Guest Post: Things I Don't Like About Donald Trump

Things I don’t like about The Donald and why I won't be voting for him:

• He shoots from the lip.  He has made it plain that he–like a rebellious teenager–will say anything he pleases, at least in part, just to shock the rest of us.  He cares less about whether what he says has any truth to it than he does about whether or not it will get attention and coverage. While his shocking speech may impress US the news media, how well do you suppose it will play in the rest of the world?  And they thought George Bush was a reckless cowboy.

• I believe he sees the campaign as a marvelous way to gain publicity for himself–and all his TV shows.  He has lived his whole life in quest of publicity.  Do you really want a publicity hound in the White House?  If so, why not just vote for a Kardashian?

• He isn’t all that careful about how he spends other people’s money.  “His” businesses have had many minority partners over the years.  When he has declared bankruptcy, Trump missed no meals; I suspect his partners didn’t make out as well.  Yes, he “has a vision,” but he expects to pay for it with other people’s money.  After these years of crony capitalism, do you really want him picking the winners and losers?  Because I guarantee he won’t be the one doing any losing.

• He’s a bully.  Not only has he made this plain in his “reality shows” (which bear about as much relationship to actual reality as anything else from Hollywood), who but a bully would so callously belittle respected opponents like Dr. Ben Carson or Carly Fiorina?  Who else would make a grandiose proposal to force another country to pay for securing OUR borders?  And how would he do it? Invade them?  Tax the imported drugs coming from them that are already illegal?

• And, one final point about his outsized ego.  If some foreign leader talked publicly about him the way he talks about others, do we go to war to protect that ego? 

• I don’t believe for even one moment that he really cares one way or the other whether or not he wins the presidency.  When he called the Clintons before declaring his candidacy, was he promising that none of his upcoming statements would be meant personally?  Sort of like the Godfather ordering a hit, purely for business, nothing personal, Tessio.

• The Donald has never held ANY position in public government.  Not so much as animal control officer.  I doubt he has ever held a job he could be fired from for incompetence, inability to get along with the rest of the team, or bad behavior (else, he'd have learned better by now).  Why would we vote for anyone as chief executive of the whole country that we wouldn’t want to work for in our personal work lives, perhaps in a convenience store or other small business setting?  Haven’t we learned from the disastrous OJT we are STILL giving our current President?  Do we really have to make the same mistake again?  When we have so many good candidates who ARE prepared for the job?

• Yes, the borders need securing.  Yes, the regulatory state needs to be pruned.  Yes, we need to be able to project military power wherever in the world it’s needed, and yes, we need our national credibility to be respected.  Yes, we need to make working for a living more attractive than loafing or freeloading.  But, I can’t see how electing The Donald would have a positive impact on ANY of those things.

• If you really want ANOTHER spoiled, self-indulgent, loudmouthed incompetent with no experience in the White House, by all means, vote for The Donald.  I’d rather see a Rubio, a Walker, a Kasich, a Carson, a Fiorina, or even a Jim Webb doing that job.

Respectfully, Ron Pittenger