Who should we trust to become president of the United States and the leader of the most powerful country in the world, Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton? Donald Trump a wealthy, self-centered man who is used to getting his way with shameless self promotion, bullying and childlike name calling. A man who has no policies, but inflames crowds by appealing to their fears and anger and promises easy magical solutions: build a wall, deport all illegal immigrants, ban all Muslims, or maybe just “extreme vet” them, bring back manufacturing, and it will all be so easy, and fast, believe me, believe me.
For decades carnival barkers, rainmakers, and dictators have used these same tactics; read your audience and tell them what they want to hear, appeal to fear and helplessness (America is in terrible shape, and unsafe), inflame anger and direct it at your target (Mexican immigrants are rapists and killers, the election is rigged, Muslims are potential terrorists, and Hillary is crooked), offer yourself or your product as the only solution (only I can make America great again).
I am sick of these slanderous, outrageous chants and accusations from Trump, his groupie followers at his rallies, and from right-wing groups who are endlessly harassing and pursuing Hillary Clinton. It is divisive, demeaning, and entirely unchristian to encourage, or even allow, chants of “lock her up” or “Trump the b—-.” What kind of country have we become? No one deserves to be treated with such vitriolic spew of hatred, let alone a woman who might well be our next president. No outside terror group could do so much damage to the integrity of the United States.
Hillary is cool and guarded not warm and charismatic; perhaps understandable if you had to put up with the kind of attacks, abuse and scrutiny that Hillary has lived with for 30 years. Who would want their biggest enemies reading every word they wrote, looking for whatever statement they could distort or take out of context. Fox News, Hannity, Breitbart, and Judicial Watch are not trying to be “fair and accurate.” Trying to protect her emails does not mean she is untrustworthy, just that she is guarded; not even paranoid, because they are trying to get her. On the contrary, you can trust her to follow through, to do the work, to read, think, and deeply understand complicated issues and work hard in bettering the interests of all Americans, qualities she has repeatedly demonstrated through years of public service.
In contrast, Donald Trump is not trustworthy. He is an undisciplined, uninformed, unpredictable narcissist who does not read or seek outside advice, and has such thin skin that he lashes out in the face of even the slightest criticism with a stream of tweets, personal attacks, and name calling that is reminiscent of an immature and insecure adolescent. And this is who he is, a mean-spirited little man who will not suddenly become presidential should he manage to fool enough voters with empty, false promises.
John L. Santa
Kalispell