Why I Cannot Respect Choosing To Vote For Trump

As Americans, we have the luxury of living in a country where we get to vote for our leaders. Unlike many countries, we have a representative government, and gerrymandering and other shady tactics notwithstanding, we have the privilege of choosing who we cast our votes for. This was a truly revolutionary system when our founders created it 244 years ago, and it has generally served us well. Despite its flaws, it has been a model to countless countries around the world, and I am deeply thankful that we have such a system.

Like most Americans, I cherish being able to go to my polling station to cast my vote, to the point of considering it a moral obligation. I have the freedom to vote for whichever candidates and issues I want, which is something I truly treasure. Part of exercising this right, however, is respecting that not everyone will vote the same way you do. We have a fantastically diverse country, and a wide array of political ideologies is naturally present. I gladly respect peoples’ right to vote for candidates and issues I disagree with, even when my opposition is vehement.

Why Democrats and Liberals Don't Support Trump

Since Trump declared his candidacy for president in 2015, the opposition to him from Democrats and Liberals has been nearly unanimous.  He and his supporters paint this opposition as the result of partisanship, and while that is undoubtedly true for some, they represent only a small fraction of the group.  We are a diverse group, and, as such, we have a wide variety of opinions and beliefs.  I identify as Liberal, but in terms of politics, I’m an Independent; I refuse to join a party on principle (I believe that, as Washington foresaw, political parties are the source of 95% of our country’s problems), and while I happen to align more with Democrats currently, my political ideology is closer to that of the Republican Party (which was once the party of Liberals) under Eisenhower (sans his disgusting racism); I believe in individual liberties, small government, and fiscal responsibility.  Most Liberals I know fall into this same category, which means that the argument that our opposition to Trump and the Republican Party is based entirely in partisanship is logically impossible.