Trust Has Layers.

“Do you trust Hillary Clinton?”

I’m asked this question often, and every time I’m asked, I respond with, “That’s not a ‘yes or no’ question.”

And almost every time I give that answer, the person who asked the question assumes I mean, “No.” They’re wrong to assume that. I simply mean trust has layers.

This question isn’t as black and white as you might think. Trust is too nuanced to answer that question with a simple “yes” or “no.”

Do I trust Hillary Clinton to always tell the truth?

Absolutely not. No reasonable person can look at her email scandal and answer that with an honest, “no.” Of course she lies.

If Hillary is looking out for her own self-interests, she’ll lie if she feels she has to. At the very least, she’ll spin the truth like a professional truth-jockey, which amounts to the same thing: an attempted deception.

But the thing is, when it comes to lying, the American people are hypocrites in two ways.

First, they only get offended if it’s the opposition who lied. If their own candidate lies, they’ll deny it to the bitter end, even when they know the candidate lied. I mean, I’ve seen people tell me Trump doesn’t lie, even after I show them videos that prove he lies. And Trump doesn’t just lie to protect his own self-interests. He lies when there’s absolutely no reason to do so.

Just the other day, he said the NFL sent him a letter, complaining about the debate schedule. Well (obviously), the NFL released a statement saying no such letter was sent. I mean, if the NFL was upset about the debate schedule, why would they send a secret letter to Trump, instead of sending the letter to someone who has the power to help them? Debates often go up against football games. That happens when you schedule something in advance, and these debates were scheduled – by a nonpartisan group – over a year ago. So why the hell did Trump find it necessary to lie about that letter? Your guess is as good as mine. My point is, I personally know Trump followers who claim he doesn’t lie… they claim he “tells it like it is.” And they make these claims in the face of weekly proven lies.

Well, I won’t do that. Hillary absolutely lies. And while I’m not okay with that, I do accept that it has happened… which leads me to the second hypocrisy…

Americans seem to hold politicians to an impossible standard. A standard they don’t hold anybody else to, including themselves. They operate under the philosophy of, “Well, if they lied about this, I can’t trust them on anything.”

Let me be blunt… that’s a bullshit philosophy.

Newsflash, folks: Everybody lies.

I’ve lied. You’ve lied. I’d be willing to bet the Pope has lied. Anybody who claims they haven’t lied is… well… they’re lying.

But here’s the thing… Just because you lie about one thing does not mean you lie about everything.

“That’s all fine and dandy, Jerry,” you say, “but if we catch them lying about something, how will we know when they’re lying and when they’re not lying?”

Easy.

First, just do whatever you do when your own candidate lies. And if you don’t like that answer…

Just look at their history.

Those who ignore the past are doomed to repeat it.

A candidate’s history tells us more about them than any statement ever will.

And Hillary’s history tells me that she will fight for the things that are important to me. And yes, I’m a Hillary guy. I was a Bernie guy, but now I’m voting for Hillary.

And I’m not voting for Hillary because she’s a democrat. In fact, I’m not a democrat. I’m an independent. I’ve voted for republicans in the past and I’ve voted for independents. Hell, in my youth, I supported the other crazy rich guy who ran against a Clinton. That’s right. In my youthful ignorance, I supported Ross Perot. I’m not proud of it, but it is what it is.

So no… I’m not voting for Hillary because she’s a democrat.

I’m voting for Hillary because I trust her to fight for the things I believe in.

That’s right. I trust Hillary.

Why do I trust her? It’s certainly not because of the things she says.

I support her because of the things she’s done. I support her because of her history.

Straight out of law school, Hillary went to work to provide needy children with legal help, even going door to door, trying to get other people involved. In the 90s, she fought like hell to bring healthcare to Americans, and when that was stopped (by a republican congress), she still managed to get a bill passed that gave millions of children healthcare… a law that still helps children today.

For 30 years, Hillary has fought for those who can’t fight for themselves. As a senator of New York, after 9/11, she went to the families of people who were killed, and – without any press around – she simply asked them, “What can I do to help?” And, according to these same people, she did whatever she could to help them.

Hillary also fought to give healthcare to the first-responders who were at ground zero on 9/11.

As Secretary of State, during the climate change summit, Hillary and Obama crashed a secret meeting between China and India, demanding that they participate in the summit, out in the open.

Sure, there are times when Hillary acted like a politician. Times when I didn’t like what she said. Votes I didn’t agree with. But overall, her history is full of first-hand accounts of her working her ass off to keep her promises and of her fighting like hell to help the underprivileged.

And, conversely, when I look at Trump’s history, I see mostly first-hand accounts of how he screwed people over. Contractors talk about how they did the work he hired them to do, then he just filed bankruptcy and refused to pay them (while he got richer). I couldn’t find a single example in Trump’s history of him fighting to help the underprivileged. And “creating jobs” wasn’t an altruistic accomplishment. He created jobs because it made him richer. I found that Trump has been involved in over 3500 lawsuits. I’ve seen examples of Trump suing people for ridiculous bullshit (he sued Bill Maher for making a joke about his father being an orangutan). The man who co-wrote Trump’s own autobiography says he is a pathological liar and a sociopath. Instead of fighting for women, I see example after example of Trump insulting women in the worst possible ways. Trump devastated New Jersey’s economy when he got the city to invest in his casino, only to file bankruptcy, screwing over everybody else while making himself richer.

So when I look at Hillary’s history, I see example after example of her fighting for others. And when I look at Trump’s history, I see example after example of him acting like a total shitbag.

I’m not saying this as a hit-piece against Trump. I’m simply explaining what I found when I actually researched each candidate’s history.

And that leaves out the fact that Hillary occasionally lies to protect her own self interest, yet Trump literally lies multiple times a week. Big lies. Ridiculous lies. Pointless lies.

Trust is about more than catching a politician in a lie. Trust is about what that candidate has done. I just listed several things Hillary has done to help others. I can list more if you need them. And I challenge you to list three things Trump has done to help others, that didn’t also help himself. Charities can’t be proven, because he won’t release his taxes, but even if he did donate, he benefited by doing so. He got tax credits. Creating jobs was nothing more than a necessary evil for Trump… the jobs he “created” made him millions. That’s not exactly selfless. That’s not exactly a sacrifice. When Mr. Khan said Trump has sacrificed nothing and no one, it was a reasonable thing to say, because there’s no evidence that he has sacrificed anything.

So go ahead. Name 3 things Trump has EVER done… in his 70 years of life… that was truly selfless.

Yet Hillary’s past is full of selfless acts.

Do I trust Hillary to always tell the truth? Hell no. Of course not.

But do I trust her to fight for the things that are important to me? Absolutely, yes. Because she’s proven she can be trusted with these things.

Y’all take care. I hope I haven’t pissed anybody off. This is just my opinion. That doesn’t mean I’m right.

— Jerry