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Recently, I read an article titled, “I’m a College Woman, & Despite Everything, I Still Support Donald Trump” that I saw featured in the Her Campus email newsletter. As a proud democrat myself (and woman for that matter), just reading the title I already knew this article would make my skin crawl. I do not intend to disrespect the author’s personal values; however, as we are a free country where freedom of speech reigns, I feel I must express what I disagree with in her article. I know I may not sway anyone to change their vote but I hope I can get you to consider your choices at least a half a second or so more by breaking down a few of the points she brought up.
I’ll begin as the author of this article, Layne Unkle, did and introduce myself. I am a middle-class white female (and proud Navy brat — but I’ll get to that a little more later) , and I support Hillary Clinton. I will, however, gladly admit to voting for Bernie Sanders in the primaries.
I’ll keep this brief but yes, I do question your judgement Layne, not just after the past few weeks but after the past few months of Trump’s campaign. The recent allegations have just been part of the storm of hatred that Trump has spread and will continue to spew if he is made President of the United States.
He has [also] publicly apologized for the audio tape of “locker room banter” from 2005. We’ve all heard men talk about women in this way—it’s extremely common, especially in high school and college.
Admittedly, Donald Trump has publicly apologized as the author has stated above. However, in his apology Trump states, “This was locker room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago. Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course – not even close. I apologize if anyone was offended.” Essentially even in this instance he is trying to divert blame of his actions by bringing up Bill Clinton (who, by the way, is not the one running for president) and alleged comments he has made. Secondly, Layne states as shown above that such “locker room banter” is extremely common as she also tries to take the blame off of Trump. Sexism is a part of a larger societal problem. However, Trump as an individual is responsible for his own actions and was not a young kid (which doesn’t make comments like this acceptable either) but a full grown adult who, whether off the record or not, shouldn’t have made such lewd and inappropriate comments. The fact that sexual assault and comments like this are made and occur on a daily basis does not make them right or even ok. His comments were extremely degrading to women and downplayed sexual assault and how it affects women (and men) throughout their lives. This is unacceptable in every way and I am glad that Billy Bush has since been let go from his position at NBC for his part in this conversation as well. It is not just what we do in public that defines, but also what we do in private (or in this case what we think is private).
Look back to the beginning of this race. Trump would not only mock or take jabs at the other candidates, but he would sometimes avoid answering the moderator’s questions. Looking at him now, he has complimented Hillary Clinton on her drive and determination, and he’s answered every question asked at his rallies and the debates.
I honestly find it hilarious (and also horrifying) that people seem to think that because Trump puts in any effort at all to be a kind and decent person that this makes him an acceptable candidate to run our country someday. Of course he should answer questions at debates and rallies he holds and obviously he shouldn’t insult his fellow candidates unnecessarily and especially not for things that do not relate to their political experience or values (such as their appearance, personality traits, or spouses). Maybe I’m missing the huge amount of growth Trump has made over the course of his campaign that the author is seeing but I don’t think I am. Yes, Donald Trump complimented Hillary Clinton back in 2012 (that wonderful time before his campaign began) during a Fox News interview and maybe has made small comments since however his petty comments against Hillary Clinton have been far more abundant. The New York Times even recently released a list (that is continually updated) of all of the people, places, and things that Donald Trump has insulted on Twitter. Hillary Clinton is of course on that very list along with many others.
Oh and going back to your point about moderators. At the first Republican primary debate back in August 2015 Trump not only avoided moderator questions but in response to Megyn’s questions he later told CNN’s Don Lemon that, “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever”. Now does this seem like an appropriate response to a political debate moderator doing their job and asking the tough questions? I for one don’t think so and in fact many of Trump’s fellow Republican party members at the time called him out for being offensive and for insulting Megyn Kelly because of her gender.
Oh and as far as interruptions and rude behavior at the debates, that is absolutely still happening. Even just thirty seconds of the final debate show Trump’s numerous childish interjections where all he say is “wrong” to anything Hillary Clinton states. As if that’s a mature thing to do in the slightest as a presidential candidate, a businessman, and an adult.
He promotes himself and his family positively throughout his campaign, rather than trying to smear Hillary Clinton’s name negatively.
