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![To Trump or Not to Trump? That’s My Dilemma. [VIDEOS]](https://victorygirlsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/IMG_1765.jpg)
Except for a brief stint as a college undergraduate, when I registered as a Democrat to support a sorority sister’s father in his run for sheriff, I have always been a Republican. I have voted for each Republican presidential candidate since 1976 when I cast my first ever national vote for Gerald Ford. Some votes have been given more enthusiastically than others. But I have never missed an opportunity to support the GOP presidential candidate.
This year, however, Donald Trump is making it increasingly difficult for me to follow that trend.
Don’t get me wrong — I really want to find a reason to vote for him. But every time I think my conscience will allow me to do so, he says something incomprehensibly stupid. And I roll my eyes and shake my head.
To wit: Trump responded to the powerful address made at the Democratic National Convention by a Muslim father, Khizr Khan, whose son was killed in Iraq. Speaking in an interview on ABC’s This Week, Trump did not honor the son’s sacrifice for his nation, or recognize the grief of the Gold Star family. He rebutted that he had “made a lot of sacrifices too.” He also questioned why Mrs. Khan did not also address the crowd.
Trump’s remarks did not go over well, even among Republicans. Bill Kristol tweeted this:
Watch this. Then tell me @realDonaldTrump meets the minimal standards of character & self-awareness to be president. https://t.co/D0zAR1oIP1
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) July 30, 2016
American Conservative writer Rod Dreher wrote: “Normal, decent human beings do not attack Gold Star mothers and fathers. Even though the Khans did enter the political fight with their endorsement of Hillary Clinton, if you have any sense of humanity in you, you just do not attack Gold Star mothers and fathers. Period. The end.”
And questioning why Mrs. Khan didn’t speak? Nick Timiraos at the Wall Street Journal tweeted:
Context: Khan had no written remarks. His wife didn't speak because she still cries when she sees her son's photo. https://t.co/CIKhe9UNVG
— Nick Timiraos (@NickTimiraos) July 30, 2016
Why cast aspersions on a mother who lost her son? My father-in-law, a Navy veteran, passed away nearly 16 years ago, and my husband still gets choked up when he hears the Navy hymn, “Eternal Father, Strong to Save,” that was played at the funeral. Grief never truly ends. Stop criticizing this mother. Just. Stop.
But then there’s Hillary Clinton. How did she treat the families of the Benghazi victims? Three of the family members recall her lying to them at the coffin ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base on September 14, 2012:
Tyrone Woods’ father (who took notes about their meeting): “I gave Hillary a hug and shook her hand. And she said we are going to have the film maker arrested who was responsible for the death of my son…’She said — the filmmaker who was responsible for the death of your son’…”
Sean Smith’s mother: “She’s absolutely lying. She told me something entirely different at the casket ceremony. She said it was because of the video.”
Sean Smith’s uncle: “Mrs. Clinton really has a problem embracing the truth.”
Glen Doherty’s sister: “When I think back now to that day and what she knew, it shows me a lot about her character that she would choose in that moment to basically perpetuate what she knew was untrue.”
The most vocal of these family members has been Pat Smith, mother of Sean Smith, the information management officer who was killed at Benghazi. She addressed the Republican National Convention on July 19, blaming Hillary for lying to her:
So who’s worse? Trump showed himself to be a tone-deaf jackass, but Hillary proved herself to be cold and manipulative towards grieving families whose loved ones gave their lives in service to the nation. I won’t vote for that.
Then there are the endless scandals dogging Clinton’s trail. The Washington Examiner listed 15 big ones occurring during her stint as Secretary of State, including the following:
And the list goes on. Of course we can’t forget Hillary’s biggest elephant in the room: the mishandling of classified documents.
If Hillary were ever to come into personal contact with any form of honesty, she would probably melt like the Nazis in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
Nor will I vote for a woman who celebrates what our Toni called the “Holiest Sacrament of the DNC — Abortion.” Or who has demanded that my religious beliefs “have to be changed” for the sake of abortion. Nope. Not going to happen. As the founder of my Lutheran church boldly proclaimed nearly 500 years ago, “Here I stand, I can do no other.”
In that same declaration, Martin Luther also said that “to go against conscience is neither right not safe.” Would voting for Trump violate my conscience and my moral sense? I don’t know. I have very serious concerns about a Trump presidency, and he has 100 days to convince me otherwise. But Hillary Clinton? That’s easy. That’s not only a big No, but a big Aw, hell, No!
darwin says: Don’t fall victim to the democrat’s game of distraction. Trump will be pummeled for anything he says.
