I walk into my polling place on November 8, check in with the staff, get my number, and wait in line. I feel connected to my community as I stand there with my fellow citizens, waiting to do my civic duty. Finally, its my turn to go into the booth. I step in, enter my code, and then proceed to select my choice to run this country for at least the next 4 years. I put my finger on the wheel that allows me to select my candidate and spin it to highlight “Trump, Donald J. (R)”. All I have to do now is hit the red button to cast my vote. If you’re like me and cannot imagine Hillary Clinton as president without nearly losing control of certain bodily functions, is that about how you visualize your election day playing out? That’s what I keep thinking about, but friends, I just don’t think I can do it.
I know, I know, I know. Don’t waste your vote. A vote for anyone but Trump is a vote for Clinton. Believe me, I’m having these debates with myself. But I keep coming back to the fact that I do not think Donald Trump needs to lead this country. I don’t even think that he’s actually a Republican. Friends, the man is an opportunist. If he thought that he could win easier as a Democrat, he’d be running as a Democrat. He hasn’t shown me anything that makes me think that he believes any of the stuff that comes out of his mouth. He has demonstrated an amazing talent for saying stuff that makes him look like a jerk. I understand that regardless of what he says, Hillary’s media cronies are going to make him look as bad as possible. But with that said, he makes it way too easy.
Can anyone tell me about his plans? I know he wants to build a wall. OK. He says he wants to bring back the middle class. He knows exactly nothing about the middle class. Do you think for a second that he has any idea what most of us deal with on a daily basis? Has he ever worried about paying his mortgage? Has ever been stressed because he wasn’t sure that his paycheck would hit the bank before the check he wrote to cover the power bill? Does he have any clue what a dozen eggs cost? He knows nothing about any of that. I don’t hold the fact that he’s wealthy, or that he was born with that wealth, against him. I think its great that you can achieve that in this country. But I don’t think he really cares about any of us that grind it out every day.
So, what am I to do? Obviously, I can’t vote for Hillary. That goes without saying. So do I just not vote this time? That is unacceptable to me. There’s way too much of that apathetic attitude as it is. Do I just go ahead and vote for the “lesser of two evils”? That is all I’ve ever done. I have never really voted FOR a candidate so much as against their opponent. I’m tired of that. I want to feel good about the choice that I make, whether they win or not. And by feel good, I mean that I think that they actually have the best interest of the country at heart and the Constitution as their guide. Do either of the big party candidates meet that simple criteria? Not even close.
Right now, I’m seriously thinking about Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate. I have some problems with the Libertarian platform, but no worse than I do with the big parties. I still need to do some more research on the guy, but I like what I’ve seen so far. He comes from working class parents and started his own company, which has been very successful. He earned his wealth through his own efforts. That alone puts him ahead of the other two in my book. And just think what it would do to the Big 2! What better way to bring about change than to not elect either of them! Wouldn’t they have to take a long look at themselves at that point? I mean, it should be easy to beat the Democrats this time, but Trump is the best that the Republicans can do. That is a sad state of affairs and speaks to the larger lack of leadership from which we have been suffering.
I don’t yet know what I’m going to do when I walk into that booth on November 8. I do know that this situation is very frustrating to this American.