Over my lifetime, like all of you, I’ve had the chance to work with great colleagues who have become dear friends. One of these friends of mine is Janice Shaw Crouse – a beautiful lady, inside and out. Janice has her Ph.D., was a presidential speechwriter for Bush senior, an appointee by Bush junior as an official US delegate to the United Nation’s Children’s Summit and the Commission on the Status of Women. Janice was a longtime senior executive for Concerned Women of America and she’s a very accomplished author and speaker. I trust her judgment and her heart.
But now I have a dilemma. I always have dilemmas when I disagree with my dearest colleagues, especially the really smart ones. In a recent article published for The American Thinker, my friend Janice Crouse explains why she is voting for Donald Trump. I should add that she’s not only voting for Trump but she’s committed to his transition team. She’s all in for Trump.
Her article, titled “Why a Well Read Woman with an Earned Doctorate will Vote for Trump,” is an exercise in common sense and political experience. She writes,
“As Mr. Trump said during the first debate, ‘They’ve had 30 years!’ We should not have to endure another 4 to 8 years of such disaster; I’m not sure we’d recognize America after another Clinton presidency. We should not have to live with leaders who ‘talk’ really well, making glib promises right and left, but can’t ‘do’ what needs to be done. As the cliché goes: ‘I’m much more appalled by what Hillary has done, than by what Trump has said.’”
Once again faced with the lesser-of-two-evils argument, my response remains what it always has been: Why does anyone think Trump is the solution? I get all of the concern about Hillary and status quo from both political parties. But what makes any intelligent person think Trump is the answer? Just because he’s the only alternative? Being the system’s alternative doesn’t make the man. The man makes the man.
My dear friend goes on to explain why she is voting for Trump. She writes that she is voting for common sense; she is voting for change; she is voting to end political correctness; she is voting to restore civility; she is voting for a party platform; she is voting for good people whom she respects and shares values; she is voting for lawful immigration policies; she is voting for the Constitution and the Bill of Rights; and, she is voting for religious freedom.
When my ideas are challenged like this I’d like to think I’m honest with myself and very introspective. So I ask, does Donald Trump really care about reversing “cultural disintegration and family breakdown”? Has Trump expressed any policies that would reduce the national debt? He wants to rebuild the military but has he expressed policies that reassure us that we can trust his judgment in defense of this country? I know Trump will fight against political correctness but I’m not convinced that his objections to it are sincere. After all, being rude and asinine are not the opposites of being politically correct.
Can Trump restore civility to the public square, as my friend suggests he can? Is the Republican Party platform a real substitute for what the man, himself, thinks about policy and politics? Can the good people ultimately surrounding him be counted on to do the right thing? Or will Trump continue to consult with his mirror and issue his opinions through Executive Orders published over Twitter?
The longest reach in defense of Trump concerns his knowledge, not even his views, of the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights. I just have this sinking feeling that those documents are simply instruments to be used to his benefit. Trump already has said he hates eminent domain laws that get in the way of his business dealings.
I understand the strong points of view expressed by my friends and colleagues supporting Trump. They hate Hillary and what she represents. Regardless of how intensely my friends hate Hillary that hatred alone is no justification to support Donald Trump. We need to take the man as he is, not as we need to make him in our minds to justify hating Hillary. Go ahead and hate her for her own sake. But what is the gain by substituting an incompetent and inexperienced blow hard in her place?
In other words, don’t sacrifice America on the altar of Hillary-hatred with a dagger of Trump-crazy.
I’m Paul Mero. Thanks for listening.
