For the past year, I wanted anyone but Trump.
After Indiana, I submitted. Cruz was just not appealing
enough. Trump resonated with the vast swath of the No Longer Silent Majority.
Why?
Immigration, Trade, and National Security weigh the heaviest
on American voters’ hearts and minds. While Cruz was measuring up to the
conservative ideology checklist, and Scott Walker celebrated his resume lined
with incredible reforms, Trump could see eye to eye with what was bothering
people. He had a better mind for what was on their mind.
In Los Angeles, Republicans are fiscally conservative and
socially liberal, or religious conservatives driven by those distinct values. Both
niches were not clear targets for a Trump campaign. In my home in the South Bay
region of Los Angeles, those three issues do not really affect us. That’s why
ideological rigor was essential and a resume appealed to me more.
Don’t mistake my reluctance to support Trump. I care about those
concerns, but there were not gut issues for me the way they are for the
widespread majority of Americans. I have a great job, live in a safe place, and
imbalanced globalization has not adversely affected the South Bay.
Everywhere else, corporate cronyism has tilted the marketplace
away from the hard-working, honest business owner to the well-financed industrial
behemoths with the right Washington contacts. Citizens are despised, illegals are protected,
and the feds want to take our guns away.
Trump’s message on immigration, trade, and security courted
those voters effectively. Washington’s aloof inattention, coupled with the
robust pandering of Big Business and Big Labor, has done enough damage. Trump is
the channel for a national electorate that is mad as hell, and won’t take it
anymore.
Particularly on immigration.
This embittering lawlessness hits the hardest on the
families of the Remembrance
Project. Founded in 2009, this group commemorates the lives of Americans,
young and old, who have been killed by illegal aliens in their own country. One
of their most telling statements drives the point of their mission: “Every
state is a border state.”
Indeed, illegal immigration is not a victimless crime, and
for the thousands of grieving Americans who have lost loved ones to illegals,
our porous, unsecured borders are wreaking unfathomable harm. Contrary to the
polite, politically correct notion that illegal immigration is “an act of
love”, The Remembrance Project reminds Congress and informs the public that secure
borders are an undebatable necessity.
I have worked with the
pro-immigration enforcement group We the
People Rising for the past year—whose leader Robin Hvidston also serves
as California Director for the Remembrance Project. It never really dawned on
me till now how severe, how deeply wounding is the loss of a loved one to the
senseless violence of illegal aliens.
If our federal officials had secured our borders, the families
of Dominic Durden, Jamiel Shaw Jr., Marcello Bisarello and Tierra Stansberry (and
thousands more) would not be in mourning. The Stansberry death was the most
jarring. She was burned alive in a fire, along with four others, set by an
illegal alien in an abandoned Los Angeles warehouse. I
visited the site, and met
the widow of one of the victims. Finally,
I recognized the irreparable harm of illegal immigration. Not just an idea, but
a fact, and a series of wrongs which The Remembrance Project is fighting to remedy.
This group reached out to every Presidential candidate. Most
politicians flee from them, since they want to court votes, not controversy,
and major donors, which steer clear of such stark tragedies. The Remembrance
Project cannot endorse candidates, either, which may remove any incentive for a
politician to meet with them.
Only one responded in turn with respect and regard for their
work:
Donald J. Trump.
Here
is the press release which the Trump campaign issued shortly after contact
from The Remembrance Project:
"Donald Trump,
who has been honored to receive the endorsement of the Border Patrol Union,
will always stand by the victims of illegal immigrant violence. A Trump Administration will support this
important initiative from the Remembrance Project to provide legal and support
services to the surviving families, which can easily be funded by eliminating
welfare payment to illegal immigrant households. We will deliver justice for the families and,
at last, put Americans first."
This is not racism, xenophobia, bigotry, or paranoia. This
is patriotism, this is heroism.
This is what we need guiding us and governing over us.
In the past I called Trump a Democrat, a rodeo clown,
although I never saw him as a racist. Today, I understand why a diligent
community of activists look up to Trump as their next President. No one can question
his ardent affection for the
Remembrance Project, either.
In April, he welcomed members of the Remembrance Project to
accompany him on stage at his Costa Mesa rally.
In May, Trump stopped glad-handing Anaheim, California’s
roaring crowds to connect
with members of the Project. He kissed the posters commemorating the
victims of illegal aliens. He signed off on every one of them. One of the
members named Sabine Durden called out to him. “I’m a legal immigrant, and I
will vote for you 100%.”
At the RNC Convention, these key speakers addressed
the convention: Mary Ann Mendoza, Sabine Durden, and Jamiel Shaw.
Mendoza: “It’s time that we have an administration that cares
more about Americans than about illegals.”
Durden: “I have been talking about illegal immigration for years.
No one listened, until Donald Trump.”
Jamiel Shaw described the day in court, when his son’s
murderer was convicted: “The killer’s gang targeted black males. You’d think Obama cared … and black lives
matter.”
With Trump, it’s clear that victims’ lives matter.
Trump has lost business contracts, and has suffered intense
hatred from the press and the establishment. Yet he has honored the Remembrance
Project, even when the politicians and major media were not paying attention.
And that matters a great deal to me.
Today I endorse without hesitation: Vote for Donald Trump!
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