An open letter to the people of USA

For the first time ever, I’m worried senseless about an election in the US. This election is one of the most important elections in modern history and stands to shift the political climate not only for the US but the rest of the world for years – if not decades to come. I’m by no means a political expert, nor will I ever claim to be, but I do claim to be a worried citizen of the world.

Most of the world is holding their breaths to what will be the outcome of the 58th US presidential election, as the two candidates are so hugely different. Whereas one candidate has vast political knowledge, both domestically and internationally, the other candidate only holds the knowledge of how to run a business, and the jury is still in on whether he’s done a good job at that.

I know a bully when I see one, and unfortunately, Donald Trump falls into this category. A true presidential candidate should uphold the best of standards, and be civil, well-mannered, thoughtful, understanding and well-tempered. A true presidential candidate does not incite violence at public rallies, does not bully people, does not hang out minorities to dry, does not undermine war veterans’ achievements and loyalties, and not make fun of people’s disabilities.

I’m not saying that Clinton doesn’t have her faults, but so does any human being alive – everyone comes with a list of faults. But when it comes to electing someone to run a country, you have a responsibility as a citizen of that country to elect the person best fit for the job, both domestically as well as internationally.

With the world becoming a smaller place by the day, and both the political and economic climate being very fragile, you need a stern and knowledgeable person steering the ship. One that doesn’t jump the gun, that stands back and looks at the bigger picture, that listens to experts and other people with know-how, that doesn’t dismiss common sense and established truths, let alone dismissed science.

The political climate in Europe is one issue, with Great Britain just having voted to leave the European Union, leaving the rest of Europe in quite turmoil. Another is Russia’s continued aggression on their borders, and push to reclaim the glory of Mother Russia as things were under the Cold War, and as a result, NATO putting 300 000 troops on “high alert”, for the continued exploitation of resources on the African continent, to continued instability in the Middle East and Afghanistan, the war on terrorism to political instability and uncertainty in Asia.

As president of the United States of America, you have a strong voice and weight when it comes to international politics. Do you want a president that alienates a whole religious group based solely on a limited number of people that have done something wrong? There are roughly 1.6 billion Muslims in the world today, and out of those 1.6 billion Muslims, only about 106 000 of those are labelled extremist – amounting to some 0. 006625% of that group. That’s discrimination of the worst sort and shows a really poor sense of judgement.

Do you really want a president that wants to refuse 23% of the world’s population access to what you yourself define as the greatest nation on Earth? Do you want a president that wants to build a wall between the US and Mexico? Does that generalise a whole group of Mexican immigrants as rapists? He openly praised and supported the well-known North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un. That advocates systematic plundering of oil from nations such as Iraq, Libya and other oil-rich countries, in strict violation of the Geneva Conventions. That doesn’t rule out the use of nuclear weapons in “defence” of the US and US interests.

A presidential candidate openly invited other nations to hack both US citizens and US organisations to dig up dirt, knowing fully well such attacks could undermine national security. A president that suggests that US troops are not to come to NATO allies’ aid if so needed when such aid has been the foundation of a good trans-Atlantic relationship ever since NATO was founded in 1949. A presidential candidate who threatened to pull the US out of the World Trade Organization, not only endangering jobs abroad but thousands of jobs in the US as well.

A presidential candidate whose view on women is severely outdated and discriminatory, with a long string of sexual assaults, making repeated derogatory remarks about women and effectively labelling women as useable items, that women performing abortions should be punished, that blames sexual assault in the US military on the mixing of men and women in service, that women that are sexually harassed simply should find new employment.

A presidential candidate that openly stated that he would force US troops to commit war crimes, that advocates the assassination of the families of terrorists, that endorses torture as an end to a means, that said that US troops should withdraw from Japan and Korea and allow those countries to defend themselves with nuclear weapons, who reportedly asked national security advisors why he couldn’t use nuclear weapons.

A presidential candidate that has used campaign funds to pay for personal items, such as a self-portrait, is the first-ever presidential candidate to refuse to release his tax returns even though the IRS has deemed this legal, that has said he will put his businesses into a blind trust and hand over control to his children and in effect create a massive conflict of interest, yet alone a national security concern given his dealings internationally.

There are so many things speaking as a disadvantage to electing Trump as President of the United States, and I could carry on at length, but one should have more than enough meat on the bone here to see why it’s not a good idea to elect him as president.

The US and the rest of the world need and require someone sane and stable to be President, and Trump does not fit this bill. Electing Trump would send an already shaken domestic and international landscape into something I can’t label as anything else but an earthquake of a severe scale.

I’m sure that if Trump had himself sitting on the other end of the table as a prospect for the same job, he wouldn’t even get as far as saying “You’re fired”, and he would never run the risk of hiring someone with the above rather poor credentials. He would know it was a poor business decision. He would know it would be an unwise move. He wouldn’t run the risk. It’s just his own stubbornness and inflated self-image that has kept him in the run for so long, he’s not the kind of person that backs down from a fight, and unfortunately, that’s about the only good thing I have to say about him.

In the world we live in today, we don’t need a pit bull sitting in the oval office – you don’t bring a rabid pit bull into a store full of crystal glasses and porcelain – you would only end up with a rather hefty bill that no one wants to pick up and pay.

Please, people of the United States of America, you’re not only voting for yourself, but you’re also casting a vote with an impact on the rest of the world, and guess what: most of us don’t want Trump in office, as we’re petrified of what his presence in the White House would lead to.

Please, don’t vote for Trump!