Why I Voted for Donald Trump

With this being such a hotly contested and controversial election I felt it necessary to explain why I voted for Donald Trump.

First off, let me say that I cannot and will not defend Donald Trump, his character or his loud mouth and outrageous comments. In reality, I was extremely unhappy to be forced into the choice of voting for Trump.  In fact this may be the one and only thing Republicans and Democrats could agree on during this election!  (that they were unhappy about their choices for president) During the Republican primary, Trump was my last choice among the 17 Republican candidates that were running.  I would’ve taken anyone above him. My first choice was Ted Cruz, but Marco Rubio, John Kasich, Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul, Chris Christie all would’ve been acceptable (even Bush). But the republican voters chose Donald Trump. So, after Trump was announced as the nominee, I was faced with the choice of who I would vote for for the presidency. I did consider voting for a third party (for the Libertarian, Gary Johnson), but was convinced that I would be throwing my vote away – essentially giving it to Hillary Clinton.

There were four main reasons why I voted for Donald Trump:

1. First off my vote was not so much a vote for Trump, but rather a vote to keep a thoroughly corrupt, career politician and pathological liar from holding the highest office in the land and indeed in the world. We know what happens when you give Hillary Clinton power. All you’ve gotta do is look at the wiki leaks emails that show how she used her power and position for personal gain. The “pay to play” schemes that were revealed when she was Secretary of State. The fact that a public servant can leave the White House “flat-broke” in the year 2000 (even stealing furnishings from the White House when leaving there) and now have a net worth in excess of 200 million dollars tells me that something fishy was going on. As a side note, I firmly believe that if she had not made the arrogant and foolish decision to set up that personal email server, she would actually be our president now – she has no one to blame but herself for her failure.
2. Secondly, I voted for Donald Trump because I vote anti-abortion. If there’s a candidate who is a pro-abortion, given another choice, I will vote against that person. Hillary Clinton without a doubt is a vociferous supporter of abortion rights – even late term abortions. Whereas, Donald Trump is anti-abortion. It is likely that those in his administration will be pro-life as well.  See this article for a good discussion of the issues involved in the abortion debate.
3. Thirdly, I voted for the Republican platform. When I look at what it includes, it more closely aligns to my worldview and values than does the Democratic platform. For example, the Republican platform is for the following:
   1. Pro-life
   2. Religious freedom
   3. Traditional Values
   4. America first (instead of globalism)
   5. Smaller government
   6. Lower taxes and spending (fiscal responsibility)
   7. Strong national defense
   8. Strong borders (enforcing illegal immigration laws)
   9. Law and order
   10. Better trade deals
   11. Pro-business
   12. Not penalizing those who’ve succeeded financially in life
   13. Constitution originalists (the constitution is not a “living document” – if you want to change it, go through the amendment process)

Those are all things I stand for. The Democratic platform on the other hand, is completely opposed on all of those issues. So I felt that I had to vote for the platform that most closely aligned to my (Christian) worldview.

4. Now it’s also important to realize that when you’re voting for a president, you’re not just voting for the president alone, but you’re also voting for the complete administration that will be installed. This includes thousands of political appointees. Much of the damage that was done during the Obama Administration was done by unelected political appointees. So, even though I personally find Donald Trump distasteful, and cannot defend him, I do know that he will appoint conservative people in his administration, who will implement policies that more closely align to my worldview.

Also it gives me great comfort to know that the president has limited power. Because of our system of government having three branches with checks and balances, the president can’t just do anything he wants. He must work with Congress, he must work with others in his administration. So, while I’m disappointed that Trump had to be our nominee, I had no other choice than to vote for the Republican nominee for president. I stand by that choice, no matter what the rioters and the intolerant liberals want to do to silence people like me.  I’m sure people like me will continue to be called many names in an attempt to silence us.  This decision to vote Republican had nothing to do with bigotry, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, Islamophobia, misogyny, and whatever other names you can call me. This had to do with standing on principle, principles that more closely aligned to my Christian worldview.

Let’s give Trump a chance and see what he, along with his administration and a Republican House and Senate, can do.  We may be surprised.