Dear Voter,
By now the news has likely reached you - as it has us all - of the latest expose on Donald Trump's true views on women, from his own lips no less.
We have seen it splashed on front page news that the GOP Presidential Nominee is not only guilty of (at least) two cases of rape including underage girls, numerous horrifically discriminatory comments towards women and those of other races, and a complete and utter disregard of all basic rules of common decency and decorum.
But the recent release of the 2005 tape seems to be the breaking point for many Republicans - where we stand up and declare that we cannot support him, even as 'the lesser of the two evils' or an alternative to Hillary's corruption.
The callous disdain he shows for the most fundamental principles of propriety should send anyone in their right mind running; but, to my horror, there seems to be a growing number actually defending him, and still set on voting for him next month.
to make comments such as "all guys talk like that", or "all men think that/ all men have dirty minds", or "those women were asking for it"... as if that excuses his reprehensible behavior... blows my mind. It's been said before, but bears repeating, that he wasn't a (relatively) clueless 14 year old. He was 60.... and a pervert.
However, if you persist in voting for him.. there are a few things I'd like you to know.
First, if you vote for him, then you are agreeing with a mentality and mindset which says that all men are no better than perverted maniacal sex-crazed lustful beasts, incapable of controlling themselves, and that women are not worth the basic respect and dignity due them as human beings created in the image of God.
there is an entire subset in the Republican Party, the homeschooling community, the 'Christian Right', which pays lip service to the concept of womanhood as sacred, and yet, in practice, disregards that entirely - those who defended the acts of men like Josh Duggar and Bill Gothard and Doug Phillips and Bill Cosby and others.
Don't believe me? Look up Tony Perkins. James Dobson. Sarah Palin. David Barton...
what's even scarier is that the exact same phrases we are hearing now in an attempt to excuse Trump's comments...? we've heard them before - when the abuse and molestation perpetrated by Gothard, Duggar, and others came to light.
"no one's perfect!" "we all sin!" "get over it!" "that was years ago!" "women ask for it by their dress, and then get mad when men take them up on their shameless sexual invitation!" "it's just a liberal media tactic to tarnish him!" "it wasn't really that bad!"
but just because no one's perfect doesn't mean that there isn't a difference between someone who is genuinely upright (or striving to be), and someone who gloats about their misdeeds. Just because we all sin doesn't mean that heinous crimes are excusable. just because it was years ago doesn't mean that we've seen any change in his attitudes towards women (ask Megyn Kelly! or Heidi Cruz! or Marie Brenner! or his wife Ivana! or Alicia Machado!). He has a history of treating women as less than animals, and nothing appears to have changed, judging from his more recent comments.
Just because others may have done worse doesn't excuse what he's done. wrong is wrong is wrong, regardless. two wrongs don't make a right, and the fact that Hillary is thoroughly corrupt doesn't negate Donald's wrongs.
Secondly, if you vote for Donald Trump, you are proclaiming to the world that this man represents you. He represents America, and he represents everything that you stand for.
Are you willing to tell the world that you stand for shameless sexual assault, discrimination, racism, egotism, narcissism, and a mindset which considers it completely acceptable and even necessary to "treat women like shit"? Are you willing to cast in your lot with a lewd bombastic windbag who is incapable of keeping his word, and notoriously flip flops on issues of policy, and send him around the globe to represent your best interests?
As a friend pointed out...can you look your girlfriend, your mother, your sisters, your grandmother, your female friends in the eye, read them Trump's comments on women, and then conscientiously tell them that you're voting for him?
Can you look your Hispanic friends in the eye, read them Trump's comments on Mexicans and immigrants, and then conscientiously tell them that you're voting for him? can you look your father, your brothers, your boyfriend, your guy friends in the eye and tell them that all men are no better than Trump and are lustful monsters with no regard for basic human dignity?
and i dare you to look a sexual abuse survivor in the eye and tell them you're voting Trump
are you willing to declare that you are incapable of telling the difference between 'normal' sexual conversation and a glorification of assault and abuse? after all, there's a heck of a lot of difference between commenting on someone you think is attractive, and bragging about grabbing a woman's privates and sexually assaulting her. for the record, kissing, intimately touching, or grabbing someone without their consent is considered sexual assault. which, incidentally, is kind of a big deal - let alone the cringe-worthy rape allegations.
to a young woman of color, the prospect of a Trump presidency is nothing short of terrifying on every possible level. He encapsulates the sort of man that women instinctively steer clear of unless absolutely unavoidable. He's the one at family parties who gets drunk and brags about his sexual exploits, the one who hates your boyfriend because you're 'corrupting' the family gene pool by dating someone who isn't from the same race as you.
He's the one who chases you down on the street and becomes angry offended when you ignore his sexual advances. He's the one you can't pull a taser or pepper spray on, for fear of more than your own life. He's the one who'd walk into a room and demand coffee with a slap on your ass, who doesn't believe marital rape exists, and considers himself so irresistible that it is actually inconceivable to him that a woman would turn him down.
Finally, if after all that, you still think that voting for Donald Trump is a good idea...
well then I sincerely hope that no one ever rapes you.
i sincerely hope you never experience the powerlessness of being unable to fight back, or the crippling shame and humiliation of being reduced to nothing more than an object for the personal sexual pleasure of a man several years your senior. i hope you never stand under scorching water, tears running down your cheeks, as though the shower could scald the words "fat bitch cunt whore" from your memory and burn his touch from your skin.
i hope molestation and sexual assault are nothing you ever encounter; because if you do, then you will suddenly see why the excuses made for his behavior cannot even come close to making expiation for it, and why all the words in the world cannot make recompense for the heinousness of his actions. and if, perchance, you love someone touched by sexual assault of any form, then you will realize why good men and women across the country are finding themselves incapable of supporting a candidate who laughs about actions which are so incredibly lastingly damaging to the victims of his lust.
forgive someone guilty of sexual assault? yes. it's hard, but yes.
elect him president? absolutely not.
because, see, contrary to what Trump apologists would like you to believe, there are actually men who have not raped women. there are actually men who have never assaulted someone, or forced their advances upon an unwilling victim. there are actually men (yes, even men in politics) who are upright.
those are men worthy of the highest office in the land.
not men like Trump.
never men like Trump.
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