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| Photo from my Instagram Story last night: My Jeep at the polls |
America voted yesterday. Despite Hillary Clinton winning more popular votes, Donald Trump won the electoral college... And on January 20, 2017, Trump will be inaugurated as our next President of the United States.
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| Photo credit: https://psmag.com/trump-vs-clinton-fighting-the-national-debt-ef127b9f5be6#.icgwa3p49 |
While I won't explicitly share on Garth's Blog how I voted, it's easy math: I voted for the Presidential candidate whom I thought had the best chance of stopping the LEAST MORAL/ MOST UNQUALIFIED candidate from winning (though none of the major candidates could claim much of a moral high ground).
Specifically, my conscience wouldn't allow me to vote for a man who...
...Is endorsed by the KKK, degrades women and graphically boasts about sexually assault, makes fun of disabled people, categorizes Mexicans as drug dealers and rapists, pushes for a ban on Muslims, racially stereotypes POCs and inner city residents interchangeably, threatens to abolish relationships with our international allies, disregards the validity of the democratic voting process/ peaceful transfer of Presidential power, changes his position on abortion out of political convenience, wants to deport every undocumented alien without offering any hope for a path to citizenship, cited "Eye for an eye" as a favorite Bible verse, and doesn't even read books.
Note: I have sources for each of the above. But the list goes on and on.
Continued below, after a couple of my tweets...
Scripture was quoted by both Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine in their concession speeches.— Garth Hamilton (@garth_hamilton) November 9, 2016
Trump's Scripture quote? "Eye for an eye."
@kathleenRose70 Ha! Funny that the only Scripture which Trump could quote was the verse Jesus refuted.— Garth Hamilton (@garth_hamilton) November 9, 2016
For me personally, last night seemed like a nightmare that I couldn't wake up from (or fall asleep to escape). I was shocked, discouraged, and depressed as the results of each state's votes were gradually reported live by the equally stunned cable news anchors. I wept for this country. I barely slept. And I continued to feel ill today, throughout my work shift at Delta Airlines.
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| Photo from my Instagram Story: This morning's Delta breakroom was a mix of tears and cheers. |
How could this have happened? My own loved ones may be direly affected by Trump's worldview and proposed policies. Woman and minorities may continue to be dismissed as second class citizens. And the United States may cut ourselves off from the nations that we should be reaching out to in cooperation for ending war, genocide, human trafficking, environmental neglect, hunger, and poverty.
Yet I do not look down upon nor judge any of my family and friends who voted differently than I did. We are all Americans. Countless veterans have fought and died for our liberties, including choosing who will represent us in government. And I am thankful for these freedoms.
Tonight in my youth group teaching, I challenged my students to support candidates whose lives look the most like Jesus Christ (Without even hinting about which Presidential candidate I voted for last night). I will be lifting up President-elect Trump in my prayers. I have hope for the future of this country, and for our world. And I am encouraged by the assurance that God still reigns on His throne.
2 comments:
Thanks for sharing about your experience, Garth! You pretty much captured exactly what my feelings were like on election night.
Glad I wasn't the only one, Aaron. I haven't felt so shocked and devasted since 9/11 (which of course was far worse, since the consequences were immediate).
On the other hand, it was also sad to witness the violent, destructive protests/riots as I drove home through downtown Portland last night. It's gonna take a lot of love and prayer to get through this.
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