Maddie's Matters
By Maddie LaPlante-Dube, Columnist
"If Hillary Clinton can't satisfy her husband what makes her think she can satisfy America?" (Donald Trump on Twitter, April 16, 2015)
"I have a great relationship with the blacks. I've always had a great relationship with the blacks." (Donald Trump on Albany's Talk 1300, April 14, 2011)
"I have black guys counting my money … I hate it. The only guys I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes all day." (Donald Trump - USA Today, May 20, 1991)
"I don't have a racist bone in my body." (Donald Trump - "Entertainment Tonight," July 1, 2015)
"The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive." (Donald Trump on Twitter, Nov. 6, 2012)
"I'm intelligent. Some people would say I'm very, very, very intelligent." (Donald Trump in Fortune, April 3, 2000)
In the words of John Oliver, "Our main story [is] about Donald Trump. We can't believe we're saying that either."
I write this article knowing that any press, even tiny college-newspaper press, is good press for Donald Trump at this point in his campaign. But there comes a point when we all need to address the elephant in the room. The elephant: Trump might become the next commander-in-chief of the United States.
Nothing makes sense anymore, not with the support that our infamous likely Republican candidate has somehow garnered by literally just being a terrible person.
He's wild, he's unpredictable, he's radical, he's angry - at least, that's what the headlines are saying.
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But Trump's a complicated man. He's also a racist, sexist, unreliable, narcissistic pathological liar who will run this country into the ground. Usually, I try to keep these opinion articles pretty fair, but it has gotten to a point in the race for presidency where tact has totally gone out the window.
Donald Trump will not be able to run this country. I beg everyone who is reading this and supports Trump in any way to please do some research into who he actually is. This article can serve as your starting point.
First, he's inconsistent. In 1999, he stated to the Associated Press that abortion "is a personal decision that should be left to the women and their doctors."
Sound advice. But in a January 2016 opinion article in the Washington Examiner, he shifted completely.
"Public funding of abortion providers is an insult to people of conscience at the least and an affront to good governance at best," he said.
This is not to start a debate on the morality of abortion. It's to show that he is willing to string people, women especially, along to please the majority. Does he want women to make their own choices with their bodies or does he want to limit their abilities to do so?
He also has a super unreliable stance on guns.
"If you had more guns, you'd have more protection because the right people would have guns," he said, according to Voice of America.
His logic revolves around the idea that, if more people carried guns on them all of the time, less people would be killed during inevitable mass shootings. Infallible logic, clearly. What about real background checks? What about shrinking the power of the NRA? Nah. Probably should throw more guns around.
Third, he has little-to-no value for human life, American or otherwise.
"I will … quickly and decisively bomb the hell out of ISIS," he said in a campaign ad.
But it's this idea about violence that is driving so many people out of the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia. We've seen how well blind bombing works with the United States and Russia's airstrikes in Syria, with some claims saying that Russian airstrikes have killed hundreds of civilians. Even the United States, in January 2016, recently admitted to killing Syrian civilians in an airstrike during the summer of 2015, including children.
But bomb the hell out of ISIS, Trump. That only means you'll have to bomb parts of Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and more. And what about the splinter groups hiding in Europe and North America?
Not only that, but what about our troops? How many men and women are we willing to sacrifice at the hands of a man who will never see war?
Trump leading the polls is not funny, nor is it normal even in our time of sensationalism. I understand that terrorism has reached an all-time horror level. I understand that we've been through deep and unsettling economic change. Trump's "anger" is justified. But I am begging America to reconsider. Think of the man, not the legend. Trump is not qualified to run our country.
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