I’ve already hit on many of the numerous ways Donald Trump has tried to smear Hillary Clinton’s name throughout his campaign so I’ll move on to the first part of this statement about Donald and his family. Donald Trump’s first wife recently made statements that dispute his role as doting family man. She made a remark at the Lifeline benefit in early October that, “[I] she brought up the children singlehandedly” and later added an additional comment stating, “Donald wasn’t really interested in the children until he could talk business with them. When they turned 21, I handed them over to him and said ‘Here’s the finished product, you can take them from here”. The three children Ivana had with Donald include Ivanka, Donald Jr., and Eric and they have all been involved with Trump’s campaign by making speeches, introducing their dad, or even making videos but this doesn’t negate the fact that Ivana’s comments seem to suggest that to Donald his children are just another convenient ploy for publicity.
Not to mention Donald’s alleged comments about Ivana where he told friends that her awkward English and Czech roots might become a campaign negative. Soon after his marriage to Ivana dissolved (or as is rumored even before that) Donald got involved with Marla Maples, an All American girl suitable for his election dreams but they divorced after six years and the birth of their daughter Tiffany. Marla Maples then raised Tiffany in California as a single mother. Years later Trump said of their marriage that, “I was bored when she was walking down the aisle. I kept thinking, ‘What the hell am I doing here?’”. Not to mention the numerous lewd comments Donald Trump has made about his eldest daughter Ivanka where he degrades her with numerous inappropriate remarks about her body even though she is a senior executive at his company.
The man stepped outside of his comfort zone—business—and is trying to take on the responsibility of running this great country.
Trump’s so-called comfort zone of being a successful businessman is nothing but smoke, mirrors, and billions of dollars of bankruptcy busts. He states that he made his money the old-fashioned way and that his wealthy developer father Fred Trump gave him a small loan of a million dollars. He clearly started off strong with the loss on the Swifton Village apartment complex his daddy bought and his poor investment in 1970 of $70,000, to snag a co-producer’s credit for a Broadway comedy called Paris Is Out! Not at all shockingly the play bombed closing after just 96 performances and along with it Trump’s plans for making it in the entertainment business. Later in the late ‘70sTrump became successful at the charade of being a wealthy businessman however and brokered deals with the Hyatt hotel chains and paraded around in clubs with his “self-earned” money. Though he seemed successful at this time outwardly he came to lose $1.5 million in present day dollars due to real estate partnerships falling through and in 1980 received another “small loan from Daddy of $7.5 million dollars. He then went on in the 1980’s to use junk bonds and junk wisdom to purchase casinos and try his hand at something new all the while insulting the Native American people that ran casinos that threatened his so-called empire. He came to lose billions of dollars on this empire when it inevitably failed. Not to mention his more recent fiascos with buying planes, his fake university, condos, and other trendy luxury investments that don’t seem to take long before they crash and burn under Trump’s watchful eye.
He wants to fix this nation, save our veterans and help our schools.
First off, Trump’s version of fixing this nation is letting the rich get richer with tax cuts for the 1% and forcing anyone who is a minority to wear an identifying card. It is all about “Making America Great Again” as long as that is for old, white, wealthy, heterosexual, cisgender American males and no one else and even that group is starting to wane in its support for him. There are so many other flaws with his platform but the racism, sexism, and ableism he has shown should be enough for anyone to waver in their support of this man or at least I sincerely hope so.
Remember what I said before? If not that’s ok I’ll remind you gladly. My dad served in the Navy for 20 years and so I am a proud retired Navy brat now that he has done his time. There are no veterans I know including my dad that would ever willingly support Trump. There is no way they want to be “saved” by him either whatever that means. Now, a lot of Trump’s 10 point plan sounds all well and good when reading it. He highlights increasing mental health professionals for the VA, restructuring the VA board and holding them accountable, ensuring health care priority for veterans, and numerous other similar points. However, when you take into account the comments that Trump has made about veterans and not just the statements written out carefully by his campaign team you’ll think twice about electing this man under the guise of him helping veterans. Back in early October Trump made a brief stop at a town hall in Herndon, Virginia to address veterans and the issues that they face. He quickly stuck his foot in his mouth insulting everyone in the armed forces stating that “strong” veterans don’t deal with PTSD. Preceding that he had made comments at a forum that John McCain wasn’t a war hero due to his being a prisoner of war for more than five years during his service in the Vietnam war. He said,”He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured, OK?” and dismissed the question quickly after that.
As far as his plans for education, many them have been disputed by journalists as well as education experts. For example, one of his policies which he announced at a Cleveland Charter school back in November was a plan to restructure federal funding to allow more students to use funds to attend private and charter schools. Many experts have noted that this policy has been tried by many Republican politicians in the past but it has often failed to receive support from congress. They suggest, “the proposal is merely a symbolic gesture from the Trump campaign aimed at mainstream Republicans”. Another fishy side to this policy is that Trump never mentions where he will taking the $20 billion from the federal budget which he would need to be able to enact it. Not to mention the fact that though it seems like it would help low income students and teachers in actuality nearly 500,000 teacher jobs would have to be cut and voucher programs like those Trump has suggested have been shown to cut money from programs that send low income students to college. There has also been data that proves that those using vouchers to attend private or charter schools do not show improved test scores or any form of significant academic progress.
