Voting from the heart

I considered staying silent on this matter. I really did. But then this morning I watched a powerful video that I really wanted to share with you. Here it is, courtesy of ABC News: goo.gl/Wgl2lb

_1160803It’s no secret that I’m a Democrat, a registered Democrat in Massachusetts. I’ve posted about it here on the blog. This year, though, I feel more strongly than ever before about what I see going on in the U.S. presidential campaign. This year, I really fear for my country…and this has never happened to me before, not even when I really disliked the other party’s candidate.

And this year, for the first time, I asked myself: “if the Democratic party had chosen a candidate like Donald Trump, would I vote for him?”

No. I couldn’t. I would vote for someone else, even a Republican (yes, I would, if the other choice were a Trump-like character)…or I wouldn’t vote at all, for the first time in my life.

So I don’t follow party lines. I vote because it is my duty to vote, goes without saying, but I also vote because I KNOW that my candidate is going to do a good job and not screw things up for my country and, let’s not forget!, the entire world…

There are a bunch of reasons why I’m bringing up this unusual topic (unusual for a myeloma blog, that is). First and foremost, because, as I mentioned, I am really SCARED. I’m scared about WHOM we might end up electing…

But I am also OFFENDED…deeply offended by what Mr. Trump said, and by all those offhand snide and sneaky remarks he said during Monday night’s debate with Hillary Clinton. (By the way, many thanks to CNN International for re-broadcasting the entire debate, which I was able to watch on Tuesday, around lunchtime.)

It’s not by chance that I am writing this post today, that is, just a few days after the first presidential debate. Here are a few things that really disturbed me while I was watching it…

Let’s start with the housing crisis. When Clinton accused Trump of rooting for the housing crisis, in which thousands of Americans lost their homes, their jobs, their futures, their children’s futures, Trump lowered his head toward the microphone and remarked, and I quote: “That’s called business.”

In other words, he actually bragged about making a profit off the terrible misfortunes of so many Americans. I don’t know about you, but that REALLY bothered and still bothers me. It shows what kind of person he truly is…

Moving on to taxes…Clinton brought up the fact that he has NOT released his tax returns (which is simply OUTRAGEOUS and unheard of for a presidential candidate, btw). The only tax returns we know about are a couple that date to the late 1970s (I forget which years exactly, but that isn’t the point here). These returns show that Trump had paid ZERO income tax. While she was talking about that, he interjected, “That makes me smart.”

Smart????? Really? Now, I’m hardly (hah!) a billionaire, but I have paid my taxes all my adult life. On time, to boot. I have paid taxes in the U.S.A., in Canada (where I did my Ph.D.), and in Italy. It’s our DUTY to pay taxes. It’s the LAW. It’s the right thing to do. But I guess I’m not “smart.”

I would like to add that even though I pay taxes in Italy now, every year I still file my tax return in the U.S.A. (I don’t make enough money to pay taxes in both countries, but I still have to let the IRS know how much I make over here, etc.).

It’s the LAW. The law, Mr. Trump.

Now, I know that NOT paying taxes is a felony in the U.S.A. So I can’t help but wonder how a candidate for the highest office in the country can get away with saying, indeed BOASTING, that he didn’t pay any income tax. In fact, that is almost certainly why he hasn’t released his other, more recent tax returns yet…and why he will undoubtedly NOT release them before the election, mark my words. He doesn’t want us to know that he has always dodged paying taxes.

Shameful.

Are we going to let him get away with it? But, even more importantly, is this the sort of person we want in the White House? Do we think that Trump is a good role model for future generations?

Of course, I could go on and on about all of Trump’s outrageous LIES (according to all the fact checkers, during the debate he told a lie every three minutes or so…every THREE minutes!), his misogyny, his rudeness, his temper tantrums, his ignorance, his womanizing, and even his inability to speak proper English and stay on course whenever he begins a sentence…But that would lead to a very long laundry list. Besides, it’s all there on the Internet…

I would like to end my post with an appeal, an appeal from the heart: fellow Democrats, fellow Independents, fellow Republicans, we NEED to prevent this rude, arrogant, self-centered, dangerous man from getting anywhere near the White House and the Gold Codes…

I pay taxes, I don’t speculate on other people’s misfortunes, I don’t interrupt people, I’m not rude and obnoxious, I don’t call other human beings “fat” “pig” or “slob,” I don’t tell lies (EVER!)…And I vote…

How about you?

