Presidential Election 2016
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PART 1- COUNTERVIEW
By NARENDER G. REDDY |
“All Americans, not only in the States most heavily affected but in every place in this country, are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country. The jobs they hold might otherwise be held by citizens or legal immigrants. The public services they use impose burdens on our taxpayers. That’s why our administration has moved aggressively to secure our borders more by hiring a record number of new border guards, by deporting twice as many criminal aliens as ever before, by cracking down on illegal hiring, by barring welfare benefits to illegal aliens.”
Does the above statement sound racist to you? Is that the reason all the leftist media is crying out loud that Trump is a racist? Here is the fact. The above statement is part of the State of the Union speech delivered by then President Bill Clinton on January 24, 1995, for which he got a standing ovation. Similarly, Trump said, “No nation can call itself a country without securing its borders. We owe it to our citizens to make them feel safe by building walls or fences or by increasing the size of border security force. I strongly believe that we need to secure our nation’s borders by whatever means to prevent this flow of illegal immigrants.”
The Democrats and their leftist media labeling Trump ‘bigot’ and ‘racist’ for making similar statements as Bill Clinton, is nothing but sheer hypocrisy. It is the same strategy that they adopt at every election time to show Republican candidates as racists and bigots and project Democrats as saviors of all those—as inscribed on our Statue of Liberty—“huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” But, in reality it is all about creating vote banks for themselves based on color and ethnicity.
Trump is called a ‘bigot’ because of his proposed policy to vet immigrants and refugees from certain terrorist breeding countries. What is wrong with that? Don’t other countries practice the same policy when issuing visas to foreigners? It is a common practice to be vigilant when issuing visas to people coming from countries that practice dangerous political, social, or religious ideologies.
I’m amazed to hear comments from our Indian-American community that Trump is a racist. They feel that if elected as President, he would deport all Indian-Americans.
Honestly, can any one who understands our Constitution believe that? But, media hype influences them to believe so. Also, surprisingly, they ask me, “Why shouldn’t we legalize and give citizenship to all those millions of illegal aliens living in this country?” While our national unemployment looms around 5% and millions are claiming unemployment allowance, do we really need to provide the legal right to work to those millions of illegal aliens?
Blacks are a disillusioned minority despite supporting Democrat Presidents
Democrats always pander to blacks and make them believe that blacks can advance and flourish only in a Democrat-governed state or country. But the facts prove to be otherwise. Among racial and ethnic groups, blacks have the highest poverty rate (27.4%), compared to 9.9% for whites. 45.8% of young black children (under age 6) live in poverty, compared to 14.5 % of white children. The unemployment rate among blacks at 9.5% is twice the rate among whites (4.5%). Even after having Obama, a black man, as President for the past eight years their lives didn’t change much. Apparently, black lives didn’t matter much to the White House. But, Democrats still want blacks to believe they are the ones who can make a difference in their lives.
Why is the Republican Party a better choice for Indian-Americans?
At times, I hear comments from my friends that the Republican Party is a racist party. Their perception is stronger than fact. Actually, the Republican Party has a lot more in common with the core principles that we Indian-Americans stand for. We believe in family values, freedom to practice our faith, fiscal conservativeness, education as a tool for success, entrepreneurship, less government, and less taxes. All the above are core principles of the Republican Party as well. But unfortunately, 80% of the Indian-American community votes against its own interests by voting for Democrats time and again. It is high time now to move to the ‘right’ side and to support the Republican Party.
Why I am rooting for Trump
I strongly believe that Trump will improve our sagging economy by creating jobs, manufacturing in the U.S., and by reducing imports. Trump, who has built a business empire, truly understands the way to create jobs and make every effort to balance our budget, whereas Hillary Clinton will just follow Obama’s policy of borrowing more money and focus on giving freebies rather than creating jobs or balancing the budget.
Don’t believe Obama and the media’s glorying comments on how healthy our economy is and how happy our lives are. As President Reagan said, “A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his,”… in this case when Hillary loses her election. Currently our national debt is at $19.4 trillion compared to $10.6 trillion when Obama’s presidency was inaugurated. Obama added $9 trillion to our national debt in just about 8 years. By the time his second term ends, he will have the distinction of doubling our national debt, a rare feat that no other President ever accomplished. Who’ll be paying back this debt? We, our children, and our grand-children will have to bear this burden. I have lost hope that under the Democrats, the affluence that my generation experienced will ever return for our future generations to enjoy.
