Writing

The 2020 US election is coming up and I'm faced with a choice that many Americans are faced with: who should I vote for? I usually try to give each candidate a fair shake and after looking closely at Donald Trump's track record over the last 3.5 years, I cannot support him in his re-election campaign for president of the United States.

To be clear - for me, it isn't all bad with Trump. I appreciate the efforts made with the FSA, a positive step towards criminal justice reform, think Space Force is cool and enjoy the tax cuts, but other actions under his administration far outweigh these three items. 

As the son of an immigrant, with business partners who are immigrants, and a wife who is an immigrant; I hold a deep respect for the immigrants who have made amazing contributions in this country - from enriching local economy to scientific and technological breakthroughs. I do not appreciate any attacks or additional roadblocks for the people I spend my life with.

Put simply, it seems that Donald Trump does not like immigrants, here is a list of actions taken that have made life more difficult for immigrants in America under the Trump administration:

1. His attempt to ban people from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, and Libya in 2017.
2. His successful plan to ban new green card applications and H1B visas since May of 2020.
3. His administration's negligence in point 2 above leading to a temporary furlough of 65% of USCIS workers.

Had these actions been taken in the past, Steve Jobs' father may not have been able to immigrate to the U.S., my wife, Nathali, my grandparents, my mother or even one of my best friends, Manuel, would not be able to get a green card; Uber, CloudFlare, and other great tech companies would not have been founded (each had at least one founder who was here on an H1B visa).

Because these happened today, my wife's green card process has been delayed and who knows how many amazing scientists and technologists we are turning away because of these short-sighted policies.

Not many people are aware, but the U.S. is actually currently in seven wars. Trump campaigned on a platform of "bringing the troops home". If his administration had actually done this, I truly think I would have voted for him this time around, but, he did not. Trump has actually done nothing to reduce military presence worldwide, which is not something I can support.

Not only has he failed to bring troops home, removed the requirement for the U.S. to report civilian casualties from drone strikes.

I believe the world can be more peaceful during my lifetime and do not think we need to be bombing and occupying so many countries that were not direct aggressors to the U.S. - so any candidate that actually is willing to reduce our military presence abroad is likely to get my vote.

I understand and respect a woman's right to do what she wishes with her body. Donald Trump does not appear to support women's rights, nor does he appear to respect women generally. His behavior and actions here include:

1. Handicapping funding for Planned Parenthood
2. Eliminating requirements for gender wage gap reporting for companies
3. Providing a loophole for insurance companies to stop covering birth control
4. Illegal or deceptive hysterectomies of immigrant women in custody

Trump has never been shy about his belief that he can do whatever he wants to women. I personally believe that in most things (exceptions are limited to physical activities), women and men are equal and should be treated as such, there are no laws preventing insurance coverage of vasectomies, so there should be no laws for the opposite. It's simply inequitable and I can't support a candidate who does not hold women's rights at the same level as human rights.

You may or may not know this, but the U.S. is one of the most resource rich countries on the planet, second only to India in land that can yield crops (arable land) and third in drinkable water (aquifers). Doing anything but protecting these resources is shortsighted and bad for America in the long run. The Trump administration is especially horrible here:

1. The Trump administration removed ground water pollution regulations - you know, the stuff you drink from the tap
2. Trump has allowed coal fired plants to increase mercury emissions - mercury can harm pregnant women and put infants and children at risk of developmental problems
3. Trump's EPA has allowed Oil & Gas companies to increase methane emissions by removing reporting requirements
4. Trump has reduced the Bears Ears national monument by 65% and will allow extractive industries to mine it
5. Trump has lifted the ban on drilling for oil in the arctic national wildlife refuge
6. The Trump administration has reduced standards for CO2 emissions for power plants

If and when we start drilling, or fracking for oil, extracting uranium, etc - we'll likely see second order effects on the underlying groundwater and aquifers, like the big green one in the map of US aquifers above, which is directly under what was Bears Ears National Monument. It's so important to me to preserve the amazing natural resources of the United States that I absolutely cannot support an administration that does not care about the long term safety of our environment.

I believe our country should be fiscally conservative, providing only the most essential of services to it's people as decided by it's people. I do not want my tax dollars, or more U.S. dollars to be printed, to cover corporate bailouts, wars and more. Trump campaigned on the idea that he'd reel in spending. Yet, somehow under his watch, the government has increased the national debt by $6.6 trillion dollars. That is INSANE to me. That is the equivalent of earning $35,000 a year in salary while being in debt for a $200,000 house and buying a $66,000 car on credit. It's not like things were looking too much better before the Corona virus pandemic either - his administration had still added $2 trillion to the national debt. 

I can't support someone with this strong of a track record of championing inflation and growing our national debt.

You'll notice I didn't say a thing about "Russia", "his taxes" or "Epstein". I am not concerned with those scandals as much as I am concerned about the long term prosperity of the United States of America. Donald Trump and his administration's actions do not instill confidence in me that we will continue to be the prosperous nation we were and currently are if he is to serve another 4 years in office.

So I can't vote for him and honestly, neither should you.