The Cornell Republicans announced that they plan to make an announcement regarding a presidential endorsement later this week. In response, the Cornell Daily Sun published an editorial titled “Cornell Republicans Must Renounce Donald Trump.”
According to the Sun, Trump’s candidacy “poses an imminent threat to the values of our country and our campus” and is antithetical to Cornell’s ideals. Therefore, they concluded that the Cornell Republicans must denounce Trump. Absent from the editorial is criticism of the decision of the Cornell Democrats to endorse Hillary Clinton.
So what exactly about Trump threatens the values of our country and our campus? The Sun claims that Trump “has demonstrated a fundamental callousness and cruelty toward entire populations of the United States.” Yes, it’s true that he has made some provocative proposals such as building a wall on the US-Mexico border and barring most Muslim immigration. However, this is not cruelty towards these populations. It is about recognizing the threat posed by mass immigration and radical Islam. Nothing he has said is racist or bigoted towards Mexicans, Muslims, or any other group. All he has done is make politically incorrect statements that need to be said. Yes, Islam hates us and some illegal aliens are rapists and murderers. It in no way threatens our values to tell the truth about the threats we face.
The Sun also claimed that Trump threatens protections of the 1st Amendment because he revoked the press credentials of some news outlets and discussed loosening libel laws. However, this in no way threatens free speech. Libel is not protected by the 1st Amendment. In addition, he has every right to revoke the press credentials of a news outlet, especially if it publishes lies like the Washington Post has done.
Most egregiously, the Sun claims that Trump poses “a clear and present danger to the American experiment.” The American experiment is a nation founded on the basis of individual liberty. Although Trump has displayed authoritarian tendencies, he is far from a threat to the American experiment. The left is what poses a threat to the American experiment. They push for a consolidation of power in the hands of Washington politicians.
The candidacy of Hillary Clinton clearly poses a far greater threat to the values of this country. One of the most important American values is a government that represents the people. Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, stand in the way of a government that represents the people. The level of corruption that the Clintons are guilty of is unheard of in modern American politics.
Their “charity” known as the Clinton Foundation is a perfect example of their extreme corruption. For example, the foundation only spent about 10% of its budget on charitable grants in 2013. It actual spent more on rent and office supplies. The nation’s most influential charity watchdog described the Clinton Foundation as a “slush fund.”
The corruption at the Clinton Foundation has had devastating impacts on poor people around the world. A massive earthquake hit Haiti in 2010, killing more than 200,000 people and leaving 1.5 million people destitute. The international relief effort was huge. The two most powerful people who controlled the flow of relief funds were Bill and Hillary Clinton. Bill Clinton was designated UN representative for aid in Haiti. Hillary Clinton was US Secretary of state. The result was that much of the funds were used for quid pro quo deals with large donors to the Clinton Foundation, rather than what best served the needs of the Haitian people. “We are telling the world of the crimes that Bill and Hillary Clinton are responsible for in Haiti,” said Dhoud Andre of the Committee Against Dictatorship in Haiti.
The Clinton Foundation has taken donations from some of the most brutal regimes in the world. For example, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has donated between $10 and $25 million to the Clinton Foundation. The foundation has also taken between $1 million and $5 million each from United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman. In Saudi Arabia, homosexuality is punishable by death and women need “male guardian” approval on everything from obtaining a passport to seeking higher education. In Qatar, marital rape is legal. None of this seems to bother the Clintons. The far-left magazine Mother Jones reported that these brutal regimes were awarded an increase in arms sales as a result of these donations. Despite taking huge donations from these human rights abusers, Hillary Clinton still claims to be an advocate for women and the LGBT community.
Hillary Clinton poses a clear threat to the American experiment. Four or eight years of another Clinton presidency could mean some of our most important constitutional rights could be in jeopardy. She has vowed to overturn the Citizens United decision and restrict political speech. She implied in a campaign email that the right-wing website Breitbart does not have the right to exist. The Supreme Court justices she would appoint likely would vote to overturn the DC v. Heller decision and essentially repeal the 2nd Amendment. Our Bill of Rights is the foundation of the American system.
The Cornell Republicans have no obligation to denounce Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton stands against essentially everything they believe in. Yes, Trump is a very flawed candidate, but so is Clinton. If the Cornell Republicans “must” denounce Trump, then the Cornell Democrats “must” denounce Clinton. The Sun has no interest in criticizing Hillary Clinton. Their editorial has nothing to do with Cornell or American values, but about serving a political agenda. The name-calling thrown at Trump is hardly distinguishable from those thrown at Romney four years ago. Trump won the republican nomination because people are tired of being called racist or bigoted for standing for their principles and way of life. The Sun says that Cornell is “a community that celebrates all differences, including differences of opinion.” If that is true, it must include support for Donald Trump.