Trump and nuclear codes.
Clinton said that “Trump…is temperamentally unfit
to hold an office that requires knowledge, stability,
and immense responsibility. This is not someone who
should ever have the nuclear codes—because it’s not
hard to imagine Donald Trump leading us into a war
just because somebody got under his very thin skin.”
Trump only stated that using a nuclear weapon is also an option during times of war. Is there any country that ever made an official statement that ‘we will not use nuclear weapons under any circumstances?’ Trump is a responsible person. He has a family of his own with children and grandchildren. He understands any country that makes a first strike will be annihilated from the face of this earth. No civilized country can ever make that first strike. On the contrary, no one can trust Hillary Clinton with our nuclear codes if she becomes a President.
It is a proven fact that, as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton mishandled our national secrets by storing them in a private server placed in her bathroom at home. Also, we now know how she destroyed thousands of her emails to avoid getting caught with proof of her carelessness in communicating sensitive material.
Trump will restore America’s leadership role and earn worldwide
respect
Trump’s campaign slogan, ‘Make America Great
Again,’ is very much appropriate because during
Obama’s administration, the world has lost all regard
and respect for the USA. Obama’s policies in the international
arena and his apologetic tours abroad, belittling
our country, have tarnished the image of America.
Recently, we saw how China disrespected our President
and also how the President of a Third World country—the Philippines—rebuked our President in filthy language.
That’s why we need a President who can make
America great again, strong again, command respect.
The world will start looking to the USA for a leadership
role once again.
Make America and the world safe again
Donald Trump has pledged to make America safe
again and the world a safer place as well. In the 20th
century the United States took the lead and with the
help of allies, defeated Fascism, Nazism, and Communism.
Those were conventional wars compared to the
Terrorism that we are experiencing since 9/11/2001.
The terrorism is not only spread into Europe and
Middle East but to USA as well. Due to terroristic attacks
several Americans were killed and wounded in
attacks at Fort Hood, Boston Marathon, Army training
center in Chattanooga, San Bernardino, and Pulse
Night Club, Orlando. Terrorists in Europe and Middle
East also killed thousands of innocent people. Prior
to Obama’s presidency, Middle East was much better
than what it is today. Libya was stable, Syria was
under control, Egypt under President Mubarak was an
ally of USA, Iraq was limping back to normalcy with Al-Qaeda on the run. But due to the failed policies
of President Obama and Secretary Clinton, today
Libya is in total ruins; so is Syria with no apparent
end to civil war. Military government rules Egypt.
Trump is pledging to make safety of America his topmost priority. He is proposing to increase budget for Homeland Security and secure our borders, screen the immigrants arriving from terrorist breeding countries. Hillary promised to increase the flow of refugees from Syria and other countries by 550%. But, she pro- mises no screening mechanism for these refugees; that could result in terrorists slipping into our country under the guise of a refugee. Without major US forces, Iraq is in turmoil and became a base of ISIS forces.
Trump believes in fighting our enemy at their home and not just on our homeland. Trump proposes to increase military spending to fight the enemy before reaching our shores. Hillary promises not to use ground troops in countries like Iraq and Syria where ISIS is playing havoc with the civilian lives and training terrorists to attack American interests every- where in the world. She has no alternate plan to defeat ISIS. We can’t defeat a well-trained terrorist force with just drones and a few special operational forces as Obama has been doing for the past few years. Hillary will only make it worse and ISIS will become a stronger and more brutal force than Nazis.
Critical need for a change in direction
This year’s presidential election is crucial in that it will set the agenda for many decades to come. There is a clear and critical need to change the direction in which the country is heading. To preserve the Conservative agenda, it is essential that we elect a President who understands fiscal policy of not over-spending, who implements measures to curtail national debt, reduces the role of government in our lives, and reduces taxes on the hard working labor
force of the country.
We need a President who administers through legislation and not executive orders of his/her whims and fancies. We need a President who appoints impartial, fair-minded judges to the Supreme Court who justly interpret our Constitution rather than flaunt their biased political-activist opinions. We need a President who is proud of our country, rather than being apologetic to the world. We need a President who can provide leadership to the world in resolving calamitous issues that affect humanity.
