With the elections coming up, there's a lot of controversy on who the next president should be. In all likelihood, it's either going to be Clinton or Trump. I know, the majority of the public is dissatisfied with these choices, so let's skip all the drama about how you hate both candidates. In reality, you will never have a perfect candidate that fits your ideologies perfectly, but you still have to make a decision --- choose the lesser of two evils, the one that best matches your perspectives, or abstaining from voting completely.
3 caveats:
Lesser of 2 Evils - If you choose to vote for the party that you're used to, chances are that you won't be subscribing to what you prefer to the most from your candidate. You see that the other side is going to be too harmful for the country, so you feel obligated to vote against that person. This is often going to lead to the 'status quo' and lead the country at a stable pace in one direction. In the short term, it'll work for you, but will it be what you want from your country in the long term?
3rd Party - Whether it's Jill Stein or Gary Johnson or yourself, you will be more aligned to these candidates than what the majority of the country has chosen. The problem with third parties is (in my opinion) they will never succeed in taking over the general election. They might come very close to getting to the presidency, but the 2 main parties will change their ideologies to make sure that won't happen. Example --- too many people think that libertarian principles are what many people think is correct, the Republican party will adapt to make sure they can get those votes. Same with many progressive principles, the Democratic party will reform to get those votes as well. In the end, third party votes are a 'protest vote' to address the main 2 parties that the general public wants something different.
Not Voting - If you choose this option, chances are...you've given up on the political system. Nothing wrong with taking this approach, maybe you don't care to deal with politics and just want to live your life or you've lost faith in our government. Even if that's the case, you still have influence in how our nation runs, so you're not completely free from dealing with this issue. You still have influence over the people you interact with, who will vote in certain ways depending on what you say.
My vote goes to Trump because ---
His background - I recently became a conservative, and I think Trump had the same revelation. It's also used as an attack by many conservatives that he's really a liberal because he held liberal principles before and recently became conservative. This can mean he's a moderate who can draw both sides to him. A lot of parallels can be drawn with Reagan.
He is not Hillary - This is the "Lesser of 2 Evils" vote. In my opinion, Hillary will be a 3rd term of Obama, and I don't think he did the best job of running our country in the last 8 years. I want someone different who can take us in a new direction.
Conservative Principles/Business Experience - Limited government and free market principles. This is what I'm skeptical of the most with Trump. Will he actually be a conservative when it comes to market, or will he rely on government to make sure things work? Many people say that Hillary is actually a more free market person, but I don't know enough about her ideologies (fill me in if you know more). Since Trump has spent so much time in the business world, I would think he can provide the best expertise in how our economy should run.
Trump's Personality - Many people are highly against how he acts, but I see it as a plus. I like the masculine/authoritarian approach to things. I can see how many can be thrown off by it as well. In my opinion, we've lived with too much of the feminine approach to things, so we need a masculine "fatherly" figure for our country.
Can you change my mind? - Of course! I always look for reasons to why I should think differently. I don't absorb information that fits perfectly with what I think, I prefer stuff that counters my current ideologies so I can reform my way of thinking if it's needed.
1) Political correctness - he refuses to back down when he says something that a group of people think is "un-presidential." Schools are degrading in quality because of these movements for trigger warnings and safe spaces. We're not allowed to have intellectual discussions any more because it offends women or some minority groups, and that's raising a mass of brain dead young adults who can't hold up a conversation without saying "racist!" "sexist!" "xenophobe!"
ReplyDelete2) He is not bought - we have never had a candidate who has this criteria. Everyone in history has always been nudged by some special interest or corporation. They were career politicians. They were generals. Trump is none of these things, and at the very least, we can experiment to see if this is the key to move forward to get politicians to do what the people actually ask them to do.
3) He is a man of the free market - none of his money was stolen (unlike bureaucrats who steal your money all the time through taxes). He had to convince and provide products that people wanted in exchange for their money. The mindset is vastly different from a typical public servant who has a guaranteed salary and doesn't need to do what the people ask them to do.
4) Stronger defense/military approach - We need to stop importing so many people to our country and solve the problems in the world. You might not like Russia, but we can't fight several wars at a time, so we should ally with them for now. We can't allow so many migrants in who will be a risk to our own people, and spend so much money to house them here when we can save so many more by setting up refugee camps closer to where they live. Our border needs to be secure, both at the south, by plane and in general our migration policies.
5) Nationalist - This is often used as an attack against him, and a means to call him Hitler, but there's nothing wrong with wanting to spend some time to improve your own country when it's in turmoil. We can't help others when our own people are suffering. Everyone wants to help people in need, but how does it help our black community when we keep importing low skill workers who create massive unbalance in our economy? It's time to care for ourselves, not everyone else.