Here's why I won't vote for Trump

I am an independent voter, and I’m NOT voting for Donald Trump. Here are just a few reasons why.

From everything I know about him, he is in this election solely for himself. His past and present have shown him to be a totally self-absorbed egotist and concerned primarily about his image — not America. He has an unshakeable belief in his personal intuition. Facts or the opinions of others do not appear to influence his opinions or actions in the least.

He has no experience in government. His only experience with public collaboration in business was his publicly traded casino corporation. He managed it into bankruptcy. How would he work with Congress to conduct the nation’s business?

During this election campaign it is clear that he will tell us anything he thinks we want to hear — whether or not it makes sense or is the truth. Example: He says he will build a wall along the border with Mexico. Does this make sense when we are currently experiencing a net out-migration of Mexican nationals back to Mexico? Is he trying to keep them from leaving the United States?

I don’t trust a candidate who is hiding key information from me. His refusal to provide his tax returns for public scrutiny indicates that there is information in those documents that would be harmful to his image, reputation, and electability. Offshore accounts? Miserly charitable contributions? Shady deductions? Not as wealthy as he portrays himself? I have to then assume that his finances are a sham.

Unlike his opponent his website position papers are incomplete. No positions regarding Social Security, Medicare, foreign policy, national defense, or education among other issues. If I were planning for retirement, or concerned about health care during retirement, I would be very concerned about what he would do.

His website position papers include disturbing statements and omissions. He would reduce income tax for everyone, reduce business tax rates and end the estate tax (his family would really benefit from this last one) without identifying the cost reductions required to avoid runaway deficits.

He would promote expansion of fossil-fuel production on a massive scale. He avoids the issue of the impacts of the resulting runaway global climate change. He would repeal Obamacare and apply free-market principles to health care. Easy to say for someone who has never had to worry about medical costs. You will have to determine a value for your loved one’s life and use that to determine the financial feasibility of treatment. His health-care plan sounds more like population reduction.

These are just a few of his positions that I take exception to. I also distrust a candidate who has declined to state any position on so many other important issues.

As a Vietnam veteran, it really upsets me that, during the Vietnam War, after four years of college draft deferments during which he played college sports — baseball, tennis and squash — he suddenly was diagnosed with bone spurs upon graduation in 1968 and escaped the draft for the remaining four years of the war with a medical deferment. This after an initial medical examination earlier in 1968 did not identify any medical impediments to military service. Then, somehow, he miraculously became healthy upon the conclusion of that war. Back in the day a person who acted in this way was considered to be a coward.

In conclusion, I am going to vote — but not for Donald Trump.

Charles W. Davis is a resident of Columbia Falls.