I found the speech by Khan highly insulting. People are slaughtered daily by muslims in the name of Islam all around the world.
To infer that we should not take precautions to protect our nation and it’s people by limiting or banning muslim immigration is ludicrous. Muslims have no right to come here. Period. No one does. Especially when Islam is doing exactly the same thing it’s been doing for 1400 years.
Europe is in turmoil. Women are raped, people are slaughtered and the governments do nothing but allow more muslims in.
The same is happening here but to a lesser degree. There are 20 million muslims in Europe and growing. When our numbers begin to reach European levels we will see the same atrocities.
Khan was onstage to make the case that Trump is evil for wanting to ban muslims. In reality he’s a hero. The only man with the guts to tell people what’s happening and what needs to be done.
I don’t care if he didn’t pay lip service to Khan or his son.
The world is crying out for American leadership. We wouldn’t have gotten it with any other GOP candidate. All the others would have simply continued down the globalist path. More illegals, probably amnesty, kowtowing to Islam and working to give their donors want they want. In other words continuing the war against America and it’s people.
Kim Quade says: You may find this shocking, but there are American Muslims who love this country, like the son of Kzhir Khan who died in military service. Or Dr. Zuhdi Jasser. You might Google him.
Furthermore, I said nothing nothing implying that “we should not take precautions to protect our nation.” You made that inference. You were dead wrong.
When you tell me that Trump is “the only man with the guts to tell people what’s happening and what needs to be done,” you’re dipping your toe into cult worship. I need a serious and principled President, not a Dear Leader.
darwin says: I’m not dipping my toes into anything. I see the results of “serious and principled” leaders throughout the world when it comes to Islam. Europe is essentially a Islamic conquest now. The “serious and principled” leaders do the bidding of Islam and have stated quite publicly that being murdered and raped is just something Europeans have to get used to.
Secondly, any msulim that loves this country would renounce Islam. I haven’t heard any. Islam is not some peaceful religion hijacked by fanatics, Islam is an ideology of conquest for wealth, power and territory.
Thirdly, “peaceful” muslims are irrelevant. There were peaceful Germans, peaceful Japanese, peaceful Chinese, peaceful Ugandans, peaceful Vietnamese, peaceful Huns and even peaceful Romans yet that didn’t stop the slaughter of millions and conquest of lands.
Every single GOP candidate other than Trump payed lip service to Islam while vowing they would not stop muslim immigration. Do you understand that? They only way to ensure the safety of American lives is to prevent those who would kill from coming here in the first place.
At the very least … muslims spread Islam. Islam is completely incompatible with our values, traditions and way of life not to mention they want everyone non-muslim exterminated or converted.
Islam has been doing this for 1400 years. Google it.
Kim Quade says: “. . . any msulim (sic) that loves this country would renounce Islam.”
Or what — pay a jizya? Like Muslim theocracies demand of non-Muslims who don’t renounce their faith?
And if you can find such a imperative in the First Amendment which allows free practice of religion, let me know.
Otherwise, we’re done here. Have a nice day.
darwin says: The 1st Amendment is not a suicide pact.
I despise the notion of a President Trump. But, I despise President Hillary even more.
Think of this: Hillary picking not only several Supreme Court justices, which is a good possibility, but lots of federal judges to boot.
Imagine her further entrenching Obamacare and expanding it, moving towards single payer.
And lots of other things.
I don’t think she would be as bad as Obama, not with Bill’s moderating influence in trying to triangulate, her narcissism is different than Obama’s. But, she surely wouldn’t do away with most of his policies.
But, 4-8 years of her? Oy vey.
We could deal with Trump for 4 years, and, if a lunatic, try and replace him. Yeah, kinda difficult. Still hopefully better than Hillary. See, that’s the part where we’re unclear. What does he really stand for? We know what Hillary will do. Do we give Trump a whirl, rather like being the first on a new roller coaster, where you’re not sure what is going to happen?
One thing that would help is if the Trumpites would start wooing us #TrumpNotSures, instead of acting like unhinged liberal nutjobs with their smears. Stop calling us traitors, cuckservatives, RATs, etc. Probably one of the reasons Palin was missing from the RNC and quiet for past few weeks. She doesn’t help the show.
Kim Quade says: I completely agree with everything you’ve said. (Although I think Trump doesn’t really want to dismantle Obamacare, just have a private single payer system).
But yeah, the smearing those of us who don’t march lockstep with the Trump crowd — that reeks of totalitarianism and only drives us further away.
It’s up to Trump to earn my vote. As I said, he’s got 100 days to close his deal.
Thanks for your comments.
