It's been a week now since Donald Trump was re-elected as President of the United States.

I'm writing this post for me—so it can sit here and rot through the anals of history on a blog that no one reads. So I can circle back on it years from now to see how well my reasoning held up. But I'm specifically writing it in a way that's designed to be stone-cold sober.

You won't find words like rape, Putin, transgender, Ukraine, Israel, cryptocurrency, Fascist, Communist, or Hitler anywhere in this post aside from this sentence—that's by design. It's not that these things aren't important—I'm purposely trying to share my case against Trump without emotion. Reasons related to my personal values and biases have been swept out the door—what remains are my arguments based purely on what I believe to be sound reasoning and logic.

The votes are in, the decision has been made... I'm not going to change anyone's mind.

My reasons for not voting for Trump 

Let's start with the two arguments I've heard most often from Republicans who did vote for Trump.

"All politicians are corrupt"

An argument I keep hearing over and over from Trump voters is "Sure, Trump is corrupt but all politicians are corrupt."

I understand the point—but talk about having low standards. These are the same people telling me they want to "make America great again." Anyone who has ever built anything great will tell you that starts with having high standards. This perspective is simpy incongruent with their stated goal.

You don't built anything great by accepting incredibly low standards.

"He hasn't done anything crazy"

This is the most common pro-Trump argument I've heard with consistency. "He was already President for 4 years. He didn't do anything crazy—why do you think he will now?"

This one I have to just strongly rebute—he didn't do anything crazy?

Did he not try to intimidate Georgia's Secretary of State into "finding votes?" Did he not lose an election, then ask Mike Pence not to certify the results of the election? He did everything in his power not to turn over power peacefully last time around. This is the definition of dictator behavior—and a direct attack on the very foundation of American democracy. 

What makes you think he won't do it again?

Trump enters office with far move power this time around than he had previously.

You can't argue that Trump will uphold the Constitution, when he's already tried not to enable a peaceful transition of power.

We checked references—they said not to hire him

The amount of turnover of key personnel in Trump's initial adminstration was unprecendeted. Beyond that, the number of members of Trump's own cabinet who spoke out against his re-election was completely unprecedented.

These were Republicans who should have had an extreme bias towards Trump—they were the people that worked with him most closely. From Generals to Advisors to his own Vice President, they went out of their way to warn us.

Simply put, America checked references before hiring Trump. We were told not to hire him.

We hired him anyways.

If the majority of people who have worked closely with someone warn you not to work with them, they likely won't be a good hire.

Leadership starts with character and ethics

I believe that great leadership begins with character and ethics—these are prerequisites. Donald Trump has spent a lifetime in the public eye—we know who he is.

Between extramarital affairs, not paying people he's hired, countless felonies (of which he was unanimously found guilty by a jury), being found liable of defamation and sexual abuse, and being best friends with people like Jeffrey Epstein there's overwhelming evidence of who Trump is. Trying not to be hyperbolic, I think it would be a stretch to give Trump even a 2/10 when it comes to character and ethics.

People without character and ethics will not lead you to the places that you want to go.

I share these points specifically because even if you are Trump's staunchest supporter, I think they are fairly difficult to refute. I believe anyone can see the reasoning in them—even most of the Trump supporters I spoke with acknowledged them as being true.