. Then he lied about running with the controversy, despite the fact that there are extensive video and written examples of him doing so.

Donald Trump has a disastrous temperament and no dignity. Example #3,468: This is a man who was up at 5 a.m. tweeting that the former Miss Universe is “disgusting” and we should check out her sex tape. “Check out her sex tape” is not something a presidential candidate should ever say. Example #5,647: Responding to Clinton’s charges that he would be Putin’s puppet by saying, “No you’re the puppet.” That comment might have won Trump the fourth-grade student council debate but not a presidential debate.

Donald Trump is a misinformed idiot on NATO. If Russia were to, for example, invade Estonia, for the United States not to defend Estonia would be a disaster that can be foreseen by anyone who has taken a high school social studies class. The fact that during the debate Hillary Clinton had to assure our allies that we will honor our alliances is flabbergasting.

Donald Trump is disrespectful to our military and their families. First he slammed Vietnam POW John McCain, who refused to leave captivity without his fellow prisoners of war. Then he acted like a jackass to the Khans despite the fact that their son died in combat. Then a veteran supporter gave Trump his Purple Heart and Trump joked that (paraphrasing) “I always wanted a Purple Heart. It’s easier to get it this way.” Well, how nice to get a medal without getting injured like soldiers do. Then he made ignorant comments that didn’t help our understanding of PTSD and annoyed a lot of veterans. Good work, wannabe commander-in-chief.

Donald Trump’s entire self-regard rests on his business acumen, yet he once lost nearly $1 billion. One could make an argument that a great businessman is one who did not lose $1 billion.

Donald Trump opposed providing legal counsel to the American citizen who a few months ago bombed the New York area, which would violate the Constitution. What I don’t understand is, why this guy? Think of all the dirtbags, like Timothy McVeigh, who got legal representation over the years because it is the law and he wants to chuck the system now? Plus, he wants to kill the families of terrorists. Do we want to be the kind of country that kills the children of terrorists?

Donald Trump opposes Obamacare but doesn’t seem to understand how it works, saying contradictory things about whether or not his employees have insurance through the government program.  

Donald Trump suggested that an Indiana-born judge should recuse himself from a Trump-related case due to the judge’s Mexican ancestry. 

Donald Trump’s running mate is a GD liar. Mike Pence went on national TV and repeatedly denied that Trump said things that anyone with wifi could prove that Trump said in 0.02 seconds. Pence lied his ass off during that debate and only his poker face got him any credit for style points.

Donald Trump apparently does not believe America is great.

Donald Trump may think he’s anti-politically correct but he’s really just an asshole. He’s made fun of the weight of private citizens, mocked a reporter with a disability and attacked Gold Star parents. This is not some First Amendment warrior martyring himself as “anti-PC”; this is an asshole who punches down.

Did I miss anything?