A VOTE FOR CLINTON

I’m voting for Hillary Clinton.

I have come to this decision with a clear understanding of all that is at stake in this election.

Setting aside for a moment my belief that the government should not be involved in deciding women’s health care issues…that Obamacare needs to be fixed not repealed…that we are all created equal and entitled to the same rights and protections under the constitution; and by ALL I mean ALL men and women regardless of race, color, creed, ethnicity, religious persuasion or sexual orientation…that all men and women have the right to vote and practice the religion of their choice…setting aside these basic rights that I do not believe should be overturned…there are a number of reasons for my voting for Hillary Clinton.

I understand that Hillary Clinton is a flawed candidate.  I understand that she is untrustworthy.  I understand that she has spent the better part of the last four decades using her power and position for personal gratification.  I understand that if elected the first several years of her presidency will in all likelihood be consumed by congressional investigations and loose talk of indictments and impeachment.

I understand all of these things; and yet I will cast my vote for Hillary Clinton.

I will vote for Hillary Clinton in part because the Republican Party has given me no other choice.

I will vote for Hillary Clinton because the GOP nominee, Donald Trump is a dishonest, thin skinned, narcissistic, racist, bigot who brags about sexually assaulting women.

I will vote for Hillary Clinton because the GOP nominee openly engages in violent, hateful, divisive rhetoric more in keeping with a banana republic dictator than the leader of the free world.

I will vote for Hillary Clinton because the GOP nominee’s claim to fame, an “incredible business career” is littered with stiffed contractors, thousands of civil legal complaints and terrified and abused employees.  A career that views the loss of one billion dollars in a single year as a success. 

I will vote for Hillary Clinton because the GOP nominee has demonstrated a temperament that I feel is unfit to serve as Commander-in- Chief of the world’s most powerful military.   I believe his opponent was correct when she said: “A man who can be baited with a tweet cannot be trusted with the nuclear codes.”

I will vote for Hillary Clinton because…I mean this with all sincerity…I believe that the GOP nominee is mentally unstable and his presidency would pose a danger to our national security.

My conclusions are based not on selected news reports or the comments of favored political pundits.  My conclusions are based on the words coming out of the GOP nominee’s own mouth.

There are those who downplay the rhetoric heard a Trump rallies.  They say their candidate’s character flaws are no worse than Secretary Clinton’s.  They tell us to put Trump’s words aside and elect a political outsider who will truly change the way Washington operates. 

I get the desire to shake up Washington.  People are angry.  Our government doesn’t work.  Gridlock and obfuscation have become the norm.  People are demanding change.

I get it.  I just think Donald Trump is the wrong person to preside over that change.  He is dangerous.

Like it or not, we live in a different world than the one our parents and grandparents fought so hard to save.  As much as we might like to turn inward and leave the rest of the world to solve its own problems such isolation is neither wise nor possible.  We are as dependent on a global economy as the rest of the world is dependent on us to maintain order.  Tearing up agreements, pissing off allies and running roughshod through the world order will not make us more secure and prosperous.

I believe the highly acclaimed Washington Post conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer said it best in his Sunday opinion piece:

“Two generations of Americans have grown up feeling that international stability is as natural as the air we breathe.  It’s not.  It depends on continual, calibrated tending.  It depends on the delicate balancing of alliances and the careful signaling of enemies.  It depends on avoiding self-inflicted trade wars and on recognizing the value of allies like Germany, Japan and South Kores as cornerstones of our own security rather than satrapies who are here to dispatch tribute to their imperial master in Washington….It took seven decades to build this open, free international order.  It could be brought down in a single presidential term.  That would be a high price of kicking over the table.”

The GOP nominee is dangerous.  I’ll be voting for Hillary Clinton.