What makes Donald Trump a bad Presidential choice?

What makes Donald Trump a bad Presidential choice? Is it simply this leaked video of the man being… himself? No. Not at all. It’s the sum total of what he has to say and what he’s done and there are people in recent days finally waking up to the reality that’s been present since the man came on the political scene. Should Hillary get our vote instead? I’m not ready to pull that lever. I continue to believe writing someone in or going third party is best.

It’s true that we’re all sinners… it’s not true that this then should force us to accept/overlook/vote for a deeply flawed candidate. I’m a parent and a grandfather… do I decide that I can’t hold my children and grandchildren to a higher standard because I’ve failed to meet those standards? I don’t think so. As a parent and a grandfather, I’m willing to cut a child/grandchild slack… after all, they’re my offspring, much younger (obviously) as to the ways of the world, and worthy of my correction. Donald Trump is no child. Donald Trump has a history of these sorts of things. It displays a lack of character that does not bode well as to future performance, particularly in leading these United States and the free world.

It’s tough for me personally to trust what a man is now saying when his past suggests that his words mean very little. It’s the same problem, only worse, that I have with Hillary Clinton. If a woman is willing to overlook, for political expedience, the breaching of the basic trust that must exist between a man and a woman in marriage, that woman is certainly going to be willing to breach any trust we’re supposed to have in her as President of the United States. By that same token, if a man is willing to breach the basic trust that must exist between he and his wife, how more willing is he going to be to breach the trust of those who elected him? I cannot trust either of them to appoint right minded people to the SCOTUS. I cannot trust either of them to advance the cause of the pro-life movement. I cannot trust either of them to promote the values that have made this country great. I cannot do any of these things because past performance is the best gauge for future performance and the past performance of both these people is abysmal.

But there’s a much larger reason why I can’t particularly support Donald Trump. Whether people find this credible or not, whether they find it relevant or not, I have been moved, despite my flaws and failures, to take up the cause of my Catholic and Christian faith and to do that which in the end will draw others to that same cause. I will fail at times, no doubt but I am largely responsible for and obligated to that cause. How credible will the mission to uphold that cause be, how effective, if I’m seen to be someone who is willing to set aside the mission and support a man who is on record stating that he will target the families (women and children) of our enemies, who believes waterboarding is too mild a method of torture, whose pro-life record is spotty at best, who’s promised to do this and that only to reverse himself days and sometimes even hours later, who has little respect for religious liberty, who is willing to walk away from the women and children fleeing the ravages of war, who has decided that your place of birth will impact how credible he’ll find you to be, who has never asked God for forgiveness nor sees any real need to do so, who has skewered far too many small business people in pursuit of his own profit and gain, who, in essence, and I could’ve started here frankly, stands for far too many things that are in direct opposition to the Catholic and Christian mission to which I’ve pledged my commitment?

This is where I stand, this is my personal line in the sand.

You do what you will but please, for the sake of this country and its future, and, if you consider yourself a follower of the Risen Lord, for the sake of the mission of the universal Church and your part in it, do a very thorough examination of your conscience before voting.

I consider it an obligation. I hope you will as well.