[…] Victory Girls Blog has a dilemma as to whether Trump or not […]
Merle says: Sadly, I see no other way but to vote for Trump in spite of his “antics”.
A vote for any other candidate will be a vote thrown away, as there is no way an independent will win this time around.
Works out the same as a vote for Hillary and all she stands for – and I simply can’t do that.
Merle
Joe Miller says: I suppose it depends on what you believe your responsibility as a voter is. I think my responsibility is to vote for the best candidate, regardless of his chances of winning.
Kim Quade says: Thank you, Joe and Merle, for your thoughtful comments.
They show that we can share differing opinions about this election without vitriol, and I appreciate that.
K.
J walter says: The party of evil or the party of stupid.
Kate says: I am still GOP. I think both candidates are appalling but there is a difference between the two.
Trump ran off at the mouth over a grieving father’s comments during a political convention. That father should have been off limits even though he was letting himself be used as a political prop. Hillary on the other hand lied directly to a grieving mother’s face (not to mention the entire country) about the circumstances of her son’s death in front of his flag draped coffin.
There seems no other choice for me. I am completely #NeverHillary.
david7134 says: I can’t believe that any thinking human would vote for Hillary or even entertain such a thought. The woman is dirty, even her friends say so. As to Trump and the Muslim, big deal. The Muslim guy put himself in the crosshairs by turning his grief political and promoting a cult dedicated to killing innocent people. He deserves more than what Trump did.
Deserttrek says: mr kahn and his wife are obviously grief stricken. they put themselves on stage to support shrill and so became targets. if they wanted to not be a target they should have stayed home. also it is amusing they back shrill who backed the wars,
Joe Miller says: Kim, one more thing.
Neither your vote nor mine will determine the outcome of this election.
Vote your conscience.
Kim Quade says: Thank you. That is my intent.
parker says: The election is decided by the winner at the Electoral College. If you believe trump can reach 270, I think you are wishing and hoping if you choose to vote for the donald. The Shrew Queen will win and nothing can be done to prevent that calamity. And, why does anyone think trump will build a wall, enforce immigration laws, ban muslims, etc. He and his children are NYC values democrats. Trump appointing conservatives to SCOTUS? Yeah, that might happen on the 3rd blue moon in June.
As Cruz advised, vote your conscience. I will write in Ted Cruz in November.
Johnny says: And this country will get the leadership it deserves.
Good and hard.
GWB says: This country will get the leadership that 50%+1 deserves. Ugh.
Fred says: Come on, people. Donald Trump did not “attack” the parents. He simply continued to press the perfectly legitimate American case against ISLAM. We are at war with ISLAM. It’s great that we have some Muslims here that are loyal to the US, but I’m ready to have far LESS of them.
Because ISLAM is not just a religion, it is also an anti-democratic political tyranny (Sharia) that is a mortal enemy to all things western. Trump knows the parents were tools, cynically used to do this by the Dems. It’s going to happen again. And you know what? Tough Sh*t. I am not interested in any more playing softball with the criminal left. It is time to play hardball, and I am GLAD that Trump continues to do so. I wish he were more of a constitutional conservative, and he would talk about liberty and smaller government, but I think he’s going to do a surprisingly good job as Chief Executive of the US. I will have no problem at all voting FOR him, and especially AGAINST the wicked witch of the left.
GrimmCreeper says: Once again it comes down to the lesser of worsts. And it’s difficult to imagine anyone worse than the blob in a pants suit, who’s allergic to the truth. At least with Trump there’ll be moments of humor mixed in.
GWB says: American Conservative writer Rod Dreher
Sorry, but he is one of the political class apparatchiks. I haven’t thought of him as “conservative” in quite some time.
As to whether they are off-limits – bullhockey. They turned their son’s sacrifice into a political ploy when they stood up there in defense of Hillary and against Trump’s perfectly valid proposal to keep foreign muslims out of our country.
But then there’s Hillary Clinton.
Yes. And these people turned their son’s sacrifice into a defense of this thoroughly indefensible woman.
Kim, as to islam and being an American: islam is a political ideology, as well as a religion (sort of like being a progressive). It, in its fundamental design, requires the overthrow of any non-islamic gov’t. Anyone who is muslim and NOT interested in that is technically an apostate. Much like many Methodists and a portion of Lutherans and a goodly chunk of Roman Catholics (and others), they really aren’t practitioners of their proclaimed religion.
If any particular muslim wants to renounce jihad – the war to convert the world to islam by reason or force – and sharia, then I’m happy to welcome them to America. They might want to call themselves something other than simply “muslim” to distinguish themselves from the fundamentalists.
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