Clinton has definite crossover appeal. Even though I would rather have had Sanders as the nominee, I have to admit that Clinton is leading an opportunity for Democrats to win this election by a landslide. And in addition…I am deeply distressed by the hold that Trump has taken on the minds he has closed and the hearts he has frozen.
I’m not alone. It has been recently revealed that even President George H.W. Bush is voting for Clinton.
As Politico states:
Bush, 92, had intended to stay silent on the White House race between Clinton and Donald Trump, a sign in and of itself of his distaste for the GOP nominee. But his preference for the wife of his own successor, President Bill Clinton, nonetheless became known to a wider audience thanks to Kathleen Hartington Kennedy Townsend, the former Maryland lieutenant governor and daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy.
On Monday, Townsend posted a picture on her Facebook page shaking hands next to the former president and this caption: “The President told me he’s voting for Hillary!!”
In a telephone interview, Townsend said she met with the former president in Maine earlier today, where she said he made his preference known that he was voting for a Democrat. “That’s what he said,” she told POLITICO.
This truly shows how despicable Trump is as a candidate, as well. It seems difficult to find prominent Republicans who support him without earnest and strong reservations — and yet, the masses of Republicans are voting for him, leaving many Republicans of the past truly disappointed about how much compassion we have lost. We’ve come a long way in heartlessness since the 1980s, when Reagan and Bush were arguing about who was more compassionate to undocumented Mexican immigrants. As George H.W. Bush said then:
“We’re creating a whole society of really honorable, decent, family-loving people that are in violation of the law, and secondly we’re exacerbating relations with Mexico. The answer to your question is much more fundamental than whether they attend Houston schools, it seems to me. I don’t want to see … six- and eight-year-old kids, being made, you know, one, totally uneducated, and being made to feel that they’re living outside the law. Let’s address ourselves to the fundamentals. These are good people, strong people. Part of my family is a Mexican.”
Contrast that with the hate of the current Republican nominee, and it’s not hard to see why Bush can’t vote Trump. As Trump infamously said when announcing his candidacy:
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
The compassion is gone, the empathy is gone, the understanding of humanity is gone. And no, the Republican Party goals weren’t all ideal — the war on drugs, for example, remains a dark stain on our nation. But even much of the little that was truly compassionate has largely disappeared.
And the clash is arguably even stronger with Reagan, who said, in the above clip:
“Rather than talking about putting up a fence, why don’t we work out some recognition of our mutual problems, and make it possible for them to come across. And then, while they’re working and earning here, they pay taxes here? And when they want to go back they can go back, and cross. And open the border both ways, by understanding their problems.”
Trump, meanwhile, can’t stop talking about not only putting up a fence — he wants to build a big wall and aggressively kick all the undocumented Mexicans out. It seems clear that if Reagan were alive today, he wouldn’t be able to bring himself to vote for Trump either.
The contrast could hardly be more clear, and it’s sad to see how much the party has changed.
And the only thing more angering than this is that people voted for this hate. They support this hate. They want to raise our flag and force us to salute to this hate due to the influence of a party that has become more horrifying than Reagan or Bush had ever dreamed.
I know Trump likely won’t win. But the contrast between the Republicans of yesterday and those of today still shows the darkening of the American psyche. It is truly a sad time in America.
Thank you for reading.
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