I wanted to remain quiet about this, but what kind of person would I be if I didn’t hop on the bandwagon and discuss the most contentious election of all time at least once?

Last Sunday, I made a Facebook post that took a bit of a stance on the controversy surrounding the unearthed 2005 tape. My take away message was that, despite Donald Trump’s vulgar comments vulgar, they weren’t enough to change my opinion of him, and that people shouldn’t take them as a personal attack. With all of that said, several of my friends still became enormously outraged, and it didn’t take long until the discussion devolved into an exchange of name-calling and crude remarks.

In Trump’s defense, most men and women have objectified another human being in one form or another, so nobody is off the hook here. The major difference between Trump and the average person is that Trump’s objectification was exceptionally obnoxious. Did I mention that he’s also running for president?

The truth is, even the “Trump said this” and the “Trump said that” drama hasn’t been enough to quell my enthusiasm for him. In fact, it’s only made it stronger than ever before. Why? Because I’m tired of the media always telling me what to do.

I have traveled across time and space trying my hardest to hate Trump, but really what I was doing was subordinating to other people’s opinions, not my own. Really, I was afraid of the scrutiny I would receive had I revealed who I chose to side with. When Trump first announced his campaign on June 16^th, 2015, people took it as nothing more than a joke. How could an outsider with zero political experience actually get a shot at the most powerful position in the world? And yet, as Trump’s numbers soured and his favorability increased, there came a point where where it became essentially taboo to speak of him positively. Today, it’s not just taboo, it’s condemned. And that’s why I’m writing this article.

Let me ask: what business do news outlets, Facebook Trending, and Hollywood celebrities have telling me that I’m supposed to dislike Trump? If people voted for him and made him their Republican nominee, then obviously I should get to exercise some right to support him in his campaign for the presidency. Nonetheless, if you so much as lightly defend Trump these days, you’re asking to get dismissed as a sexist, a racist, a misogynist, or a bully. You can’t win.

While we’re on the topic of bullies, Trump’s success is mostly accredited to the ridicule he directed toward his opponents, and for the most part, it’s worked wonders. Can you really blame his first-time approach to politics when his strategies have propelled his campaign this far? I can’t. Furthermore, the 1, 2, 20, or even 100 offensive comments he has made over the years pales in comparison to the dozens of Hillary Clinton’s lies, crimes, and scandals.

Are we even going to bring up the good things that Trump has done over the years, such as fly a sick child to the hospital on his private jet, donate his personal earnings to health organizations, and offer a $10,000 reward to the Buffalo bus driver who prevented a young woman from taking her own life? The list goes on (Wenkert, 2016). Also, with talks of Trump purportedly hating, devaluing, and demeaning women, let’s not forget that he appointed Barbara Res in 1980 to be the first woman to supervise the construction of a skyscraper.

Regardless, the prevailing argument against Trump is that he is simply unfit for the presidency. A business man? Running for president? That’s like a lawyer performing brain surgery for the first time. Yet something tells me (and I could be wrong on this one, so don’t quote me) that anyone could run the country if they were a natural-born leader who could handle the incredible pressure of the world’s toughest job. With effective delegation and a solid support network, I’ll hedge my bets with Trump if it means he’ll shake things up in a positive way.

I’ll close off by saying that I’m invested in the outcome of this election because it is so important to my family as well as to the future of my country. I will vote in November, and if my preferred candidate loses, then no one can say that I, we, didn’t try.

Reference

Wenkert, S. (2016, May 29). 15 Great Things Trump Has Done » REGATED. Retrieved October 13, 2016, from http://regated.com/2016/05/great-things-trump-done...