I don't want to vote for Donald Trump.  I wrote in another candidate in 2016.  But here's what I do want to vote for.

I want to vote for the American flag.  Comrades of mine, black and white, died for that flag.  I stopped watching the NFL four years ago, and now I've stopped watching all pro sports because of the disrespect.  The Democrats do not condemn flag-burners.

I want to vote to defend the police.  Yes, there are bad cops.  But there are bad people in every category or profession.  Even bad Marines.  Without the cops, whom do you call if you are in an accident, someone tries to break into your house, or your neighbor shoots his wife?  Violent and property crime will go up in proportion to the lack of police or to police being restrained by politicians.  Kamala Harris said in 2009 that she wanted more police on the streets — what changed?  Surveys, even in black neighborhoods, show that people want more cops on the street.

I want to vote to make black lives matter.  Defunding the police would take the lives of thousands more black folks every year — mostly killed by black thugs.  More black folks have been killed this year by BLM riots than by rogue cops.  Blacks are 13% of the population, but 47% of the murder victims and 52% of the killers.  The leading cause of death in young black males is murder by other young black males.  Blacks are 40% of Planned Parenthood abortions.  Let's defund Planned Parenthood to stop black genocide.

I want to vote to make black lives better.  Black employment is at historic highs, much higher than under the Obama-Biden administration.  Black folks should be able to choose high-quality schools for their kids just as the rich Democrats do.  I want to vote for school choice and charter schools.  And I want to stop the riots, which are destroying both black and white jobs.

I want to vote for a strong economy. Obama said jobs were never coming back. Employment was way up by February of 2020, dropped with COVID, but is recovering. My wife and I are retired and depend on our draw from our IRA. It is about $180k higher than it was in January, 2016. I don't want to go back to that.

I want to vote for law and order and against Antifa and BLM.  The violence, looting, and destruction in our cities is intolerable, abetted by weak Democrat mayors.  Joe Biden recently came out against violence — three months after the riots started.  He has never condemned Antifa or BLM.  They are part of his base.  And we now have black privilege in our cities.  A black person who loots and riots or assaults another black person is less likely to be arrested because the police think they won't be supported, and if the person threatens them and they shoot, the police will be made the criminals.

I want to vote for an unbiased media establishment, one where the facts are presented without editorial spin, and stories are not killed because they do not fit the agenda.  I want to vote for trial by jury, not trial in the media before the facts are known.

I want to vote against open borders and illegal immigration.  As bad and racist as the left says America is, if everyone who wanted to come here came, our economic system would collapse, and we would become a third-world country.

I want to vote for the First Amendment.  Freedom of speech means tolerating even speech you hate.

I want to vote for the Second Amendment.  If the Democrat politicians can be surrounded by folks with guns to protect them, the average citizen deserves the same right of self-defense.  Biden-Harris have made no secret of their desire to criminalize gun ownership (while de facto legalizing looting).  There is a reason why guns and ammo have grown scarce lately: scared citizens are on the largest gun-buying spree in history.

I want to vote for judges who interpret the law according to the Constitution as written, not ones who find justification in it for anything they want.

I want to vote for a strong defense.  Biden-Harris will eviscerate the military to pay for vote-buying programs.

I want to vote to stand up to China.  I've always been for free trade.  But China's espionage, theft of intellectual property, knock-off products, and unfair trade practices must be addressed.  And we must stand with China's neighbors against a new East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.

I want to vote to support capitalism.  Only the twin miracles of free-markets and democratic institutions have lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty.  The poor in America live better than the middle class in the Third World.  You don't see the leftists who chant, "Death to America" packing to leave.  Socialism always starts with golden promises and ends in bloody oppression.

So, no, I don't want to vote for Donald Trump.  But voting for him is the only way I can vote for the things I do want to vote for.

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts state Senate.  He has 12 books on Amazon with the royalties going to charity.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.