Soap Box: I See Stupid People (Donald Trump supporters)
March 8, 2016: updated 11/02/16, updated 11/09/16, updated 03/30/17, updated 12/08/17
UPDATE: December 8, 2017: I thought I'd add another disclaimer. I don't really want to offend some of my friends and acquaintances that voted for Donald Trump. I want to clarify that I'm really commenting on Trump's character (or lack thereof) instead of him as a politician. By what Trump has said and done, he's shown himself to be a walking pile of garbage. But truth be known, I actually agree with a lot of the Republican agendas. The problem is Trump, the man. I don't have a problem if you just wanted to vote Republican. I don't have a problem if you just wanted to vote against Clinton. But don't try to convince me that Trump is a good, moral, Christian, etc. person. That just ain't so. I should probably just delete this article. :)
Disclaimer: In thinking about this some more, I decided I should put this disclaimer or clarification in. There's a saying that you "can't fix stupid". I used the phrase "stupid people" to be funny. If truth be known, I don't really think Trump supporters are stupid, but rather they are ignorant, or just not looking at the facts. Ignorance can be fixed. And don't think of ignorance as a negative labeling, but rather a description. We're all ignorant on some level. I'm an expert in some fields, average in others, and totally ignorant in some others. The difference between being stupid versus ignorant is that I can study and learn, and remove my ignorance. Listen, the problem I have is with the support of Trump, the person, given we know how bad a person he is. If you voted for him because you just vote Republican (though he's just a pretend Republican), or just as a vote against Clinton, I don't have a problem with that. I just can't grasp the logic of those that actually think Trump is good. It blows my mind that evangelical voters support Trump when we know by his actions and words that he's probably an atheist.
UPDATE: November 9, 2016: The most corrupt, unethical, immoral, and un-Godly man to ever seek the White House has been appointed to the Presidency by the Electoral College. America has truly fallen.
Every time Donald Trump wins a primary, or I hear someone say they support him, it reminds me of just how dumb the average American voter is. Let's not even consider the disaster it would be to have a president that is an egotistical narcissist, clueless on foreign policy and diplomacy. Do any of his supporters actually LISTEN to what he says? His broken speech and rambling sentences show he's just throwing out sound bites, for the dumb masses to consume. He inherited hundreds of millions of dollars from his dad yet he still shafted hard working companies/people by declaring bankruptcy, not once, not twice, but, well, I'll leave it up to you to count how many times. For fun, let's consider the wall he says he's going to build on the Mexican border, that he's going to get Mexico to pay for (and let’s forget he hires illegals for his businesses). A wall would be neat, but if you really think he can fulfill that promise, I've got some ocean front property in Kansas to sell you.
He says Mexico can/will pay for it because we have a trade deficit with them. That makes absolutely no sense, but let me put it in a simple analogy that even a Trump supporter can understand. Let's say I grow beans and you grow corn. I buy some of your corn, but you buy a LOT more of my beans, for more money. We have trade deficit. You're spending more money on my product than I'm spending on yours. So I'm taking in more money from you, than you're taking in from me. Does that mean I can afford to build a wall? No! Just because I take in more money, that doesn't mean I don't have existing debt and bills to address. Mexico still has an economy (not that great) to support. An army to support. A police force to support. A government to support. Roads to build. Etc. Even though they get more money from us than we get from them, they could still be operating in the red.
It's really that simple. Actually, it’s even simpler than that! All that trade deficit money isn’t even in the hands of the government, but rather multitude of businesses that sell goods to the United States. So why do Trump supporters think he can do it? Because they don't actually THINK about it. They hear him say "We'll build a wall and they'll pay for it because of the trade deficit" and instead of actually thinking about what that means, they just accept it as fact ... hook, line, and sinker. The scary part is that what if Trump REALLY thinks that's the way things work?! Though, this might explain why Trump has had to declare bankruptcy a few times.
This is just the tip of the iceberg with what's wrong with Trump. He has temper tantrums and acts before he speaks. He has no clue on diplomacy, governmental policies and procedures, the military, etc. He hires illegals and foreigners over Americans for his businesses. He ships American jobs overseas. In fact, he does pretty much the opposite of everything he says in his stump speeches. But what if that's still too complex for the average Trump supporter to comprehend? To that I say, "Do you REALLY want Trump running against Hilary Clinton?" Republicans would vote for Trump, Democrats would vote for Clinton, but who do you think the needed Independents would vote for? Independents are thinkers! And I doubt many of them think highly of Trump. They see his personality, and they see his utter lack of political skill. They'll vote for Clinton. If Republicans want to put Hillary Clinton in the White House, then by all means, support Donald Trump.
Jeff Polston
UPDATE 11/02/16:
Well, the election is only days away and the Republicans have hitched their wagon to the worse possible candidate, Donald Trump. While anything is certainly possible in an election, and it's currently a tight race, why choose a walking disaster like Donald Trump when any other Republican that was running could have easily beaten Clinton? Why risk it? Trump shows every day that he is unfit, and lacks the temperament to be President. He has continued to have temper tantrums when people disagree with him, or criticize him. Trump is a draft dodger, yet he has attacked John McCain's military service because McCain was a POW. He continues to attack women, calling them fat and ugly if they disagree with him. A video tape of him surfaced with him saying how he gropes women, kisses them, and grabs their genitals because he can get away with it because of his fame. He's on video saying he bursts into the dressing rooms of the beauty pageants he owns so he can see the women naked. He attacked the family of a soldier that was killed in action because they were critical of him, and he attacked their religion. After denying doing what he actually brags about in the released tape, about a dozen women have come forward to accuse Trump of doing exactly what he claims to do. They claimed he groped and kissed them against their will. He's made fun of people with physical handicaps by imitating them with flailing arms. It's been shown that he hasn't been paying federal income taxes like the rest of us to support the country, military, etc. He's been fined for siphoning off money that was supposed to be for charity in order to pay for self-portraits painted of himself. He praises the president of Russia. He constantly lies and exaggerates, and makes false claims about the opposition. He talks about not supporting our allies in NATO, and has even suggested proliferating nuclear weapons to other countries. Instead of buying American, he buys Chinese steel and other foreign supplies for his buildings and businesses, thus he doesn't support the American economy and businesses. He denies our second amendment rights in his businesses and supports gun bans. The hypocritical evangelicals believe he's Jesus 2.0, but he doesn't have a religious bone in his body. Even bragged about NEVER asking God for forgiveness, which leads me to believe he's actually an atheist (though nothing wrong with that in principal). He funnels money out of his businesses as he runs them into the ground, and eventual bankruptcy. That's how he remains rich while not paying those that worked for him and invested in him. Him being proud of making money off the misery of people losing their homes, saying it's because he's a "businessman", shows that he lacks any ethics or morals. He puts personal profit ahead of common decency. And Republicans want this guy in the White House?! If Hillary Clinton takes the White House, we have the Republicans to blame. They had many other viable candidates to pick from other than Donald Trump. And if Clinton wins, I hope it's only by electoral vote, and not the popular vote. Maybe the silver lining behind that will be that politicians will finally move to get rid of the flawed electoral system. There's no place for that in a society that has democratic elections.
UPDATE 03/30/17:
How ironic that after my statement of saying if Clinton wins, I hope it's by electoral count only so we can get rid of that flawed system, that the unfit candidate Donald Trump got the White House by electoral vote only. The American people wanted Clinton over Trump by over 2.8 million votes! Something is very wrong with a system that gives a victory to the one that lost by MILLIONS of votes.