In all of the political conversations I’ve been a part of, no one has ever asked why I will not vote for Donald Trump. Since I am counterarguing, everyone assumes that I am just another brainwashed Democrat. That couldn’t be further from the truth; I have been a registered Republican since I turned eighteen, 35 years ago. I am breaking my reasons for never voting for Trump into several posts so it doesn’t become too long.

In 2018, he gave a lame excuse for not visiting the Aise-Marne American Cemetary near Paris and said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” If that wasn’t bad enough, later in the same trip, he called the 1,800 marines who died at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed.”

What we cannot say is that Trump didn’t mean it. He has a long history of disdain for our veterans.

In 2015, he called John McCain a loser for being captured in a televised event in Ames, Iowa. Then, upon the sad passing of John McCain, Trump said, according to three independent staff members, ‘We’re not going to support that loser’s funeral,’ and he became furious, according to witnesses, when he saw flags lowered to half-staff. “What the f— are we doing that for? Guy was a f—ing loser,” the president told aides.

In another televised interview in the same year, this took place while Trump spoke poorly about John McCain. Republican pollster Frank Luntz interjected, “But he’s (John McCain) a war hero!”

Trump responded, “He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured.”

In a third incident, Trump said about Gen. Joseph Dunford, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, “That guy is smart. Why did he join the military?”

On two other occasions, he called former President George H.W. Bush a “loser” for being shot down while fighting in World War II.

Trump has a long and well-documented history of contempt for military service. There’s audio of him congratulating a man for faking a disability, as Trump did, to escape the Vietnam draft. There’s a video of him challenging the heroism of being a POW in 1999 and 2015. Videos, transcripts, witness testimony, and tweets show him ridiculing American generals in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, and 2020. His family members say he criticized his brother for going into the military and threatened to disown his son if he enlisted.

As a Patriot, this is one reason why he never earned my respect enough to vote for him. Nor would I ever belittle my firmly held beliefs to the point of disrespecting my moral code for a person who doesn’t care about anyone but himself.