POV: Donald Trump for President
He is the real “hope and change” candidate
Photo by Flickr contributor Gage Skidmore
Editor’s note: This is the second of two student POVs about the presidential election. Read yesterday’s POV endorsing Hillary Clinton here.
If you claim to be an earnest leftist, yet you support Hillary Clinton in this presidential election, then I seriously doubt your political convictions. You are not who you say you are.
Clinton is everything you claim to oppose; in fact, she doesn’t disagree with George W. Bush on any discernible political position, aside from inane social issues which don’t even matter in this election. She is a war-hawk: from her calls for military intervention in Syria to her continued antagonizing of Russia, it would appear that Clinton would do nothing to change the failed neoconservative foreign policy our country has pursued for the past two decades.
It is clear that she will do little to reform the country’s odious campaign finance system, which ensures that large corporations and wealthy elites, rather than voters, control politicians, as she is the chief beneficiary of such a system. Though she talks a great deal about overturning Citizens United, the Supreme Court decision allowing corporate political spending, it is unclear where her campaign would be without the millions of dollars she’s received from the banks, multinationals, and billionaires who could use a puppet in the White House.
It is evident from Clinton’s positions—not just these two issues, but on every cause she has taken up this election—that she is the status quo candidate. She will continue pushing the same failed ideas, propositions, and attitudes that have defined the past two decades, yet have resulted in nothing but pain and misfortune for the American people.
This is why, in this election, I will vote for Donald Trump—the real “hope and change” candidate.
As president, Trump will fundamentally reform American politics. Through his proposals of term limits for congressmen and increased workers’ rights, he is actively trying to shift power away from the corrupt Washington elites, and to the actual American voters. This is the system the country’s founders envisioned and it’s probably why Washington insiders and corporatists fear Trump so much. He actually represents a threat to their power.
Trump also offers a breath of fresh air for the workingmen and -women of America. He will rip up and renegotiate failed trade deals like the North America Free Trade Agreement and Trans-Pacific Partnership, which place more value on companies’ profits than on the lives and futures of their workers. Instead, he will make sure jobs stay in America, so that Americans reap the benefits of a rising economy. Additionally, he will change the immigration system, so that American workers would no longer find themselves replaced by less skilled and less qualified illegal immigrants, just because the latter are willing to work for less money. Trump’s paid maternity leave proposals are great too: working women would no longer feel as though they have to make a binary choice of career or family; instead, Trump would make it easier for them to balance both.
On the foreign policy front, Trump will not needlessly antagonize Russia nor saber-rattle with Syria, as Clinton has, and he will stop intervening in foreign conflicts with no discernible American interests. He will prevent the country from getting into more needless wars and having American troops die for no reason. He will stop antagonizing potential allies and will instead work together with Russia, Iran, and Syria to take down ISIS in a unified alliance.
Yes, it’s true that Trump has said offensive things on the campaign trail, from referring to Mexicans as criminals and rapists to using demeaning language towards women. I, however, am more concerned about the things Clinton has done than with the things Trump may have said. Clinton, through the policies and actions she pursued, has caused actual physical damage and pain, not just to the United States, but to the entire world. Trump has, at worst, said something that may have offended you. To me, there is no comparison. Especially in such a high-stakes presidential election, substance matters so much more than style and rhetoric.
For these reasons, I will vote for Donald Trump this November, and I sincerely hope all of you will join me. It is time to stop falling for candidates like Hillary Clinton, who will say anything yet do nothing about the challenges facing America in the 21st century. In Trump, we finally have a leader who can take us on a new path, one that leads to making America great again.
Gabrielle Lawrence (CAS’20) can be reached at gabby20@bu.edu.
“POV” is an opinion page that provides timely commentaries from students, faculty, and staff on a variety of issues: on-campus, local, state, national, or international. Anyone interested in submitting a piece, which should be about 700 words long, should contact Rich Barlow at barlowr@bu.edu. BU Today reserves the right to reject or edit submissions. The views expressed are solely those of the author and are not intended to represent the views of Boston University.
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