P.S: The photo above, on the right, by the way, is of my absentee ballot, which I received yesterday. I am about to fill it out (voting for Clinton, obviously!) and send it off.

8 Comments

  1. I’ve always tried to vote for the candidate whose primary focus is the value of people rather than money. My career as an educator for 30 years reflects my philosophy. There is no question in my mind who to vote for in this election. Your analysis perfectly mirrors my own assessment of the issues. I pray that others agree with us.

  2. I’m not sure where you did your fact checking from, but maybe again we didn’t watch the same debate, which was rigged by the way. If you are only fact checking through the major news media, then I feel sorry for you. The regular news media is doing exactly what the government is telling them to do and that is feed the public the propaganda they want the public to hear…not what the real truth is. You should look up The National Defense Authorization Act.
    While I agree that Mr Trump’s comments can be a bit over the top at times, it is in no comparison to a woman who has done nothing to show for in the 30 yrs she’s been on the political scene, and seems to have a lie in every other sentence she spews.
    I’m not into full blown myeloma yet, I’m still teetering on the cusp of it and as you said, yes, stress makes it worse. I too am stressed that we would allow a woman to become president just because she’s a woman. …someone who has blood on her hands from Benghazi and lied about what caused that to happen. Someone who put our national security at risk just because she wanted to protect her ‘personal’ stuff. Someone who is willing to kill a baby all the way up to right before it’s born just to keep abortion rights alive. I could keep going, but there’s not enough white space here.
    I feel sorry for people who look at Trump through the propaganda lies that are told instead of really looking into what all he has done ‘for’ people throughout the years.
    For the record, I could care less about his tax returns…if he was smart enough to use the tax laws in his favor, more power to him. Its people in my class, lower end of middle class that suffer from the god awful tax problem here…we are the ones who are fed up with the ‘Clinton’ type people. I would suggest you think about what is really going to happen to my country if your Clinton gets in…because it won’t be good.

  3. Thank you for bringing the horror of this candidate into the light. I too was an educator for many years and I think of all the work we have done to help students work through conflicts through listening, empathy, and
    understanding their emotions. I feel that Trump just pees on EVERYTHING that so many people have worked for in helping to create evolved citizens. Very hard to hear listen to this man – outraged in so many ways. I too would vote Republican, if Trump had gotten this far in the democratic party.

  4. Well, obviously you don’t have to buy insurance as a self employed person in the US. Obamacare is a disaster. Someone has to start controlling drug costs, and it will take an outsider to get it done. Neither choice is good, but I will be cancelling out your vote. As a member of the deplorables that has worked all my life and paid taxes, I am tired of thinking I should pay for others college now too. Does everyone think someone else should pay their bills? I was raised by parents who taught that was a sign of bad character. I even refuse maintenance chemo for my MM because I think the cost is criminal, especially when you consider they don’t really have that good of evidence it improves quality of life long term.
    I guess this where we agree to disagree. Life will go on either way, just concerned what kind of future we are leaving our children.

  5. I can assure everyone that even here in GB we are very concerned about Trump winning. He’s obviously telling a lot of Americans what they want to hear – and thereby lays the problem.

    I land in the USA on the day of the election (not intentionally!) and will be interested to see what happens…

  6. As an immigrant, a taxpayer who did not cheat the government, who watches other news channels and avoids Fox, you can guess for whom I am voting. Thank you Margaret for speaking up.

  7. Hi Margaret,

    Couldn’t let this go by without a dig:

    ” I also vote because I KNOW that my candidate is going to do a good job and not screw things up for my country and, let’s not forget!, the entire world…”

    Voted for whom last time? Not President Obama, I’m guessing, since adding a Trillion dollars to US nuclear programs in the coming decade couldn’t be good for the entire world…

    (Must say I’ve voted for Ralph Nader every time he’s run and will likely write him in in November.)

    All goodness,

    Bill M
    Vero Beach FL

  8. Well said Margaret. I guess when you have a disease like we do then the community spirit comes out. We must all look after each other. I suppose “J” from above would be stamping on people’s fingers who were clinging to the lifeboat, instead of working on a way to get everybody through. What must it be like to have no true friends? Just to see life as winners and losers… very sad.

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