We must judge Donald Trump.
As I write this early on a Sunday morning, millions of Americans of various faiths are preparing to head to one of the hundreds of thousands of churches in the U.S.A. Many of them are so fearful of a Hillary Clinton presidency that they will be praying that Donald Trump wins the election. They are so fearful of a Hillary Clinton presidency that they have suspended all logic and reason, believing that the new Donald Trump is different from the old Donald Trump of 3, 6, 12, 18 months ago. Or 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 20 years ago. They have convinced themselves that a 70 year old man’s life history should be ignored by voters because he says that he won’t let them down.
And they will tell me and others like me that we shouldn’t judge Donald Trump because we aren’t God and we don’t know what’s in his heart. That we shouldn’t judge Trump because the Bible tells us that we shouldn’t judge others.
I’ll skip the biblical discussion and let them believe what they want to believe. But have I judged Donald Trump? You bet that I have. And every voter in America should be judging him as well. Elections require us to judge the people running for office. Be they Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump.
I didn’t judge Trump this week, after his bragging about sexual assault was caught on tape. I judged him many months ago, determining that he has no business being President of the United States of America. I judged him and decided that:
- his political philosophy doesn’t match mine
- he is not a Republican
- he cannot beat Hillary Clinton and will drag the entire party down with him
- he is an authoritarian that would prefer to be a dictator and will act like one if elected
- he has no credibility to be commander in chief of our military
- he is a loose cannon that cannot be trusted with nuclear weapons
- he has a zero sum outlook on the world – if he can’t have it, no one can
- he has no sense of morality or common decency
I also decided that I would never vote for Donald Trump and was #neverTrump before there was a hashtag. Ted Cruz was right:
Truer words were never spoken.
Regardless of what you hear and see from your friends on Facebook or in the media, this is not a “binary” election. There are better candidates on your ballot than Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. I’ll be voting for Gary Johnson. Others will vote for Jill Stein. Still others will write in Evan McMullin. Don’t let anyone fool you into thinking that you have to vote for Trump or Clinton.
And don’t let anyone tell you that you shouldn’t judge Donald Trump. As an American voter, you have a duty to judge all candidates. It’s in the Bible.