I was already dreading Tuesday because I knew that I would have to sit in front of a TV to watch the series finale of the United States of America. As much as I've secretly enjoyed Keeping Up with the Kardashians if it starred the brash real estate developer New Yorker who spats with the likes of Rosie O'Donnell and Ted Cruz, or the entrenched public servant and member of the "political establishment" accused of deception and actually came here to make friends and also to win, I couldn't vote for Donald Trump both as a matter of conscience but also because he shows a shocking disrespect for men.
Okay, so I can say that I respect his perseverance at the age of 69 to run for president. I'll even say that I admire his speaking style and willingness to not hold back about how he feels. And I can't say I've been completely pandered to, because I'm also a sixth generation Chinese American, and Trump asked a Asian American, who talks like me, if he was "from South Korea." He was born in Texas and raised in Colorado.
But I find it incredibly disrespectful that Donald Trump thinks he can win me, or other people, by wowing us with his prowess as an "alpha male," like we're supposed to flock to the voting booth thanks to his big "hands" or all the women he's been with or his targeted attack at some national public figure. And no, calling in to reporters claiming to be your own publicist - that's not strong, it's just insecure. We feel good about ourselves by bullying others, and mocking the other GOP primary candidates or Hillary or Russell Moore (president of the public-policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention) or Glenn Beck or Alec Baldwin (portraying Trump on Saturday Night Live) gives us a nice rush of power.
He thinks he can win me by appealing to my love for the U.S. by saying that we, whoever we is [cough cough white men], need to take the country back. I'm not entirely sure to what era, but could it at least be after 1943 when we [as in our country] finally finally repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act? Apparently our country has been overrun by Mexican rapists and criminals, and also Muslims, so they need to be excluded by a wall on our southern border that will work, unlike the last one we tried, and the exclusion of 1.4 billion people from our shores.
He thinks he can win me by appealing to my hate for ISIS by saying that his strategy would in part be to "Take out their families," as if I wouldn't feel empathy for people not directly involved in establishing a Islamic caliphate becoming involved through U.S. military action on them, as if that's worked before. His lone strategy is to take out their oil, as if that simplistic solution is going to solve everything, and hey, it's not like they're not getting money from looting and pillaging local villages, right? Oh, also, he won't announce his strategy fully because he wants to catch them by surprise, so that's why, if you were wondering. And Khizr Khan's son would've been alive if he were president, and he said that out of the goodness in his heart, and definitely has nothing to do with the fact that he started a feud with Khizr Khan, an American who is also Muslim and literally carries Constitutions around in his pocket for that moment when you forget what the 14th Amendment was.
He thinks he can win me by appealing to male victimization, and that we have it bad, no, worse, than women do. All of this "rape culture" has apparently made it difficult for us to talk to women, and now people like Donald Trump can't get away with being sexist or misogynist, whether it's discussing how it looked like there was "blood coming out of [Megyn Kelly's] whatever," kissing Miss Universe contestants on the lips, calling women ugly, or claiming that women love him because they're attracted to his money and power. In fact, all of the women that have accused him of sexual assault and marital rape and sexual harassment are just looking for their "fifteen minutes of fame." I'll be honest, I want my fifteen minutes too - I'd love to be the recipient of endless death threats and have my story consistently challenged and questioned and not be given the benefit of the doubt!
But it's always someone else's fault. The hot mic shouldn't have picked up him telling Billy Bush that with women, he can just "grab them by the pussy...and when you're a star they let you do it. You can do anything." The polls are rigged until they're not, because a new IBD/TIPP poll shows him up by 1 point, so that one's good. In fact, every scandal he is involved in and its eventual discovery is all one big elaborate conspiracy engaged against him and the other men who have lost what was once "their country."
He thinks he can win me by appealing to my lizard brain, at letting his sound bites imitating disabled reporters or Asians by saying "We want deal" stick within my brain, and that I can be distracted by debates over Trump's dick size rather than on his foreign policy. Trust me - he is so incredibly fascinating as a human being and reality host and failed businessman. But I cannot ignore all of his flip flops on abortion and military policy and immigration policy and real life. I cannot ignore a complete disregard for truth and a misogynist, sexist, racist worldview. I cannot ignore a candidate who backtracks and lies repeatedly with volition, defrauding people or simply refusing to pay them. I cannot ignore a man who refers to a black audience member as "my African American" and calls the judge for his Trump University case "unfair" because the judge is of Mexican heritage and yet he was BORN IN INDIANA AND IS AN AMERICAN. He's right - that would suck to be discriminated against because of your race because you discriminated against because of someone else's race.
Trump affirms what people think masculinity is - power, saying whatever you want to say, not caring what anybody thinks, rugged individualism. I think masculinity is more than that, involving finding complex solutions to complex problems, taking action even when it's difficult, putting principles above party, and listening to and empathizing with people. The push for GOP support for this candidate, excusing everything he's said for the pursuit of political power, fails to do this. He scapegoats marginalized groups to give people someone to blame for our problems and perpetuates a culture of style over substance. The presidency involves taking the time to actually know things about policy and stand for something. He stands for nothing except himself.
When asked if he would concede the presidential election gracefully if he lost, Trump responded, "I will let you know at the time. I will keep you in suspense." He's a true reality show star who's not here to make friends. Vote this Tuesday, November 8, and then watch the results show later that night. There better not be a cliffhanger.
