Accusations, being pointed from both sides; “He did this”, or “she did that”. Are the Trump accusations real? What about the Clinton email scandals? In a generation where movie cinematics are popular and videos can be made by middle-schoolers, its hard to believe the audio, the video, and the emails that are leaked against them both. It all seems like a very bad political espionage story that’s gotten out of hand.
The truth is, Trump supporters think Hillary lies. And Hillary supporters think Trump lies. I personally choose to support Trump and trust him. Whether he’s done what he was accused of or not, Trump has prayed for forgiveness for whatever was on his conscience, and has apologized. As a Christian, I must forgive him of whatever he has done, or God will with-hold the forgiveness that I seek when I sin. In Matthew 18:21-35, Jesus tells us a story of an unforgiving servant and his fate: when the servant’s master forgives him of his own wrong and releases him of any responsibility, the servant is shown mercy. But when the servant refuses to forgive another servant, throwing him in prison to punish him, the master calls the unforgiving servant back and punishes him, because he wasn’t willing to show the same mercy that the master had shone. Jesus says in verse 35 that “this king did what my heavenly Father will do to you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” (ICB)
Also, in Luke 17:3 we are told “So be careful! If your brother sins, tell him he is wrong. But if he is sorry and stops sinning, forgive him. If your brother sins against you seven times in one day, but he says that he is sorry each time, then forgive him.” (ICB)
It’s a harsh message, but true. If I don’t forgive Trump, I will not be forgiven. If Hillary seeks forgiveness and I don’t forgive her, then God will not forget any wrongs that I do in my own heart.
So with God’s law in mind, I must forgive and forget what is held against Trump. I have to strip away the accusations that were said against him; which leaves me with only one way to judge who to vote for: to think of the promises that they make, the policies that they name, and the actions that they take. You can tell a lot from someone by watching them and listening to their words.
Now, there are 2 other candidates that Americans can vote for, but for anyone who wonders why people still vote for Trump, let me tell you why I choose to support him in this election:
Temperamental or protective?
Trump is accused of being temperamental and “ready to push the button”. But as I see him, he argues for the people. He’s defending the people who he cares about: the American people (like me!) who deserve respect and care. He doesn’t start the argument, but he’s not going to back down. He’s going to fight for the American people.
He speaks what he believes to be true. Yes, his words can seem harsh, but for anyone who takes his words in context, it’s not what it’s painted up to be. You have to listen to his words in full context, what he said before and what he said afterwards and even what he’s reacting to, to get the meaning behind his words. Jesus too, said some harsh things if you read Matthew 23:33 out of context: “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?” (BOOKS) Only if you read the full context will you know that He’s speaking to the Pharisees, who He reveals to the people that “their lives are not good examples for you to follow. They tell you to do things, but they don’t do the things themselves. They make strict rules and try to force people to obey them. But they themselves will not try to follow any of those rules.” (ICB, Matthew 23:3-4)
As I see it, Trump gets heated in an argument to protect the American people, and Hillary stays calm because she doesn’t really take the issues seriously. To me, it feels like Hillary thinks of the presidency as a game; a game that she’s sure she’s going to win. (It’s really no wonder that she thinks that, since the media will always talk about the accusations pointed at Trump, but they never talk about the accusations pointed at Hillary. Both sets of accusations should be talked about equally for the media to be taken seriously, in my opinion.)
Genuine Sympathy
Trump promises to be America’s voice, and from what I see that’s the truth. He speaks for the border patrol when he says “We need the wall”. He speaks for the mothers and fathers of the victims of illegal immigrants when he says that “Mexicans are rapists”. He invites them to speak their stories at his rallies. He reveals things that were hidden and talks about issues that have been taboo for far too long. Why didn’t we know that our churches were silenced by the Johnson amendment, unable to speak out against abortion and other key issues, fearing they would lose their tax exempts? Where is our freedom of speech? What has happened to the freedom of religion that America is known for?
When I see Hillary and I try to determine her character of sympathy, on one hand I see what she’s held highly for, which is sympathizing with the Mothers of a Movement and the disabled Americans (these are good things!), but when it comes to the families of the victims of Benghazi, she went on trial and was still unwilling to show any sympathy for their pain. When they tried to talk to her about it, she pushed them aside and didn’t even extend a listening ear.What is it that makes her sympathetic to some, and not to others?
