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{Disclaimer: No, I’m not a political analyst; not an expert on any specific political system, government, world. I’ve never won a presidential election but if it helps, I can honestly say I’ve never lost one. What I am is a complex mixture of worlds and places and beliefs and these views are mine alone, my advice for Donald Trump on how to win the election…with no guarantees but plenty of hope.}

An Open Letter to Donald Trump

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Dear Donald,

I’m watching what is happening and I’m cringing. I am constantly correcting people – that isn’t what he meant…no, that’s not exactly what he said. What he means is…what he hopes is…despite what he said…

So, my first piece of advice is to shut up. I know I could be more diplomatic about how to phrase that but diplomacy right now doesn’t seem to be a strong point of yours and you seem to take pride in that, so I’m going to give it to you straight. You can probably win the election if you just shut up.

Hillary is a walking disaster; probably the worst candidate since Jimmy Carter and she might even be worse because she’s a lot smarter than he ever was. She will mess this up, but only if you let her and if you manage not to mess yourself up more.

So far, you aren’t managing to do that. In some corner of my brain, I respect the fact that you think you can win by being honest and telling Americans what you think. You can’t. They aren’t used to that kind of honesty from a candidate. If you offer the logical opinion that it is insane to open America’s borders without a system in place to protect Americans from the potential infiltration of thousands of terrorists, you are coming off as anti-Muslim.

Why? Good question and more than I can explain now but basically, Americans view politicians as used cars salesmen. Whatever you say is a fraction of the truth and so they’ve learned to filter a candidates words as either greater or lesser than the truth. Whatever direction will make you look worse – that’s how they’ll take your message and put it into that filter. If you say you don’t plan to raise taxes, that means you’ll raise them some. If you say you want to curb something, they’ll take that to mean you plan to cut it entirely.

The reality is, all nations need to protect their citizens and today’s greatest threat does indeed come from extremism. And yes, the most extreme nations in the world today are by an large Muslim nations – Iran, Libya, Syria, to name three. But Iran and Libya and Syria aren’t just across the ocean to most Americans, they are on a different planet.

Americans are worried more about their economy, their health care and day to day issues. If you’re going to talk – talk about what Obama has done to the military; speak about the proliferation of mass shootings – primarily in places where strict gun laws are already on the books. Gun control won’t stop a terrorist – it never has; it never will. You want them to focus on who the terrorist is? Good luck with that. They’ve had 8 years of denial to damage their ability. It’s a workplace accident; a man screaming “Allahu Akbar” as he guns people down somehow might not be a terrorist attack. Give that fight up, Donald, and move on. If you’re elected, you can begin to correct that by immediately recognizing truth and maybe Americans will catch up to you, but not now.

Reality check, Donald. Half the people you need to vote for you are women. You haven’t shown a lot of respect for women as equals in your life and the fact is, other than your daughter, your record with women sucks. So stop trying to defend it. Shut up. Hillary’s got Bill on her side and most women find him and their relationship repulsive. So let your daughter speak on that issue or give up.

You want to make America great but you know what, Americans are asking me what you mean by that. I think they’ve forgotten or maybe they think America still is great. From my experience, most Americans have little understanding of the world outside its borders and despite eight miserable years of Obama, have yet to realize that much of the world thinks America’s day has come and gone and this election is just proving them right. Shut up and maybe find a different slogan. After Americans swallowed “Yes we can” – they’re tired of meaningless words.

Learn. Speak to foreign leaders and ask them to tell you what they think. But listen. Learn to listen. Show pictures of you in the newspapers being advised by military leaders; congressmen and women. Set up meetings; let them talk and you listen. In every picture they take, show yourself LISTENING, absorbing, interested. Not talking. Not telling everyone you know better.

Understand the differences between the 50 states. What is important to people living in Alabama? Missouri? Idaho? Oregon? Meet with people and sit and listen. Ask their advice and talk about them, if you are going to speak at all let it be to show that you’ve learned how much you need to learn. Time is short.

If you stop talking and start listening, you have a chance. Fact is, you’ve surrounded yourself with good people – show them off. You ran that TV show for years. Important rule in being interviewed is not to bad-mouth others. Stop talking about Clinton. Let her shoot herself in the foot. Now’s the time to become Presidential…or lose. Show dignity because somehow Clinton is outclassing you in that area.

That’s what’s missing in this election – neither you nor Hillary strike us, the common people, as caring about us. You need us to vote for you but you’ve forgotten that we have brains, feelings, needs.

America needs you, Donald. Not because of who you are but because of who she is…at least, that is the general conception of most people who are currently thinking about voting for you.

If you want to win this election, you need to convince more Americans to be pro-Trump rather than just anti-Clinton. To do that, you need to do two things – listen to the people, Donald. Travel all around America and listen and secondly, shut up.

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Paula R. Stern is CEO of WritePoint Ltd., a leading technical writing company in Israel. Her personal blog, A Soldier's Mother, has been running since 2007. She lives in Maale Adumim with her husband and children, a dog, too many birds, and a desire to write.