An Open Letter to My Friends and Acquaintances Who are Donald Supporters

Before I go into why I cannot vote for Donald there are some things about me you need to understand first.

1. I am male.  I am white.  I am protestant.  And yes, much of my background could be termed anglo-saxon.
2. I have in my life voted for Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, and Socialists.  I vote issues and values not party and ideology.  I vote for people with solutions.
3. I look carefully at who the candidate surrounds themselves with.  Especially when it comes to executive offices.  Who they bring on their staff tells you a lot about what they really value and how willing they are to bring dissenting opinions to the table.
4. I understand that every word a politician says is designed to create impressions in the listeners.  Fact is less important than impact to them.  I get it.  Even a politician who really has the public interest at heart has to stay in office to achieve that.  To stay in office they have to shade the truth.  So everything must be fact checked and critical thinking must be applied to every idea they bring to the table.
5. The rules of politics haven’t changed in 5000 years because human nature hasn’t changed in 5000 years.
6. One of my core values is that a person should be treated as a person.  Not a statistic.  Not a nuisance,  I get that there are bad people in the world, but as soon as you use the word “them”, as in “us vs. them”, you dehumanize them and give tacit permission to treat them as less than human.  Before you do that it better be because of what that person has done, and not be because of some perceived groupings they may belong to.
7. One of my core values is that the community is best served when each individual is given the best chance to maximize their talents and become the best person they can be.  When people are deprived of education opportunities the community is lessened.  When people are unduly burdened by the community the community is lessened.
8. I believe in the power of knowledge and ideas.
9. I believe that if you don’t control your emotions others will use them to control you.  I am not saying be emotionless.  I am saying they you need to be in control of your emotions and apply critical thinking to be certain they’re taking you to a place you really want to be.  We are social creatures.  Emotions are easily swayed through various techniques used by leaders and con men of all sorts.  If you are not in control of your own emotions, others will use them to control you.
10. I believe the U.S. Constitution works not because it’s wonderfully crafted system, but because every day bureaucrats, judges, legislators, etc. are forced by the expectations of the community and the openness of information flowing to that community to not stray too far from the norm.  That norm can of course changes over time as the tensions between the various groups change the way society sees the world.  If those tensions get unbalanced it’s possible for that norm to swing far and fast.  Depending on the nature of that swing it could lead to actions that break the system
11. I believe that ignorance breeds fear.  Fear breeds hate.  Hate breeds violence.  Violence begets more violence until only the will of the strong remains.

So now that I’ve told you a bit about what drives me, let me tell you why I could never vote for Donald.  Note that this is not about why I’ll vote for person x, y, or z instead.  This is squarely about why I cannot vote for Donald.  

In no specific order;