The Campaign
As I look at the websites of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, I can see what Mike Pence spoke of when he said that Clinton and Kaine are running an “insult driven campaign”. The Hillary website’s homepage is full of reasons why you should NOT vote for Trump. She has a slideshow of “the making of Hillary Clinton & Donald Trump” (which paints Trump badly with the accusations pointed at him, while showing Hillary in a good light) alongside a contribution form. An article pointing out all the reasons why Trump lost the debate (showcasing all the “facts” that I’ve already chosen to forgive at the beginning of this article) is also shown, as well as another article talking about how none of the 5 living U.S. presidents endorse Trump, while 3 endorse Hillary. There’s also an article about Mrs. Obama expressing “what every woman is thinking right now” (which is not accurate since I’m a woman and didn’t think any of it.) and another article listing 112 reasons to vote for Hillary. After I scroll down, I see a picture of the candidates Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine, and a place where you can sign up for updates. Under that, I can see a few links to her issues and policies, and then the bottom of the page offers a chance to volunteer to help Hillary’s campaign.
On Trump’s homepage, he has a full-screen picture of Mike Pence and himself, a pledge to be America’s voice, and a contribution form. As I scroll down, he gives a way to get exclusive updates about his campaign, a way to volunteer, and a way to donate by phone. Continuing to scroll brings me to news articles about Trump’s outreach to the Hindu Americans and how he says to the Indian community that “we are going to be best friends”. Another news article covers his rally in Portsmouth. Beside the news articles shows a video of his son Eric talking about how corrupt the government is, and another video of Rience Priebus talking about the debate and how Clinton hasn’t delivered to the people. Below the articles, you find press releases covering the Clinton email scandal.
As I browse Trump’s website, I do see places where Hillary is talked about, but only to compare her policies to Trump’s policies. While Hillary’s campaign focuses on all the reason why you should NOT vote for Trump, his campaign focuses on all the reasons why you should vote for him.
UPDATE: As I was writing this, the Hillary webpage just replaced the slideshow of Hillary vs. Trump with a video about early voting. Meanwhile, Trump’s website was also updated, and now has different press releases showing.
Organization
Being a woman of business, I know how important it is to keep my business organized. I have to work hard to keep my legal documents, budget, gains and losses very clean and organized or my business will fail. And if we want to believe Hillary at her own word (rather than the Republicans who accuse her of putting the nation’s security at risk on purpose) then she is a very disorganized person. She doesn’t remember things, she claims she didn’t know it was wrong to have personal servers in the White House… and if you look at her website’s “issues” page, her campaign’s disorganization shows even there. The policies she gives are cluttered and mismatched. She brags about her childcare policies, but when I looked for them (to compare with Trump’s position) I couldn’t find the policy she kept bragging on. It wasn’t until I read her policy on early childhood education that I found information on childcare. Also, her website doesn’t have a page dedicated to the endorsements she’s received, which I would think would be something she would want to showcase. Instead, I had to read the context of her website to discover who stands with her.
The way Trump is organized impresses me. If you go to his website, it’s very clean and easy to search. I will admit that the context is very technical and it may be hard to grasp because a lot of it is written in business-lingo, but it’s not hard to see what he stands for and what he plans to improve as president. And for someone to be in charge of the business of our nation, I think he (or she) should be organized.
Planned Policies
Trump’s policies are mapped out very well. You can look at the positions on his website and he will tell you what he plans to do. For example, his child care includes adding tax deductions for the income tax of working parents. They will be able to receive a deduction for up to 4 children, as well as the care of elderly dependents. He also plans to create a special “dependent care savings account” for children and elderly of low income families. Those families who are able to gain access to the savings accounts will receive a childcare rebate and a matching $500 contribution for their special savings account. He’ll also open up incentives for employers to provide childcare at the workplace, as well as providing 6 weeks of paid leave to new mothers before returning to work. His deductions will reach beyond the realm of paid childcare and even deduct taxes for childcare in the form of stay-at-home parents, which strikes me as important since my own mother was stay-at-home, and I know how much work she did for the family.
Hillary’s childcare policies are, as stated on her website, to make preschool available for all 4-year-old children. She also plans to increase federal government’s investments in childcare subsidiaries, provide tax relief for working families, and create the RAISE initiative which will support the communities that work to increase childcare opportunities. She wants to double the investments for “Early Head Start”, “Early Head Start-Child Care”, and “Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program”, and she wants to award up to $1,500 in scholarships for up to 1 million student parents per year, so that they can afford childcare, which Hillary plans to increase access to childcare on campus by increased funding. She doesn’t give an explanation on how this will actually improve the quality or costs of childcare.