He wants to create more jobs and secure our borders from drugs and other contraband.
Trump has made several odd and just plain out there statements but his claims of Hillary Clinton doping before the 2nd debate are probably some of his most random yet. Before rolling out his plan on drug reform he claimed that, “Clinton was likely getting pumped up as she prepared for the debate with days off the campaign trail”. A pro-Trump super pac later made an ad taking this point even further with video of Hillary coughing and more slanderous statements. It was later found that Hillary’s coughing and slowness can be attributed to her bout with pneumonia and not the flu or even Parkinson’s disease as was previously claimed. So essentially Trump made fun of a woman suffering with a serious ailment. Lovely.
Now let’s get to his plans for drug reform and securing the borders. Those big plans include building a southern border wall which he has said again and again will be funded by Mexico. Though now he claims we will pay for it and they will reimburse us. Seems totally plausible right? No. Yeah that’s what I thought. Oh and his reasoning for creating this wall can’t be tied to his numerous racist statements about Latino people, right? I’m sure there’s absolutely no connection. That would be absurd. I’m sure the fact that he thinks, that all “latino immigrants are criminals and rapists” is completely unrelated to the policies he wants to create. His meeting with Mexico’s president also went over super well with Enrique Peña Nieto later posting on various social media sites that he had told Trump that Mexico would never pay for a wall and that his offensive comments about latinos are unacceptable. Enrique also spoke at length about NAFTA which Trump often bashes and its many benefits to both Mexico and the United States’ economy. Needless to say I don’t think his plans for drug reform or border control will be successful. The claims he has made are outrageous and once again it is unclear where he plans to find funding for his grandiose policy goals.
One person stepping into the White House is not going to increase the likelihood of sexual assault.
You state here that many of the scenarios where Trump has been accused of mistreating women are false. I mean he said in the second presidential debate that his statements were just that and never had gone any further. So those claims of kissing women and grabbing their genitals without permission were just more of his “locker room banter” I’m sure. Even though Jessica Leeds (who you claim is lying) while sitting next to Trump on a flight in 1979 states that he grabbed her breasts and tried to put his hands up her skirt. She got up and fled the assault but the moment has stuck with her. You then mention Mindy McGillivray who you say stated she was nudged by Trump at a concert. In actuality, Mindy has stated that Trump grabbed her butt without her consent backstage at a Ray Charles concert. She has now stated that she may leave the country due to Trump supporters circling her house and following her. Trump supporters have claimed that she couldn’t possibly have been attacked back in 2003 because she hasn’t talked about it since then. You know because women who talk about their sexual assaults are always believed. Seems accurate. Not to mention his creepy comments about sleeping with Miss Universe contestants and the claims that he repeatedly walked into Miss Teen USA dressing rooms where young girls were in various states of undress. He was forced to sell the Miss Universe organization after his disturbing comments about Latinos but who is to say all that he did in the two decades that he owned the company. I can only imagine the details we don’t know or haven’t heard about yet. Now I’ll give you one thing, if Trump is elected president it most likely won’t be the direct cause of an increase in the amount of sexual assaults that occur in this country. That said, it will mean we have chosen to elect a man who continually degrades woman by making offensive comments about them (including his own daughter) and possibly even acting upon those lewd thoughts. Though I also can’t say for sure that these events happened or what other events may have happened behind closed doors I can say that I don’t want him as president either way. Whether he simply makes comments or whether he acts upon them he is wrong and will only increase the hold that rape culture has on our nation.
Suffice it to say, I do realize this article may not change the mind of anyone who is planning on voting for Trump. That said, I hope this article can make you at least consider what voting for this man means. This is not the time to be loyal to your party or to believe in his outrageous claims and it certainly isn’t the time to ignore the numerous red flags that even those closest to him have brought up. I’m with Hillary Clinton and I hope you all will be too. Even as a republican you should not want a man so heinous representing a party you hold so dear. That makes no sense at all.
No matter who you’re planning on voting for voteplz is a great resource to help you do so. They are a nonprofit nonpartisan initiative designed to help young Americans check their voter registration status, see if they are eligible to vote early, and answer any questions you may have about the voting process.