Definitely, Hillary Clinton, a master of corruption and dishonesty, can’t be our choice for the next President of this great country. We don’t need as President, the person who failed to protect the lives of four Americans, including our Ambassador, in Benghazi. Hillary’s presidency would only be a continuation of the Obama administration’s 8 years of failed policies. We can’t afford that. We need a proven business- man, rather than a career politician, one who is hon- est and sincere in serving our country, one who strongly believes in ‘Making America Great Again.’ That would undoubtedly be Trump.
I strongly urge all those Republicans and independents who are wavering whether to vote or not for Trump to think about the future of conservatism, preserving our rights under 1st and 2nd amendments which could be restricted with Hillary picking up the next two or 3 Justices to the Supreme Court. Even if you dislike Trump as a person because of his controversial statements, one thing you can be sure, he will not let down America and he will certainly work hard as President to ‘Make America Great Again.’ Also, don’t show your protest to Republican Party by simply voting for a Libertarian candidate. That will be a total waste. This will be our last opportunity to put America back on tracks to its past glory.
On 8th November, 2016, I’ll be voting for Donald J. Trump as President of our great country. I hope you do, too.
Narender Reddy is a leading Republican activist, organizer, and fundraiser since 1991. He has served as Delegate to Republican National Convention in 2004 and 2008, and was the Vice-Chair of the Georgia Bush-Cheney Campaign 2004.
PART 2 - EDITORIAL
A friend of a love-struck boy inquired about the progress made in the courtship. “Oh, it’s coming along great. I am already 50% successful: I love her with all my heart… but she hates me!”
Congratulations, Trump’s Indian-American supporters—you are 50% successful! You may support him, but he doesn’t give two hoots about you. Of course he will gladly shake your hand and take your vote, while thinking, “You’re not very bright, are you? My whole campaign shouts contempt for minorities, but here you are, bending over for my benefit.”
The Price of Downplaying a Racist Leader
Is there anything sadder than Uncle Toms, including the
brown kinds, who insist Trump is not a racist? Even Trump must be feeling a tad frustrated: “Where did I fall short? I said the most unspeakable things to advertise my racism. My KKK friends got the
message and flocked to me in support. And yet, here you are, poor
suckers—brown, black, Mexicans, Muslims—willingly supporting my barely coded vision of an Aryan Nation!”
Here are just two of the many verifiable facts (not opinions) that establish Trump’s rock-solid racist credentials:
• The Justice Department sued his company—twice—for not renting to black people. (http://tinyurl.com/hhrhgnu)
• The New Jersey Casino Control Commission fined the Trump Plaza $200,000 in 1992 because managers would remove African-American
card dealers at the request of a big-spending gambler. (http://tinyurl.com/zqj52wd)
All polls, including one by Fox News, show Trump’s African American support hovering around zero to 1%—the lowest in recent history! Yet, he has the audacity to lecture Blacks that Democrats are bad for them.
When you put an all-out racist in charge of a diverse nation, which is built on welcoming immigrants from around the world, you fracture the nation at best, and head towards a civil war at worst.
All Balls and No Brains
And yet, some of you are thinking, “I don’t care if he is a racist. He is a strongman who will protect us from Muslim terrorists.”
Like Trump, George W. Bush also projected himself as tough on terrorism. What did we get from this “all balls, no brains” toughness? We got ISIS!
Yes, we have Bush to thank—for giving birth to this global demon. And no, this is not some analysis of an armchair liberal. Many in the intelligence community—including General Michael T. Flynn, Trump’s top national security advisor—blame Bush’s ill-conceived Iraq War for giving rise to ISIS.
“We will fight the enemies on their home turf, not ours,” is how they sold us the war. And now, as a direct, cumulative result, we are seeing ISIS-inspired attacks all over the civilized world, including right here in our homeland.
So you see, boasting and bravado—which is all that Trump has—cannot stop terrorism. It only produces more terrorists. Michael Hayden, head of CIA under Bush, says Trump’s rhetoric is a big factor in the dramatic rise of ISIS recruitment. That’s what you get when, instead of focusing on sound action, you make it a clash of civilizations.
