Friday, March 29, 2024

I Did It. I Voted for Donald Trump. Here’s Why.

Tomorrow is Election Day. Tomorrow, we vote.

I want to talk a little bit about why I am voting for Donald Trump.

Early on in the GOP primary, I did not support Trump. My feelings on Trump were mixed. I thought his debate performances were entertaining. I enjoyed watching him destroy squishy establishment Republicans like Jeb Bush and John Kasich. Unlike many of my peers, I liked his brash demeanor, and I was captivated by his willingness to fight the liberal media.

But I had trust issues, many of which I wrote about here at The Pulse 2016. Was Donald Trump a true conservative? Was he really pro-life? Could he be trusted?

Abortion was my biggest concern with Trump from the very beginning. But Trump, wisely, made committing to the pro-life movement a priority. In his policy platform, Trump went further than any other GOP nominee in history, promising to…

  • …apply a litmus test to judicial appointees and nominate “pro-life” Supreme Court justices.
  • …sign the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, a 20-week ban on abortion.
  • …defund Planned Parenthood.
  • …protect the Hyde Amendment and fight against any government effort to commit taxpayer funds to abortion.

It was because of these commitments that I declared I would vote for Donald Trump in an op-ed in The Daily Caller in May:

And as President, [Trump] will promote a culture of life. He will make saving lives a priority.

Does he say stupid things? Absolutely. Trump has evoked every emotion within me. I have cheered. I have laughed. I have cringed. I have been angered.

But if we are truly pro-life, we have a moral obligation to end abortion, one of the most horrific injustices in the history of the world.

That means we must vote for a pro-life president. That means we must vote for Donald Trump in November. We don’t have to love it. But we have to do it.

Since May, my support for Trump has evolved from reluctant to enthusiastic. I can honestly say that, in my lifetime, I have never been more excited to vote for someone than Donald Trump — with one possible exception being Rep. Bobby Schilling, my former boss!

I want to explain why I feel this way because many of my friends, both liberal and conservative, don’t quite understand it. My “Come to Trump” moment happened when it became apparent that this election was no longer about a battle between Republicans vs. Democrats, but a full-fledged war between the wealthy, powerful ruling class and the people.

You can tell a lot about a person based on who hates them. And a lot of people hate Donald Trump — media personalities, corporations, celebrities, rich people, cocktail party attendees, pseudo-intellectuals, party hacks, and, of course, politicians both Republican and Democrat alike.

In other words, the elites. The elites hate Donald Trump. And it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they hate him — after all, he threatens their stranglehold on our economy, on our politics, and on our culture. He threatens to empower the people — the proletariat — over the rich and powerful — the bourgeoisie and the aristocrats.

He threatens to fix a rigged system and level the playing field so that this country can once again be a nation of the people, by the people, and for the people.

“He must be stopped!” the elites insist, hoping that working class people, who they consider to be brainless rubes, will mindlessly listen.

And so they pull out all of the stops. “He’s a racist!” they cry. “He hates women and Mexicans!” they shout from the rooftops, desperate to protect their own interests.

But the people aren’t brainless rubes. They’ve seen this movie before.

Time and time again, the major parties put up candidates who promise change but fail to deliver. They promise to shake up the establishment, yet they allow the same Washington sewer rats to keep their power and make millions of dollars off a rigged game.

Trump represents a people who are tired of getting screwed. He represents a working class that hasn’t received a raise in more than 16 years.

He represents poor, disaffected people who are tired of being called racist, sexist, white-privileged bigots by elites who make 25, 50, or even 100 times their annual salary. He represents flyover country, the forgotten part of America that the ruling class mocks in private settings, which believes that men don’t belong in women’s bathrooms, that abortion in the ninth month is probably a step too far, and that America shouldn’t have to apologize to the world for being great.

He represents small-town America, which has watched its factories close and move to Mexico, while wealthy pseudo-intellectuals in Washington, D.C., tell them they’re stupid if they don’t worship at the altar of free trade.

He represents parents and students who are tired of the centralization and dumbing down of American education.

He represents the millions of American workers who lost half their pensions during the 2008 economic crisis — caused by circumstances they had nothing to do with — while big banks received government bailouts and Fortune 500 corporations recovered fully and then some.

He represents the small people, the little people, the forgotten people. He represents you and me.

Our country is on the wrong track, and it has been for decades. The divide between the rich and poor, the ruling class and the working class, has never been greater. Both parties have failed to serve the people they are elected to represent.

Donald Trump represents a system reset, a chance for We, the People to take back our country, renew the American dream, and promote prosperity for all.

Donald Trump may be our last, best chance to make America great again.

Jon Schweppe is the Communications Director for American Principles Project. Follow him on Twitter @JonSchweppe.

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