*sigh*...Here's the thing about this election - it matters a whole fucking lot who wins it. I've heard people who think it's like any other Presidential election and no matter who wins, shit doesn't get fixed so why does it matter if you vote or not? But this is quite different. And rarely has there been an election with such a dire possible outcome. If you know me, you know I loathe politics and I typically tune out in election years once I've decided who to vote for. This year, it wasn't difficult to make that decision since one candidate is a racist fucking lunatic, so I've been decided for quite awhile now. Unfortunately, because of what's at stake in this election, there's no way to escape all the news about it. I decided to watch the debate this week because I was curious to see if Hillary would go off on Trump or be able to keep her cool. I thought she did very well, looked very professional and stuck to the facts when she was asked a question. She got a few digs in at the idiot, but did not lower herself to his level. On the other hand, I could not believe the shit Trump was spewing and that he was getting applauded for some of it. Go back and watch the whole debate and you'll notice he did not directly answer a single question Lester Holt (a bad choice for moderator, btw because he rarely interjected to try and keep shit on topic) posed to him. Everything had a long-winded answer about how much money he has and, "That's what's wrong with this country" without really telling us what is wrong with it. He interrupted Lester or Hillary fifty-five times in less than two hours. A debate is meant to be a healthy discussion between two people with opposing views, with each person getting the chance to say their part. It is not meant to be one person directly answering questions while the other constantly interrupts to lie in his own defense or throw out ridiculous digs.
A few things stood out in the debate, none of them good. I know just about every minority in the country who was watching opened their ears wide to hear what Trump had to say about race relations in America. I can't say I was surprised by what I heard. Stop and frisk should be reinstated because it works, despite the fact we all know which colors are most likely to be stopped for looking "suspicious". According to Trump, every neighborhood of color is a third world ghetto where people live under terrible conditions and rampant crime sprees and gun violence. That assertion was funny to me because I grew up in such a neighborhood and while it was no picnic, we certainly didn't have to board up our windows and not go outside at night because crime was so awful. Hell, we lived a few blocks from the actual projects and crime still wasn't a huge deal. I highly doubt Trump has even been to a neighborhood like this in his life though, so how would he know how they operate? Also of note was how he evaded questions about his tax returns and continued to throw out claims about his wealth, none of it making sense. Absolutely nothing is preventing him from releasing his tax returns, standard practice for Presidential candidates, he's just refusing to do so. And I'm very curious as to why that is. Given how often he's been audited, and that he's declared bankruptcy six times, I wouldn't doubt he's taken deductions he shouldn't have or that he's not as well off as he claims to be. Hiding something shady is the only reason not to release those documents. I'd guess the reason he said he was supposedly going to say nasty things about Hillary and her family but chose not to was some misguided attempt to show he was a "nice" guy. Buuuuut saying you were gonna do that and then didn't shows the opposite - it makes you look like a dick. You're acknowledging you have it in you to say such awful things, and we know he does anyway cuz he's always been that way, but trying to gain brownie points for not actually saying it? Nah, son. It doesn't work that way. Besides, it'd be the biggest case of the pot calling the kettle black in history. Hillary's husband cheated on her numerous times, so what? You started banging your next wife before you divorced the previous ones. Hillary was cheated on and now she's got Bill by the cojones, whereas Trump gets rid of his wives as soon as they start to show too much mileage. And what the fuck does it matter if Bill cheated anyway? He was a great President, he balanced the budget and he's not the one running, she is. I feel the same way about the email scandal, I'm so tired of hearing about it. Was she less than forthcoming? Yes, she was. But it was investigated and that's the end of it. No politician bats a thousand in their career and no one politician can change everything or fix everything the way Trump is promising or seems to have expected Hillary to already have done. She wasn't President, she was Secretary of State for four years and there's only so much power that comes with that position. The last thing that jumped out was Trump flat out lied about the whole birther thing, as well as his stance on the Iraq war. My memory is crap and even I can recall him being all out and proud about the war, and calling for Obama to resign because he wasn't actually born in the U.S.. Like this is shit that is in writing for the world to see, but he continues to deny it. In one of Lester Holt's few moments of bringing down the hammer in the debate, he pressed Trump on why he continued to deny Obama was an American long after a birth certificate had been produced. Again, he didn't directly answer the question and when pressed he lied yet again.
Trump showed himself to be an outright liar, out of touch with minorities and an all-around dick. Anyone who brags about how he doesn't pay taxes and doesn't pay the people who build his resorts because, "maybe they didn't do a good job" is a disgusting human being. I feel like the government squanders my taxes and not everyone I hire to do a job does it well, but I don't have the luxury of not paying them. It's that entitled attitude that bothers me. How are you going to fix the nation's debt when you're $650 million in debt yourself? Why the fuck are you even in that situation if you allegedly have sooooo much cash flow? He wants to slash taxes on the rich in the hopes they put that saved money back into their companies and hire more people. Bush did that and no one put money into anything, they just enjoyed the kick back and watched everyone else languish in the recession. That doesn't work, we already know that. Trump's ideas on money and minorities are dangerous as all hell, but it's something he brought up himself that's my biggest worry - temperament. The fact that Hillary didn't crawl across that stage and punch the lights out that mother fucker shows she has more patience than anyone. I couldn't have done it. Someone tweeted right after the debate that they'd never vote for Hillary because, "Americans died because of her". That can be said of just about any President who went to war or inherited a war. I firmly believe Bush ignored chances to stop 9/11 and look how many Americans that killed, not to mention those who died in the needless war that followed. If Trump wins, I guarantee you we will see casualties (home and abroad) like never before because he's a hot head who can't control himself. The man said if he were a sailor being taunted by foreign sailors, he'd blow up their ship for fuck's sake. That's an act of war over schoolyard level shit. And he wants to argue who has the better temperament? He wants to claim he's A-Ok to have nuclear codes and that kind of power? Yet despite all this, many news outlets said they thought he did a pretty good job in his first debate. I'm not sure what they were watching, but hell no. If Satan himself were running against Trump, I'd be pounding the pavement to get Satan some votes. Trump is a massive threat to the future of minorities, no doubt, and I cannot respect one who chooses to vote for him. But he's also a threat to the fate of the world in general. The rest of the world, both leaders and in many cases citizens of other countries, can see what a threat he is, but Americans can't. And that's extremely concerning. It is genuinely scary to think about wait awaits us in a little over a month's time...
