OPINION: Time for Zinke to withdraw endorsement of Trump

Mr. Zinke, in our family safe rests a weathered, leather-bound pocket Bible, copyright 1836. A forefather of my wife picked this Bible up from a North Carolina battlefield and carried it for the remainder of the Civil War. Passed father to son, this Bible was subsequently carried through two world wars. I will not soon forget my father-in-law’s trembling hands the afternoon he rediscovered this Bible while cleaning a storage shed.

One of my wife’s grandfathers was a sailor of sufficient grit to swim away from three sinking ships and live to tell the tale. He eventually became a member of the Navy’s Underwater Demolition Teams. As you well know, Mr. Zinke, these were among the predecessors of today’s SEAL teams.

Suffice to say, our family has a sprawling military heritage — one that may embrace yet another generation. My youngest daughter is considering enlisting to help pay for medical school as she pursues her dreams of becoming a neurosurgeon. She is the heart and soul of my letter to you, Mr. Zinke. Your endorsement of Donald Trump to become our next commander-in-chief leaves me no choice but to write this letter to you.

On a daily basis, Donald Trump demonstrates a startling degree of disorganization and an inability to keep his campaign from careening off the rails at every turn.

He’s made a staggering number of false claims that not even the most biased fact-checkers can substantiate — “I saw thousands of Muslims cheering on rooftops in New Jersey the day the twin towers were attacked.”

He repeatedly demonstrates a woefully inadequate grasp of global affairs — “[Putin] is not going into Ukraine ... Well, he’s there in a certain way.”

One of his first acts as president would be to stand trial for defrauding students of the now defunct [like so many of his other business ventures] Trump University.

By proclaiming, “I alone can fix it,” while referring to the state of our union, Mr. Trump reveals something deeply disturbing about his personality structure. He makes reckless remarks at rallies despite every attempt by handlers to tone down his rhetoric — “By the way, and if she [Secretary Clinton] gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks,” then with a smirk on his face, “ … although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know.”

At best that last statement represents a demonstrable lack of judgment and self-censoring. At worst it was a thinly veiled assassination joke. He’s made repeated disparaging remarks toward a grieving mother and father of a son who died in the service of this country — remarks that Republicans, Democrats, and independents alike have come forward to publically condemn. Through all of this, you have remained mute and allowed your endorsement to stand.

As a Navy SEAL, you were the tip of the sword standing between our nation and whatever threat might come our way. That, sir, was an honorable thing. I find it perplexing and surreal that you would follow up your noble protection of this country by endorsing an eminent threat. Whether it be the threat of simple incompetence, or the threat of a disordered personality; it is a threat to our nation — one you have endorsed. Every day you allow your endorsement to stand is a disgrace.

A growing number of distinguished Republicans have been brave enough to stand up and publically disavow Trump for the national and global threat his candidacy poses. They have put their political careers at risk in order to do the honorable thing by stating the obvious — Donald Trump is unfit to serve as commander-in-chief. You, sir, have remained mute.

Mr. Zinke, I will meet with you anytime, anywhere. I will bring to you a pocket Bible found in the grass of a North Carolina field where young men died in a war born of racism. I will invite you to feel with your own hands the quiet sense of sacrifice bestowed upon that small book father to son for the better part of two centuries. I will remind you that one day far too soon my wife and I may find ourselves handing this Bible to our determined little girl while hoping in the darkest parts of ourselves she will come home safe and unharmed.

I will then ask you to look me in the eyes. Do not to try to explain your endorsement of a petty, race-baiting shell of a man to this nation’s highest office — an office where he may very well decide the fate of my daughter along with so many other daughters and sons. Simply look me in the eye, sir. See the all-consuming love I have for my little girl, then think of Donald J. Trump.

“I’ve said if she [Ivanka Trump] wasn’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.” — Donald Trump in May 2006 interviewed on “The View.”

Mr. Zinke, are you willing to meet with me? Will you take my family’s Bible into your hands, look me in the eye, consider your endorsement, then ask yourself if the feeling you get in the center of your chest is integrity, honor or something else? Whatever you feel at that moment, I want to see it in your eyes.

And I want you to never stop seeing the eyes of a father whose daughter you have encouraged America to entrust to Donald Trump.

Todd W. Cardin is a resident of Kalispell.