Many people in Utah plan to vote for Donald Trump simply because he has an R after his name. But have you listened to what he is saying? Or are you plugging your ears like a kid on the playground who says “la la la la la la?”
I’m not talking about his gross untruths, which I could, but there are too many to name. I’m talking about how he continually disparages others — whether it’s the impoverished or those whose skin color doesn’t match his own. (And I’m not talking orange.)
This time, he’s insulting people with intellectual disabilities. After his hateful comments about President Joe Biden “becoming intellectually impaired,” his most recent insults are directed at Kamala Harris. Calling her “mentally impaired” and “mentally disabled” numerous times over the past week just goes to show that he has zero interest in, or time for, the 7 million Americans with intellectual disabilities.
Trump has said, “Those kinds of people should just die.” Really? “Those kinds of people?” What’s worse, is that he said it to his own nephew, Fred Trump III, about his son William who has complex intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Come on Utah. We’re better than this. Yes, we’re a “reliably red state,” but we absolutely can swing the election. Last time in Utah, Trump won by about 305,000 votes — out of more than two million votes cast. Yet 700,000 eligible voters didn’t vote. If just half of them vote this year, along with all our new eligible voters, it’s possible Utah can save our democracy from another disastrous Trump presidency.
So, please. Don’t sit this one out thinking your vote won’t count. It will. More than ever.
Kim Smart, Salt Lake City