1. The man publicly belittles people.  From making fun of a reporter with a disability to questioning the fairness of a judge who ruled against him to the awful things he’s called various women to the infantile names he calls his opponents, he constantly proves his disdain for anyone that doesn’t tow the line.
2. The man actively threatens people.  During the primaries and that period leading up to the convention I lost count of the times I heard statements from him that followed the formula “Person X and I will get along fine.  Or there will be problems.”  Listen carefully and you’ll hear it all the time.  Again disdain for other people and their opinions.
3. The man has actively incited violence.  No, he’s not fully responsible for some of things his supporters have done, but when you actively court certain portions of the population, you can’t claim no responsibility when violence occurs after you make public comments like fondly remembering and pining for times when protesters would have been taken out on a stretcher.
4. The fact that he has some business failures in his past isn’t a problem.  Most successful entrepreneurs do.  But the truth is this “successful” business man used bankruptcy laws to leave employees, contractors, and creditors in the lurch while he walks away with millions.  It may not be illegal, but it’s not a style of business I like, and if he tries to use those same methods as President, we are the employees, contractors, and creditors that will be left in the lurch.
5. The truth of the matter is some of the businesses he’s associated with are outright scams.  
6. When asked for any info about how he’ll do the things he says he’ll do, he basically says “trust me.”  Trust in this case needs to be earned, and in light of all the other points here, he hasn't earned my trust.
7. Much of what he says he’ll do will actually be counterproductive.
8. It might be funny to say a reality star doesn’t care about reality, but he constantly cites “facts” that have been debunked and denies real data.  If challenged he may tap dance a bit.  He may issue a “what I meant” kind of statement.  Then he goes back to citing them.  He doesn’t care about what is real.  That’s a very bad thing in a president.  If you can’t deal with reality then you can fix it, etc.
9. If his ideas are challenged he doesn’t defend them, he tap dances, attempts to distract, and if that doesn’t work he attacks the challenger personally.  It may make for interesting TV and interesting campaigning, but it’ll be lousy for geopolitics.    It’ll also make for either a totally dysfunctional federal government or one that’s shoving his ideas down our throats and leaving us with the bills.
10. When he refuses to release his tax returns, when he refuses to tell you how he’ll accomplish things, when he refuses to tell you the source of the information he spouts, he’s telling you he doesn’t trust you with the information.  A person deserves some privacy, but when someone wants to become the leader of the greatest country in the free world, to be trusted with decisions that could mean life or death, we who will invest that person with that power deserve to know more.  There’s something Donald doesn’t want his supporters no know.  As one of my favorite quotes says, “Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.”
11. When in front of a crowd he frequently becomes unfiltered.  His supporters seem to love the idea that he says what he thinks.  They may not like it when he alienates our allies and isolates the U.S. from the world economy and there are even less jobs.
12. It’s plain from the RNC that the theme for the campaign is going to be fear.  They’ll be focusing people on both outside and inside threats instead of the real problems.  They’ll stoke the fear because those emotions can be used to control people.  The answer to fear is knowledge.  But as stated above, Donald doesn’t care about the real data.  He cares about his goal.  He doesn’t care about the long term cost to others.  He doesn’t care that the long term cost of stoking the fear is likely to be violence.  He cares about his goal.
13. Ask him about where the ideas come from, he knows people.  Look at his history, both in the campaign and before, and it’s clear that he selects people who will tell him what he wants to hear.  Someone sitting in the oval office needs someone to argue the other side.  They need someone willing to butt heads to be certain we’re not all running off a cliff. Kennedy had someone playing that role through the whole Cuban Missile Crisis. It appears that Bush didn't have someone playing that role during the process that lead up to the invasion of Iraq. I don’t believe Donald will tolerate let alone welcome such a presence in his office.
14. He has no respect for any norms.  Don’t get me wrong.  I like to think I’m a think outside the box kind of guy, but I do understand that tradition holds a community together.    I understand that often the unspoken rules are more important than the written ones.  Donald doesn’t care about the unspoken rules.  He doesn’t care about the politeness that smooths over social interactions.  He doesn’t care about the behaviors that protect constitutional protections.  He only cares about his goal.
15. To be perfectly blunt, I only think he cares about the common man for the votes.  Someone who has grown up in wealth, was given his wealth, and shows the kind of attitudes I’ve discussed is very unlikely to understand the common man.  He will be pursuing his own goals. Not yours.
16. I appreciate the Donald supporters who admit that the appeal is a “strong man” leader type.  That is the image he tries to sell.  The big, tough, successful leader who is the only one who can save the people from the troubles that beset them.  It’s a classic scenario repeated many times in history.  Often it can bring stability and peace for a time by suppressing dissent.  But a government that only prizes the well being of a portion of the society can only keep the lid on so long.  The end result is almost always bad for the society in question.  I’ll take the rule of law over the rule of a strong man leader anytime.  I suspect most people who study history would agree.
17. When asked about being great Donald consistently points at his wealth as a sign of his greatness. I don't equate wealth with greatness. Being good at accumulating money or being born into is not a sign of greatness or divine favor. It isn't having or getting wealth that makes you great, it's what you do with the wealth you have.

I think Donald is a self aggrandizing narcissist who is attempting to achieve his goals by appealing to fear and hate.  His behavior is reminiscent of a bully or a petulant 4 year old. If you saw someone else's child acting this way you'd wonder what was wrong with the parents. If your own child acted this way you'd hopefully take action.

Regardless of what I think his goals are, if he becomes president he will have to take actions to appease the elements he has been courting.  If he does it’ll be very bad for women and minorities.  If he does it’ll be bad for the economy.  If he does it may well cause more violence as various minority groups fight back.  Pretty much a self fulfilling prophecy.  If he doesn’t appease the groups he’s been courting, they will feel betrayed and will likely act out violently.  When you sow fear and preach hate, you can’t be surprised when violence results.

History is quite clear on what happens when someone grabs power through fear and hate.

I’ve seen lots of bad presidential candidates in my life.  In my life I’ve voted for the losing candidate more often than the winner.  I know the system is actually set up to be inefficient to protect people from the majority.  But that only works when everyone plays reasonably close to the unspoken rules.

By using the campaigning techniques he’s using, Donald is the first candidate that I think has the potential to break the system.  I think the pieces are in place to potentially change this country in ways that it will never recover from.

That is why I will not and cannot vote for Donald.  You are allowed to disagree, but do not deny that the historical precedents are pertinent.  You also need to understand that every time you make an excuse for something he said that I’m thinking, “Are you lying to me, or are you lying to yourself?”