When Obama talks like a statesman on the global stage, right-wingers accuse him of being an American apologist. They brand him as weak on terrorism. Reality has been just the opposite. Obama is no pacifist. Besides taking down Osama bin Laden in an incredibly gritty mission, his barrage of airstrikes on Syria and other hotspots—without regard to political correctness—shows his resolve. Hillary Clinton is cut from the same cloth—they may speak softly but they carry a big stick.
Trump, on the other hand, is a dangerous loudmouth. This is not a stray opinion, but rather the informed position coming from the military establishment. In a devastating letter signed by over 50 Republican foreign policy experts, they clearly identify Trump as downright dangerous to American interests. “[Trump’s] vision of American influence and power in the world is wildly inconsistent and unmoored in principle. He swings from isolationism to military adventurism within the space of one sentence,” the letter reads.
Synthetic Stucco
“We need a businessman, not a politician, to
grow our economy. And Trump is a successful
businessman”—that’s another reason mentioned for
supporting him.
Again, there is hype…and then there is reality:
• Trump is a serial failure. Here’s a small list of his numerous business failures: Trump Airlines; Trump Vodka; Trump Mortgage; Trump Casinos; Trump Steaks; Trump Magazine; gotrump.com, a luxury travel search engine; Trump University... all driven down to failures within surprisingly short times.
• Six of his businesses have gone bankrupt. (http://tinyurl.com/z4j8xq8)
• He is a chronic bad debtor who has an ever-increasing trail of creditors chasing him. (http://tinyurl.com/h8j6rxm)
How can someone who can’t manage his own finances manage the largest economy of the world? He can’t! The Wall Street Journal, in August, reached out to all 45 surviving former members of the White House Council of Economic Advisers under the past eight presidents, going back to Richard Nixon—to see whom they favoured for economic policies. None—not one—supported Trump! Clinton was their overwhelming favorite.
Then why the aura of success around Trump? Because he’s an entertaining showman, flashing a devil-may-care bombast. Like synthetic stucco Trump looks attractive and strong from the outside but is hollow on the inside. “What Mr. Trump has achieved isn’t success. It’s notoriety,” writes Brett Stephens in the Wall Street Journal.
Because, if you dig just a bit deeper under the Trump brand, you find he’s not just a bad businessman, but that he is also downright crooked:
• After years of warnings and citations for violations, in 2013, the New York Attorney General filed a lawsuit against Trump University for defrauding more than 5,000 people for $40 million! (http://tinyurl.com/hm22xpv)
• The Justice Department filed a complaint against Trump on allegations that he bribed Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi with $25,000 to get her to drop an investigation into Trump University. (http://tinyurl.com/zy3f9r2)
• Trump has been involved in more than 4,000 lawsuits (http://tinyurl.com/h9qdtba). Some lawsuits may be unavoidable in the American business environment. But 4,000 lawsuits? That screams “CROOK!” like nothing else.
The following is not idle name calling, it’s an informed characterization from those who know Trump, including many Republicans: Trump is—in the very clinical sense of the words—a juvenile, a bully, unscrupulous, homophobic, xenophobic, misogynist, narcissist, and a demagogue.
That he is even a contender for the most powerful office in the world is an affront to 5,000 years of human civilization. We may as well bury all pretence of decency, morality, righteousness, and religion. Let’s burn our Bhagwad Gitas and Bibles—because they real mean diddly-squat if we condone Trump, let alone make him president of this great nation.
“Lie Big, Lie Often”
“Yes, Trump’s bad, but isn’t Hillary a liar, too?”
This persistent false equivalency between two candidates that are as different as night and day is a testament to the sheer relentlessness and magnitude of the right-wing propaganda machinery: a whole army of talking heads like Limbaugh and Hannity, who have no accountability whatsoever. (This is u like mainstream media, which even when imperfect, has to be accountable to professional ethics and standards.) The overarching operating principle of these formidable propagandists is “Lie Big, Lie Often!” And it has paid off handsomely—a majority of Americans believe Clinton is as much or more riddled with lies and scandals as Trump.
The reality? No presidential nominee in American history has been the subject of as many complaints of ethical violations, federal investigations, tax violations, and lawsuits, as Trump. From Tony Schwartz, Trump’s own ghostwriter for his bestseller, to numerous contractors, businessmen, charities, and even a group of young girls who performed at his political rally in Florida, all have exposed him for the fraud that he is. These are all documented cases of wrongdoing, not conspiracy theories.
