Dear readers, please read these unedited* stories from fellow Americans. Please understand the humanity behind the monumental decision we all were presented with on Election Day. Please allow these stories to open a window to peaceful, respectful discussions between you and your friends and neighbors.
*Text and emphases are completely the author's; FEMSHEP may have edited formatting and links ONLY. Sources and data are original to the author of each piece and will be verified, if needed, in subsequent posts.
Voice of the Electorate: Part Two, a Donald Trump Voter
author requests to be known only as "An Old Soldier"
"I’ve been around longer than most of you who will read this. I am the son of a father whose father was a share cropper in east Texas. My father grew up in a dirt floored shack with no electricity or running water. He was the 4th of 5 boys and when he had shoes to wear, they were always well worn since one or two others wore them before him. My grandmother cooked on a wood stove and did wash with a tin tub and a washboard with water drawn from a well. As we say in Texas, my father “got his size early” and ran away from home when he was 14. First to Dallas where he worked as an orderly in a hospital basically emptying bed pans full time. Rode freight trains and lived in hobo camps to St Louis, Chicago, Cincinnati, Louisville and Little Rock where he learned to weld, drive trucks, operate mobile cranes, drive dozers before he returned home after his 16 th birthday. He lied about his age and joined the Army at the end of WWII to escape the life that he grew up in. Served with the occupation forces in Germany immediately after the war.
My mother was from Poland, married to a German pilot who was killed months before the war ended. She became a displaced person because the German family wanted nothing to do with her. I have a half-brother from that marriage. My father met that beautiful young woman on a street not far from Stuttgart and they fell in love. I still have the ridiculous amount of paperwork they had to wade through from his chain of command to get married. In late May 1948, they boarded a troop ship to return to the States with my Mom 7.5 months pregnant with me. Her first sighting of the statue of Liberty was something she talked about until she died in 2005. Her name is inscribed on the donors’ stainless steel plaques that my Dad did to honor her during the centennial celebration of the Statue. They boarded an unairconditioned Greyhound bus for the 10-day journey to Dallas. When the bus crossed the Red River that divides Texas from Oklahoma, my Dad turned to a very pregnant, hot Maria and said “You can have my son anytime now because he will be a Texan.”
Growing up as an Army brat with my Dad fighting in two wars, I saw a lot of the world. I attended racially integrated Department of Defense schools in Alaska, Guam, and Germany. Every school I attended in the United States was totally segregated. I went to high school in Louisiana where there was a white high school and a black high school. Integration didn’t happen until after my graduation in 1966. I returned to my 50 th high school reunion in Oct…. over 50% of the school is minority and they even have athletic teams for the women, we had none.
I’ll begin here as to why I’m a Republican. I love history, particularly that of my Country. The President who fought a Civil War to free black slaves was our first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln. The Ku Klux Klan was founded and perpetuated by members of the Democratic party for over 100 years. Fast forward almost 100 years, one of our greatest legislative achievements was the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 under President Johnson. Most Democrats were vehemently opposed to that. Almost all Republicans supported it and Johnson was able to pass the legislation into law with great Republican support. Most of this stuff is not taught in our public schools any more, much less the truth behind our Constitution and Declaration of Independence.
Why are so many of our younger folks so upset with the results of this election? After all, Clinton appears to have won the “popular” vote. The founders built the Constitution with the Electoral College for one reason, so the big cities and population centers would not dominate elections and the rural parts of America would have no say and would in fact be ignored by politicians. That still applies today, otherwise NYC, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Miami, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, LA, Seattle, etc. would be the only votes that counted. The young folks rioting and destroying our towns right now are in liberal, Democratic cities. They don’t understand that the Electoral College represents the people. Since 2008, we have seen a significant change in our Congress, upon which the number of electoral votes are based. Gone from majority Democratic to majority Republican. If those who are protesting want to make a difference, let them get involved and turn their state district representatives and senators back into a majority. It’s as simple as that. Enough of a civics lesson.
My Dad fought in Vietnam and Korea. I spent almost 38 active duty years in the Army. Fought in Vietnam as a rifle platoon leader and deployed to some other rather unsavory places. I have seen and experienced true poverty, deprivation and oppressive, dictatorial governments in the 109 countries I’ve been in. So few here truly realize how blessed we are as United States citizens and how those blessings run deep because we are a nation generally ruled by law and have always had young folks who are willing to sign that blank check to Uncle Sam that implies “…up to and including my life.”
Please note I didn’t say Americans above, but United States citizens. North and South America are huge continents…. within those we are all Americans. The United States of America is unique in the world, a first not ruled by kings, emperors, queens or dictators. In the spring of 1956 we drove my Mom to the Federal District Courthouse in Lake Charles, LA. I had the honor and privilege of watching her take the oath of allegiance to our United States as tears streamed down her cheeks. This was the proudest moment in her life. She had to study hard to pass that test. She had to learn English because that test wasn’t offered in Polish, German or French, languages that she was fluent in before she arrived here. I was 8 years old and that day burned into my mind why becoming a citizen legally was so important.
