Vote for Hope

A lot has been said about history this election season. Some say we have historically bad choices. Some say we should make history by electing the first woman president. Some say Utah should make history by being the first state to give electoral college votes to an independent candidate.

A lot has also been said about fear. We should fear Donald Trump because he is a loose cannon. We should fear Hillary Clinton because she is deeply corrupt. We should fear Evan McMullin because he is a plant or a traitor.

But with the election finally here, we have a choice. The rhetoric has reached a fever pitch, but it all ends in the voting booth. We can choose to vote based on the history we hope to make or based on fear of one candidate or another or a third.

Or we can vote based on hope.

I choose hope. I don’t choose blind hope. I choose studied, considered, deeply pondered hope. In the grand scheme, I believe historically bad elections can become just that – history. We will survive this and continue to move forward as a nation, even if not in the ways and directions all citizens prefer. That’s actually how it works. One side will lose and be mad and demand answers – and then we’ll move on. This election will become a line in a history book. Hopefully it will be studied and understood and learned from. But it will be history nonetheless.

In the immediate scheme, I believe whatever candidate each one of us chooses should be based on our hopes and dreams for the future, not on history and fear. I hope we each deeply reflect on which candidate gives us that hope. For some, the fact that Hillary Clinton is a woman is all the hope they need to cast a vote for her. For others, the fact that Donald Trump says whatever he wants is all the hope they need to vote for him. For others, Evan McMullin’s last-minute entry is as “American” as it gets and that’s all the hope they need to vote for him.

Whatever gives you hope, I deeply pray that “hope” is your motivation when you cast your ballot. Please don’t vote out of fear. Please don’t vote just to make history. Please don’t vote to stick it to one side or another. Please vote with hope.

For me, I find that hope in Evan McMullin. I am registered independent, and I do believe his Hail Mary bid for president is about the most patriotic thing a person could have done. I have studied and watched and listened and considered my options, and for me, hope comes from a campaign built on core American values I believe know no party lines and know no partisan arguments. I am not a sheeple or a member of the mafia or a Mormon sucker. I’m an educated voter and I will vote for Evan McMullin because he gives me hope in the future of this nation.

And it’s o.k. that others will vote for someone else. I just hope that in our hearts and souls we can say we voted not out of fear nor in order to make history. I hope we can say we voted for hope in our future. As a nation, we are more good than we are bad, and we want what is best for America. And that is truly hopeful.

Whatever candidate brings hope to your heart, that’s who you should vote for. And if we let hope rise above fear, then we will win.

There Is Someone Who Can Stop Donald Trump

We all want America to be great – great again, continuing to be great, or greater than ever. Of course we do. It’s a catchy slogan, but it’s also a given.

And it's ironic. Everything great about America is the antithesis of the man and his slogan. There is nothing great about Donald Trump. Nothing. And if the man isn’t great, how would he know how to make America great?

He doesn’t.

I’ve read news article after opinion piece after blog post about Donald Trump. I’ve seen frightening clips of Donald Trump almost unintelligibly shouting to frenzied crowds. I’ve read about supporters surrounding hecklers while chanting “Trump, Trump, Trump,” until “security” arrives to remove the dissenters.  I’ve heard him call immigrants rapists and murders. I’ve heard him talk about dipping bullets in pig blood to kill Muslims. I have seen him mock a reporter with a disability. I have heard him mock American prisoners of war. I have heard him unwilling to respond to an endorsement from a former KKK grand wizard.

And yet, the pundits believe a person like that is unstoppable, inevitable, and on the fast track to the nomination. They look at the rest of the Republican field and say no one can stop Donald Trump. Too little, too late. Not resonating with voters. Time to step aside. 

I find that offensive. There is absolutely someone who can stop Donald Trump. You.

Me. Us. We can stop Donald Trump. He is not inevitable. He is not unstoppable. He is not what is great about America. 

We are.

The voters are what’s great about America. We hold more power than Donald Trump. A billion dollars cannot buy the presidency. But the voters can.