Compared to that, there are basically only two issues that have cast a shadow on Clinton: use of private email server and Benghazi. (Of course, if you count the conspiracy theories, there are dozens). How sad for the right-wingers that despite the relentless character assassination of Clinton for over three decades of her public life, and despite the firehouse barrage of innuendo lobbed at her throughout the 18 months on the campaign trail, they have no smoking gun on either of these two issues.
But if you were a casual observer of the political process, you would be forgiven for believing that it was Clinton’s irresponsibility that killed four Americans in Benghazi. That is categorically untrue as per various bipartisan investigations. What is categorically true, however, is that tens of thousands of American soldiers died in their primes because of Bush’s fraudulent war. Tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians died as a direct result. Not to mention the catastrophic disruption of Syria, the refugee crisis, and the birth of ISIS that are all repercussions of that war of choice. And yet, in the topsy-turvy world of right-wingers, Hillary is the devil, and Bush a hero. (And Trump is cut from the same cloth as Bush, especially when it comes to foreign policy: all balls, no brains.)
Clinton is not entirely taintless—she is a politician, and an imperfect one—no different than most contemporary ones. But while she may be no Gandhi, compared to Trump, she’s the Virgin Mary. As per PolitiFact, a Pulitzer prize-winning nonpartisan research organization, Clinton ranks as the most honest candidate of the entire 2016 election, while Trump ranks as the biggest liar in the batch.
Having nothing specific or commendable to say about Trump’s policies, vision, experience, and temperament (other than empty soundbites), they resort to the same old tired right-wing propaganda—hoping Americans are too stupid or forgetful to call them out:
• The fear mongering about how those “tax and spend” Democrats are bad for you and your grandchildren. They forget that, historically,
the economy has done better under Democrats: Personal disposable income has grown
nearly 6 times more under Democrats; and
GDP has grown 7 times more. Republican presidents added 2.5 times more to the national
debt than Democratic presidents. (http://tinyurl.com/zl3kpos)
• They blame Obama for doubling the national debt…while conveniently forgetting that after
8 years in office, Bush handed Obama a practically bankrupt America. Obama had to live
with the Bush tax cuts for two years, and two wars after that.
Here’s the breathtaking hypocrisy of the right: they mocked Obama as just a “community organizer” who had no business being a president due to his lack of experience. And now they knock Clinton as an “Establishment politician” for precisely that: being experienced.
For over three decades Clinton has excelled in public policy, service, law, legislation, and foreign policy. Having served on five Senate committees including ones for Budget, Armed Services, Environment and Public Works, and Health and Education, Clinton has deep experience in governance. Compare that to Trump’s decades of hedonistic lifestyle from his inherited wealth. The things that Trump has been successful at—like The Apprentice, his TV show, calls for dictatorial and showmanship skills. It does nothing to prepare him for a role that requires endless juggling between dozens of conflicting interests and objectives.
On the one hand, top Republican honchos and influencers like Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, Lindsay Graham, George P. Shultz, Paul Wolfowitz, Michael Bloomberg, Charles Krauthammer, Glenn Beck, the Koch Brothers, and many more, are outright cautioning against Trump; on the other, many respectable conservatives have crossed the party line to voice support for Clinton. Secretary of State under Bush, Condoleezza Rice said, “Hillary Clinton, is an extremely talented woman. She is a woman of integrity. She believes in this country deeply.” Getting the endorsement of the controversial hawkish Henry Kissinger may unnerve some peaceniks. But the point is that those who have been in the trenches respect Clinton. Here’s what he said: “I respect her intellect.” And: “She ran the State Department in the most effective way that I’ve ever seen.”
Only six former Presidents have served as the Secretary of the State, and only three have served as both Secretary of State and in Congress. “By any objective measure Clinton is not just the most qualified candidate this season, she’s one of the most qualified people to ever seek the office”—an article in Daily Kos drives home the point.
The Editorial Board of the Washington Post sums it up well: “Imagine how history would judge today’s Americans if, looking back at this election, the record showed that voters empowered a dangerous man because of … a minor email scandal. There is no equivalence between Ms. Clinton’s wrongs and Mr. Trump’s manifest unfitness for office.”
Parthiv N. Parekh is the editor-in-chief of Khabar.
Some
research provided by Fayzan Gowani, Vishal S. Narayanswamy, and Suzanne Sen.
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