This election season has been the worst I’ve ever recalled. As fraught as I thought the battle was between Trump’s incumbent attempt for a second term and Biden running up against him, this one has me questioning why so many Americans gloss over Trump’s self-centered nature, history of and ongoing legal issues, and poor communication skills riddled with irate, devoid of facts tangents. While I don’t always expect a candidate to communicate to the best of their abilities (we’re all human), his attitude is something I find continues to bring out the worst in people–and some people love it. Gross. He doesn’t really ever have something nice to say about anyone. He just makes enough of a casual comment to build a base of people loyal to him or people swing his way when their other goals don’t get them what they want. The lack of backbone in some of the higher level Republicans–Ron Desantis being one of them–is a key point that disgusts me on where the Republican party is at today. Even Trump’s selected running mate, JD Vance, didn’t like him and swung his opinion to open up a job opportunity for himself.

Why Let A Misogynist and a Bigot Decide What’s Right for Women, Immigrants, and People of Color

I am not the first to point out Trump loves himself. And really let’s be honest, he only loves himself. I won’t let his slew of children through three marriages convince me that he’s a good man. You can be a parent and a partner and still be a crappy human being. Those personal roles in society can be separate from and/or intertwined identities with one’s public life. I think he loves the power differential he brought into his relationships and likely conducts himself that way with his children, too. It’s one thing though to act that way within your own familial group; it’s another when you try to lord over a nation. He did that before, and I don’t want to see him do that again.

Just a few of the ways he’s professed and acted upon his disdain of women:

• Read every horrible thing Donald Trump has said about women and tell me he’s not a sexist (from Vox, May 2016)
• How Trump talks about women – and does it matter? (BBC, November 2019)
• Trump: A clear and present danger to women and to democracy (Peoplesworld.org, May 2023)

These are not things to take lightly. While I have not been personally attacked by him like the women mentioned in these situation, I have encountered men in my life that treated me just as poorly. It is the responsible thing to protect women (and men) from those that harm them physically, mentally, emotionally, and financially. In my case, one ex tried to let his friends see me in a state of undress, without my consent. The pain from that still shows up in my life and on one level, I am lucky none of those present attempted to rape me, but not all women (men, or children) find themselves in a lesser state of harm. I didn’t report it in the Marine Corps because I had leadership that I felt didn’t care about me. In a different situation, I found the leadership looks above and above for my wellbeing (in ways that weren’t shared with me) after a former partner and fellow Marine threatened to harm me. Why should we allow this misogynist make decisions that impact the welfare of slightly more than half the population? Women are estimated to be 50.5% of the United States population based on US Census Bureau 2023 estimates and the paid and unpaid labor we do to support ourselves, perhaps children and partners, directly impacts the wellbeing of the economy.

Women, as a segment of the United States population, are only one of the groups he discriminates against. We dealt with a Muslim ban in 2017 and he shows no remorse for his decision, still reflecting a desire to keep out others he finds unworthy to be in the United States because they do not share his values. Black Americans haven’t been safer under the former president or respected as he has been quoted numerous times disparaging them along with members of the LGTBQ+ community and GLAAD outlines his poor behavior over the decades. All I see is a number of people flock to him because they hate Democrats, not because he brings anything of value to the table. All that he seems to do is stir up trouble. To this day, he continues to think the presidential election was stolen from him and he doesn’t find himself at fault for the Jan. 6th, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Why Let A Felon Run a Country When They Can’t Occupy Lesser Authoritative Roles in Society

Switching to another important topic. His behavior over the years hasn’t been limited to hurt feelings. He has committed harm to individuals and communities, also putting our country at risk. He feels entitled to women’s bodies as his playthings, uses his platform to endanger others, and is lazy in how he attending to his records access in his previous role and thereafter. For his actions, he was sued by E. Jean Carroll and found guilty of defamation and sexual abuse, ultimately resulting in a $5 million judgment. The fact his classified documents case was recently dismissed doesn’t undo the fact he should not have possessed the records and we’ll see what the appeal process looks like on that issue. I protected secret classified information on my first tour in Iraq, so it’s a huge slap in the face to the work we do as service members (and to our civilian counterparts that do much the same) that he took and retained the documents, like it was an inconsequential action. And lest we forget about those 34 felonies he’s sitting on at this point in time. NPR lists them nicely, if you’d like to review them for the first time or for recall purposes. And he wants to run the country again?

