So this is a two parter. The first part is just a simple reminder that you, as a world traveling American still have the opportunity, and really – obligation – to vote from overseas using the absentee ballot system. How do you do this? It’s actually, theoretically, simple. The first step is to contact your local election office and ask for them to email you a ballot. Once you get it find a printer, print it out, fill it out and take it to the local US Embassy and they will process it for you and send it back to the US of A.
Now, why I’m voting for and support Donald Trump. Here’s the thing, it’s campaign season, elections get heated, politics leak into every day life and your friendships get strained under the opposed viewpoints being blasted all over your social media feeds all day. next year after the inauguration in January we’ll all go back to being friends. I recently found myself in two different conversations with people I don’t even know who outright demanded why I would even consider voting for Donald Trump. And of course with these types of people, there isn’t any really good answer. I don’t care of course what they think, I have my own opinions of them, and their character, but I wanted to make an official statement of my support for Candidate Trump.
Here’s why I’m voting for Donald Trump. At the end of the day we’re really playing Russian roulette with our politicians these days, and that’s the biggest attractor for me to his campaign. He’s not a career politician, and I’m fed up with the garbage of politics. Look at any major bill that went through congress in the last decade lauded as a success for one specific thing. Like the recent Veterans Health bill that was shot down, it was shot down because career politician had saddled it with so much pork and unrelated clutter that it wasn’t a Vets bill by the time it reached the floor. That sort of garbage politicking and pandering to special interests has to end. I like that Trump is an outsider, I really like that the establishment on both sides of the aisle are terrified of him. But then you dig into his positions – of all the candidates he’s the only one I trust to actually do anything along the lines of what he’s promising.
So we get into his positions, his tax plan is in my opinion the strongest among the candidates, putting more money into the wallets of workers while also taking the tax load off of low income workers entirely (earners filing as single making less than $25k per year pay 0% and couples making combined $50k per year pay 0%) This eases the tax burden on low income families immensely, and the rates for $50,001 and up (3 tiers – 10% 20% and 25%) will put more money into the wallets of the people, which will go right into the economy. As someone who is a middle class earner on my way to being an upper class earner I love this. I work hard, I have my whole life to further my education, my skills, I want to keep the money I earn for my hard work – not give it away to leaches at the bottom that don’t deserve one penny of my hard earned wages. On the other side of the coin both Hillary and Bernie have tax programs that penalize high income earners in favor of dolling out social programs and subsistence benefits like crazy.
Veterans issues, as a Veteran, are extremely important to me. Both Bernie and Donald have similar plans which I think is great. So points to both here, Trump has a few more goals in his plan, but ultimately they have identical positions. Entirely.
The 2nd amendment and my gun owners rights. Trump 100% all the way on this one. While Bern doesn’t have a clear policy position on the issue available on his website his rhetoric in public forums is enough to know that he’s part of the “establishment left” when it comes to striping lawful gun owners of their rights. Hillary is by far the worst in this matter. However Trump hits every point on the head. Lawful gun owners aren’t the problem. A federal background check has been in place since 1998 (despite liberal propaganda claims) and the real issue is mental health screening and treatment, as well as getting states to enforce the laws that are already on the books. He also supports a national CCW permit, that once a person has gone through the training and classes to earn a permit would be recognized in all 50 states, as well as arming our military men and women in recruiting stations and on bases. Which would have stopped several terror attacks, or at least substantially reduced the casualty count, in the past decade (Ft. Hood for instance).
I entirely support the Trump immigration plan as well. The big misnomer out there is that Trump is anti-immigrant, and it’s often trumpeted by uninformed media repeaters that fail to do a minutia of independent research. There is absolutely everything wrong with having an un-secure border, and the recidivism rate of violent illegal immigrant offenders is and should be alarming at the highest level. The facts support that illegal immigrants are directly harming the blue collar work force, and -if we are going to have a race fact in the debate (though I hate when race is brought up)- leaders in the black communities are getting behind Trump on this, because they’re unemployment rates are being directly impacted by illegals. Sanctuary cities are a huge problem and defunding them federally until they change their ways is smart. Deporting all illegals is NOT impossible, and other countries do it regularly. Take Kuwait for instance. Every month their police forces shut down a part of the country and check everyones papers. Illegals are arrested and deported. All of them. It works. They also have nearly no unemployment, and no vagrants or beggars on the streets. On the other side of the table of the immigration issue he’s also outlined a plan to make legal, and that’s important, LEGAL, immigration a streamlined and encouraged process. He’s not anti-immigrant, he’s anti-illegal, and so am I. But you’ve been my friend here long enough to have noticed that this has been my position for years. Not a bandwagon one.
I don’t believe in income equality, redistribution, or social programs that penalize hard workers and high earners. If anyone in the United States is feeling they aren’t earning enough they have the means, tools and opportunity to change that. That is the great thing about a free market and capitalist society. I should not be saddled with the weight of supporting an unmotivated, uneducated, and unproductive class of leaches. By furthering their benefits we condone their poor behavior and encourage not only their continued laziness, but the laziness of others. The best example of this is of course the redistribution of grades in a college class story. Hard workers, innovators, leaders, should be rewarded, encouraged, and lifted up by our society – not torn down.
I’m also one of those people that believes we already have a free college program, in the form of military service. Those that don’t qualify for military service already qualify for programs for their college to be free. If you aren’t willing to serve your country, your country shouldn’t be forced to pay your way at school. My GI Bill paid for two degrees and all of my pilots ratings. I have no student loan debt. The cost? 4 years in the Army and a tour in Iraq. It was worth every minute. Bernie wants to give away the farm. Though, I do think that the cost of education has climbed unchecked for too long, I do not think that people should just get education. The value of a thing given for free is not realized in the same way as the value of something earned or paid for. Education beyond high school is not a right, it is a privilege of our great system, and should be bought into either by service, or by your own personal wallet.
I suppose one more thing, I’m getting on a bit of a tirade at this point, but one of the things Trump wants to do, and this is part of his tax plan, is to do a one-time deemed repatriation of corporate cash held overseas at a significantly discounted 10% tax rate. The sheer amount of money being held overseas by American companies is staggering, and bringing this money in will be epic for boosting the economy and workers pay and benefits. A healthy company pays it’s employees what, and more, than they deserve. Where one over taxed and over regulated will pay the bare minimum and will lay-off as many employees as possible. Programs like what Bernie proposes will ultimately lead to insanely high unemployment rates as employers move toward automation as quick as possible to get out from under the yoke and lash. Which I assure you will create a leftist fueled move for higher taxes on companies using automation. Just wait. 5-10 years from now it will be an election bullet point. I promise.
Let me close this out with saying that each person running has a website, and I encourage you to visit all of them like I have, read their opinions and make an informed decision. Whatever you do – DO NOT trust the media.
Update: This post generated 4 questions on facebook from a curious Canadian neighbor. I wanted to include my responses to those questions, which are fairly common questions in the campaign.
WanderTogether 