Trump also gives other plans that intrigue me, such as:
- creating a “Commission on Radical Islam” to teach the American public how to identify warning signs of radicalization, so that it will train Americans to see true terrorism and to cut down on the prejudice and fear against the peaceful and honest immigrants.
- working with Congress to create reforms that will offer universities tax breaks and tax dollars if they lower the cost of college and student debt.
- create a “Cyber Review Team”, made by people from the military, the law enforcement, and the private sectors, that will review U.S. cyber defenses to look for vulnerabilities and threats and to train government employees to defend against cyber-attacks.
Budget
When I look at Hillary’s policies, it feels a little bit like she thinks spending money can solve all the issues. Her childcare issues mentioned above brings me to one of the main reasons I choose to vote for Trump. Hillary wants to double the investments of Early Head Start (currently at $10.1 billion), Early Head Start – Child Care (currently at $150 million), and MIECHV (currently at $1.5 billion). Add the $1,500 she wants to give to 1 million parent students going to college (per year), the campus childcare funding, and the government investments in childcare subsidiaries, and I have to wonder where she’s getting all this extra money that she’s spending since President Obama’s already doubled our national debt. And this spending is dedicated only to childcare. She has many other investments planned in her issues too.
Trump, on the other hand, explains where the money that he plans to spend comes from. For example, when he talks about planning to “immediately add an additional federal investment of $20 billion towards school choice” he reassures us by adding “This will be done by reprioritizing existing Federal dollars.” Or when he speaks of the wall and how “Mexico will pay for the wall”, he clearly explains (on his website) how he plans to strike a deal with Mexico that will involve payments that will go into paying for the wall.
Achievable Goals
When I browse Trump’s website to see his goals and ambitions for America, I see a realistic view that can be achieved by a president of the United States. Between tax plans, education, immigration, cybersecurity, foreign policy and defeating ISIS, Trump sees issues and he knows how to fix it. Encouraging states to increase their education funds, giving schools an incentive to improve their education, giving small businesses tax breaks to help them survive and create new jobs… it’s a different focus than the outlook that Hillary gives on her website. While he has goals that I can see a president being able to accomplish, Hillary has ambitions to “make the world a better place”, which is great ambition, but its asking too much for one woman to change everything that Hillary wants to change. Her website tells that she’s going to promote woman equality in the world, promote LGBT equality, and she plans to keep the promise of the ADA; but that’s something we as citizens need to accomplish. We need to work to help change our hearts and the hearts of people around us, our friends and our family. I’m not sure if it’s necessarily the president’s job to try to accomplish all of this. (It’s more like an ambassador’s job rather than the President.)
Honestly speaking, Hillary’s idealistic views remind me of who I was when I was young. It’s all very good ideals to live for, to “paint the world a better place” as I had written my motto to be, but I’ve learned that ideals don’t get things done. As an entrepreneur myself, I see that Trump knows what he’s doing, and when he says “Let’s make America great again”, he’s going to work his presidency to improve the lives of all Americans.
Endorsements
Endorsements mean a lot. And since Trump is endorsed by generals, veterans, ICE, the border patrol, law enforcement, etc… I can rightfully say that we need a reform in our national security, and that’s an important position to me. I want our country to be safe (for all people, including immigrants, refugees, and visitors too!), and with the endorsements that are given to Trump, I can feel safer knowing that he plans to work for the safety of the people.
Other reasons
There are other reasons I’m voting for Trump too. I appreciate his stance on abortion, the Second Amendment, as well as his defense for the freedom of religion and freedom of speech. There’s also the fact that he’s a businessman who has many successes. He’s good with money, he knows how to build things that last (skyscrapers, airports, bridges, etc), and he’s praised by the people that he’s worked with like Lynne Patton, Dana White, Kerry Woolard, and Natalie Gulbis. Also the choice of the Supreme Court is important to me, and I believe he will wisely listen to the advice of his colleagues to choose the best person for the position.
I’m also impressed by the Trump family. Donald Jr., Ivanka, Eric, and Tiffany… They seem to be very down to earth type people (even Hillary had to compliment them in the second debate). You can learn a lot about a man by looking at his children. They are all very respectful, successful, and upright citizens. I also love Melania Trump; she’s got a beautiful spirit and I would be proud to have her as the next First Lady.
Art and Learn: The Heart of Scholars 