Trump is the change America needs

Trump is the change America needs

I was rather surprised at the flawed logic The Enquirer editorial board used to endorse Hillary Clinton. First, they ignored Gary Johnson, the most serious third-party candidate since Ross Perot. Johnson has none of Clinton’s or Donald Trump’s flaws and is eminently qualified to be president. Second, and more important, The Enquirer failed to look beyond the personalities and often-caustic rhetoric of both major-party candidates to actually examine issues.

Exhibit A is the Supreme Court. Some months back, Trump released a list of potential Supreme Court nominees that by all accounts was well thought out and consisted of highly qualified people who would respect the Constitution and restrict their role to its interpretation, rather than legislating from the bench. Clinton has said nothing.

Exhibit B is Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state, which was anything but “competent.” During her tenure, Islamic State established itself, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea became more belligerent, Americans died needlessly in Benghazi and Iran moved closer to obtaining nuclear weapons. Does anyone really believe our position in the world was better when Clinton left State than when she arrived?

Exhibit C is Trump’s economic platform. In contrast to Clinton’s economic plan, which is little more than a rehash of ideas of the past eight years, his plan is a thoughtful blueprint for reforming the mess in Washington. If Clinton’s ideas are so great, then why have the people she claims to be trying to help done so poorly over the past eight years? President Barack Obama had a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate for nearly two years, something no Republican has ever had, yet we ended up with “the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer,” along with needless shootings at home and IS threatening much of the world abroad.

What really struck me about The Enquirer’s editorial was its use of the term “cowboy diplomacy” to disparage Trump. This is exactly what most of the mainstream media said in 1980 about Ronald Reagan. Like Trump, Reagan was deemed unfit and too dangerous. Much of what The Enquirer “fears” about Trump was also feared about Reagan, and most of these fears proved unfounded during much of his presidency.

The relevant question is what are the consequences? How many of Trump’s loony ideas would ever be passed by Congress? Can you imagine Congress ever approving $10 billion plus to build a wall? But Clinton’s budget of higher taxes and more job killing and wage suppressing regulations, after relentless threats from the White House and whining in the media, would undoubtedly pass in some form. Charles Krauthammer put it best two months back when he said, “As in 1980, the status-quo candidate for a failed administration is running against an outsider. The stay the- course candidate plays his/her only available card – charging that the outsider is dangerously out of the mainstream and temperamentally unfit to command the nation.”

The biggest question is, as a nation, are we on the right or wrong track? If you believe we are on the right track and everything is oh so much better than before, then vote for Clinton and you will get four more years of the same. But if you think we are on the wrong track, then the last thing you should want is a candidate who is a product of the current administration and promises no new ideas.

If we truly want change, we need an outsider who is not a lifelong politician. Of course, said outsider will be less experienced, but that is what advisers are for. So yes, hold your nose if you must, as I will do, but be willing to look beyond personalities to see that this nation cannot afford four more years of the current administration.

Contrary to many views, this election is not a popularity contest and we should not vote for the most likeable candidate, but rather the candidate most likely to affect meaningful change to a system that almost everyone agrees is corrupt to the core.

Tom Terwilliger is an Amberley Village, Ohio resident.