We keep felons out of a slew of other jobs and industries (for good reason), but he wants to be our President, 34 felonies to his name. To protect vulnerable and potentially vulnerable persons, we put a lot of restrictions in place on who can become a teacher, work in the medical community, and operate in our banking industries. We won’t allow someone to go into the FBI with a felony conviction, but as a presidential prospect, he wants to come to the table with not one but 34 felonies. 34. Can I say that enough?! A dishonorable discharge veteran, by comparison, who has committed offenses like murder, espionage, fraud, desertion, and sexual assault does not have the same clout as the former president as they move forward with their lives: they will lose access to VA benefits, aren’t qualified for federal service, cannot own firearms, and will often run into challenges accessing other government programs and benefits. Because I am attempting to restrain the length of today’s blog, here’s BBC’s July 15th, 2024 article on his four criminal cases for further study.

Why Let Someone Become the Commander-in-Chief Again when He Disrespects Military Service

As I previously mentioned, our society severely restricts benefit access to dishonorable discharge veterans. We (our society) do a lot to remove the means for them to achieve significant financial achievement and security. Gone is the avenue to have a VA-backed home loan. Did you want to use VA education benefits? Sorry, cannot have that either. You could have sustained serious illness or injury, but our government is not entitling you to VA disability compensation either. Go find another means to navigate through your suffering. At most, you might still be eligible for VA healthcare. (Note: One can apply for a character of discharge upgrade, but it’s not guaranteed it will be approved.) These things are not likely ever on Trump’s mind. His behavior indicates only a strong interest about his own welfare and opportunities.

Like his verbal assault on women, minorities, and immigrants, he thinks little of our service members, veterans, and fallen. How are veterans not disgusted with the fact he called our community members and war fallen heroes ‘losers’ and ‘suckers’? He has relentlessly picked fights with members of the military-affiliated community or looked down his nose upon the sacrifices made by our nation’s military members and Axios is but one organization that marks those instances. I am a two-time Iraq war veteran and our nation lost 275 service members during my first tour. Trump’s demeanor is nothing but an insult to their families who have had to move forward without their loved ones. And he couldn’t even be civil to fellow Republican Nikki Haley and respect her husband’s military service when they were both vying for the Presidential nomination. As someone who flouted every opportunity to avoid Vietnam service, he does not have my respect. I was 20 when I volunteered THE. FIRST. TIME. to serve in Iraq. We are two very different types of Americans. I care about seeing our nation move forward and he’s one who wants to see it take a large detour backwards. We are beyond fortunate that his attempt to reduce VA disability compensation for individually unemployable veterans did not have enough backers to go through. Our nation struggles enough with homelessness among the veteran community: we don’t need to add to it with inappropriately reducing benefits for those in need.

Please Vote Carefully

There’s not a whole lot more to say other than I wish every person voting this year looks critically at all candidates and issues up and down the ballots. My choice to leave the Republican party behind has not transpired into wholly believing all Democrats have good intentions. Senator Bob Menendez’ 18 convictions this year is a good case-in-point. His misuse of his position is appalling and it’s a great thing for our nation that he’s resigning from his position. In closing, I’d also like to mention over the years I’ve voted for Republican and Democrats. I don’t believe that because I was a Republican that my duty was to vote along party lines. Each candidate brings a different type of experience, education, and perspective to numerous problems the United States faces and I hope as a nation, we work more each day towards bipartisanship and away from the political division that has eroded our nation significantly in the past 10-20 years. I want to enjoy a better American experience today for myself, my family, and for the people that look to the United States as a land of opportunity and a leader on the global stage. We cannot be as great a nation when the amount of infighting erodes our ability to govern effectively and makes us look like dysfunctional siblings instead of competent and respectful leaders across our local and global communities.