That brings me to the current day and the gross lawlessness employed by the current administration in allowing millions of illegal aliens to live and work here with no enforcement of our immigration laws. Back to my point of the US being a nation of laws, when the man who is supposed to protect us, ignores our laws and makes no attempt to compromise with our duly elected members of Congress we have the results of the last three elections. This started with the Affordable Care Act. His inability to work with the opposition gives him a legacy of a House of Representatives that is safely in the hands of the Republicans and a Senate that is also in the hands of the Republicans. Remember in the coming years that it was the Democrats who changed the rules in the Senate requiring 60 votes for legislation to be approved. Also, remember their liberal use of the budget reconciliation process, so that they could pass items they wanted with 51 votes and the hundreds of bills from the House that never saw the light of day courtesy of Harry Reid. Several of these could have repaired the flaws in the ACA and we wouldn’t be in the position we are in now. They will probably come to regret that. President Obama is being replaced by a man who is almost diametrically opposed to everything he stands for. Someone who will replace Justice Scalia and probably two more in this term.
The only way people can be surprised by the results of the election is because they are totally out of touch with the workers in this country no matter their race, sex or religion. This election was about the assault on their economic future and the continuous assault on what they believe is good about America.... rewarded for hard work, being safe in your neighborhoods, being able to defend yourself and family until the police arrive, and being able to BELIEVE and TRUST the person who is elected. Trump has some issues in those areas but Clinton has a 30-year record of corruption, lying, financially bettering herself and being very abusive to those around her. I had a good friend working in the Clinton White House on a fellowship and the abuse he and other staffers put up with from her was unbelievable. And she was just a first lady then. What concrete things have she accomplished? Trump may be a total novice politically, but one doesn't become as successful as he is unless you can build teams that get the job done. My wife (name has been removed at the author's request) and I travel a lot by car between here and NY, WI, FL, and TX. For those who were surprised, especially east and west coast politicians, the main stream media, and those who read these threads, I challenge you to get out to county fairs, working class diners, Walmart, Veterans Day parades in small towns, VA hospitals, real truck stops and gasp, even gun shows. While at these places talk to local folks. Really listen to them. We have 200 families in our middle to upper middle class subdivision in a very rural County. All races, a rich mix of many, many religions, all sexual orientations and parental educational levels. Most families with school age children move here because of our superb schools, low taxes and low crime rate. We are 18 miles from downtown Nashville. There was not a single sign for Trump or Clinton on any lawns during the entire campaign. One neighbor had a Clinton sticker on her car. She moved here from IL two years ago. The Affordable Care Act has done great damage to many of these families. Having said that I would lay money that this subdivision probably voted close to our county results, 80% Trump, 15% Clinton, other 5%.
After the election, there was an article about a KY county that has voted for every Democratic presidential candidate since 1869 until 2016. Democrats far outnumber Republicans. It’s flyover country for the Democrats that cost them throughout the country in this election. Per some of those interviewed, it was the economy and watching neighbors get free government handouts without doing any work while they were working hard to scrape by that caused them to abandon the Democratic party this time. Those who would honestly assess the health of our electorate should pay close attention to local governments to get a real pulse, only four states have Democratic governors with Democratic majorities in their legislatures after this week, CA, OR, RI, and HI. CT has a Democratic governor, a majority Democratic lower house and a tied upper chamber. Why are 34 of our states now governed by Republican governors with supportive legislatures? My speculation is the citizens of those states believe in the rule of law, fair tax policies and a state’s right to basically govern themselves internally. Bottom line is the mainstream media, the Democratic party and Ms. Clinton in particular, lost the confidence of the people.
I voted for Mr. Trump after a lot of soul searching. The other minor parties didn’t stand a chance so a vote for them was a wasted vote. There was no way I would vote for Ms. Clinton with her record over the last 30 years. What did she accomplish as Secretary of State? A Middle East worse off than it was before; a “junior varsity” ISIS running rampant; soured relations with Russia; etc. I have three sons and a son in law who fought in eight combat tours in Iraq and/or Afghanistan as junior Infantry officers. I have a daughter who spent a tour in Afghanistan as a flight surgeon for the 101 st Airborne Division. My hope was that my grandchildren would not have to fight this war but Ms. Clinton’s wrong guesses along with President Obama knowing better than his military advisers, have made this a true generational war, perhaps two. There is no doubt in my mind what kind of president Ms. Clinton would have been when she abandoned 4 Americans in Libya and later said "What difference does it make now" and believes in late term abortion of a fully developed child.
Finally, I held several positions where I had to be cleared for the highest security clearance we have. Had I compromised one secret, my life would have been ruined. There is no doubt about that. It appears that we have two legal systems, one for the common folk and one for high ranking politicians. That hypocrisy was another reason why I supported Trump.
I am not an uneducated redneck, racist, white power, women pregnant in the kitchen, my Country right or wrong kind of guy. I believe in the value of every individual; Duty, Honor, Country; the tenets and values of the Boy Scout Oath and Law that I still repeat with my Scouts every Monday night at our church; and most of all I believe in my Catholic faith, that conception = life and the United States Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. I have voted in every election since 1970. Most by absentee ballot from Texas until I retired here in Tennessee. I study all the candidates from both major parties before I cast my votes. I have personally experienced the loss of brothers and sisters who have died to give me the privilege. I take it very personally and seriously. I am willing to give President Elect Trump the benefit of the doubt."
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