The same pundits who say Trump is inevitable also postulate theories and strategies about how he might be defeated. The other candidates could start playing Trump’s game of insults and arrogance, and some have. The other candidates could drop out and rally around one alternative.  The other candidates could hang in there long enough to have a brokered convention and then vote Paul Ryan to be the nominee.

But there is a way to stop Donald Trump dead in his tracks pundits fail to mention: don’t vote for him. Vote for someone else. 

Despite several years of declining civil dialogue, the uselessness of Washington, strained race relations, and disgruntled Millennials, there are still more good people in this country than there are bad. As surprising as Trump’s rise in the presidential race has been – feeding on the basest elements of the human psyche -- there are still more level heads that hot heads in this country. There are still more people in this country who want the dialogue to improve, who want Washington to work again, who want all races to rise together rather than tear each other down, who want Millennials (and beyond) to feel hope for their future. There are more people in this country who abhor the mocking of the disabled, who are horrified by mobs surrounding dissenters, who are stunned at the descriptions of Mexican immigrants and killing Muslims. Donald Trump, despite his success so far, does not represent the hearts and minds of the majority of Americans. He did not even represent the majority of Americans in the states he has already won. Consider that. 

There are more people in this country who understand that collective greatness is achieved through working together with common hope rather than collective bullying. There are more of us who understand you attract more flies with honey than vinegar, that the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing, that we must be the change we wish to see in the world.

Pick your cliché. The premise is the same.  We, the people, are still good at our cores, and we, the people, still have the power to stop a man who tweets Mussolini quotes, whose rallies evoke The Lord of the Flies, and who needs to research the KKK. We, the people, can still vote. And we, the people, must vote. 

Don't let the pundits, the media, or Donald Trump decide this election is over. Do not give them that power. We still hold the power. We can still cast our vote. 

America is great, can be great, will always be great as long as it clings to its fundamental, deeply rooted values. There are values, principles, precepts – call them what you will – at the core, center, heart of our nation. These are not Republican or Democrat or Tea Party or Progressive values. These are human values. These are values that no matter who you are, no matter what your personal political affiliation, no matter what your personal vision is for our country, are fundamental to our way of life in America. These values are what make America great. 

We have our problems, our very serious problems, as a nation. We have much to figure out, to improve, to change. And yes, we have desperately sharp disagreements about how to figure them out, how to improve them, and how to change them.

But it shouldn’t be hard to figure out that those problems are not solved by Donald Trump. Voting from a place of anger, hatred, and retribution is dangerous indeed.

So I beg my fellow voters to use the power that only you have: your power to vote. Please vote. You must vote. But please do not vote for Donald Trump.

I understand the theories and the mathematics of the split vote with the rest of the Republican field. I understand the concerns that as long as there are four other people to vote for, Trump still wins as votes are split between four alternatives. I get that.

But I also get something else: if you vote for someone else, that is one less vote for Trump. The more people who vote for someone else, anyone else, the fewer people who vote for Trump. That’s also mathematical.

There are options. There is a black kid from the ghetto who grew up to be a pediatric neurosurgeon. There is the son of Cuban immigrants whose parents believed that America is the greatest nation on earth. There is a career-long public servant who, as boring as it sounds, actually balanced the national budget – a feat for the history books. And there is a senator who has put his career on the line to fight for what he believes.

We do have choices. Is vulgarity, rudeness, racism, arrogance, and bullying the inevitable choice? Is that the way to make America great again? Oh my goodness no.

The most important choice Americans have – a choice no one can take from us – is the choice to vote. Show the pundits, the media, the Twitter and Facebook feeds of every American, and especially Donald Trump that the power still rests with us, and we vote not to have Donald Trump as the Republican nominee or as our president. Please use your power to make America great again – by voting for anyone other than Donald Trump. He has not yet won the Republican nomination. And he won't if we don't vote for him. But we have to vote for someone. 

So there is someone who can stop Donald Trump. You can. Please vote.