Yes, I've decided to vote for Donald Trump in the New York Republican primary on April 19th. No, I'm not going to start campaigning for him. Normally, I don't endorse political candidates. I just keep my preference to myself and vote. What difference, after all, does my endorsement make?
In this case, I think it does make a difference. I'm fed up with the bullying tactics in the mass media, on weblogs and websites, and especially on Facebook employed on Trump supporters. It's time to answer those tactics forcefully.
I'm going to vote for The Donald because I agree with him on the issues and because I believe his candidacy best serves my self interest. If you want to believe that I'm a Trumpkin who's been dazzled and hypnotized by the candidate's Svengali act, you're welcome to that opinion.
Take a look at the pic of Trump above. Think of all the crazy, demeaning, screwed up pics you've seen of him. And, yet, there's a fairly normal pic of him as a decent, restrained human that's easily found through a Google search. I worked in multimedia, which includes video and still photography, for a few decades. You can make anybody look like a demon through selective choice of available photos. I'm fed up with the media tactic of choosing pics for the express purpose of making Trump look bad.
What are the issues that I support? I'm for enforcing the southern border and shutting down illegal Mexican immigration. Build the wall. The reasons for this are so self-evident that it is surprising that they need to be stated. A country exists because it has enforceable borders. After the southern border has been secured, put in place an orderly process for legal Mexican immigration. Unskilled workers who are native to the U.S. need jobs. Mexican immigrants should only have access to jobs that cannot be filled by U.S. citizens.
Although this no longer affects my self interest, since I am retired, I want to see the H-1B visa program cut back to its original purpose. When the program was passed, it was sold as a "temporary" solution to worker shortages in specific tech fields. The program has morphed into a grand scale strategy for replacing U.S. citizens in programming and engineering jobs with cheap immigrant labor. Again, U.S. citizens first, immigrants where needed.
Trump is also on target in advocating a shutdown of Muslim immigration until a proper vetting procedure to weed out potential sleeper cell terrorists can be put in place. Advocating this is simple self-interest on my part. I live 100 miles from the primary target for the next major Jihadi attack, New York City, and I frequent the city. My kids and grandkids also live near the Jihadi's number one target. I can't tell you how a proper vetting process can be enacted, but I think that we should try.
I'm not entirely clear on the issues of foreign trade and monetary policy. If Trump can negotiate better deals there, as he says he can, I say go for it. I'm impressed by the fact that he says he'll try. The job of a president is to represent the self-interest of the nation and U.S. citizens. He's the only candidate, to my knowledge, who's bluntly stating that he intends to govern from that standpoint.
I've written before on my admiration for Trump's assault on the system of censorship known as political correctness. You're welcome to read that post at length. Attempts to shut down Trump's ability to speak and hold rallies by moveOn and Black Lives Matter, both obviously endorsed and possibly funded and directed by the Democratic National Committee, have only confirmed me in my determination to break down this code of censorship.
There's been a lot of talk about Trump's purportedly "authoritarian" personality. I'm in favor of the return of authoritarian patriarchal values to the public marketplace. After 60 years of feminist propaganda and legislation, it is time to restore the patriarchy. This does not mean that I support authoritarian government as that system is narrowly defined. It means I'm in favor of Christian family values in which the man is the head of the household. I want the campaign to demean men and to destroy families to be opposed.
White middle and lower class people, particularly those living in the Midwest and South, have been ridiculed as bigots and disenfranchised for 50 years. Trump is reaching out to those people and indicating that he wants their votes and will support their self-interest. This is why his opponents keep attacking him and calling him a bigot. They want those white constituents to remain disenfranchised because they've gained power and wealth. This battle is nothing more than a turf war. I understand why Trump's opponents want to keep the power and wealth they amassed. They're going to fight to hold on to that. Trump and his supporters have the right to fight for their share of turf.
Ted Cruz is a good candidate. I could support him. The fact is that Trump is probably going to win the nomination by amassing the needed delegates. Another reason for openly supporting my candidate is that I'm opposed to the establishment Republican party's attempt to undermine Trump's candidacy.
I wish that the Democrats had fielded a viable candidate, but they have not. The Democratic primary process has been rigged from before the primaries started to engineer the nomination of Hillary Clinton. Democratic voters really never had a chance to participate. Clinton is notoriously incompetent, grossly corrupt and she should probably be facing a special prosecutor investigation over a number of issues, in particular, her use of an insecure e-mail server for classified information.
So, I'm going to vote for Trump and it's time to say that publicly. I'm tired of being cowed and shamed by the wild public accusations against Trump.
Trump for president in 2016!
You have persuaded me not by this one article, but by the numerous daily posts you put on Facebook that I find to be wise. No better word, you have convinced me that you are a wise man. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Posted by: Joanne Canda | Monday, April 18, 2016 at 07:55 PM
Thanks for reading the essay and for the kind words, Joanne.
Posted by: Howlin' Steve | Tuesday, April 19, 2016 at 04:36 AM