I was sitting on my couch Wednesday night, fully prepared to watch the third Republican debate. I was hopeful about this debate, CNBC wanted to focus on the economy which tends to be more associated with the Republican Party. I was optimistic and quickly came to learn this debate would finally get down to real political business.

As I sat on my couch I watched each candidate trickle to the stage, feeling fine until one particular candidate walked out. At that moment, my stomach dropped. I began to feel something no voter should ever feel when they see a potential presidential candidate. It was fear.

It was Donald Trump. He is still in the lead in many polls. People still love him. People still think he can do exactly what his slogan says he will do (which is not that original, he stole it from former President Ronald Reagan and threw the word “again” on the end of it).

When Trump first announced his campaign for president, I thought it was a joke. I really didn’t think he’d get far. Unfortunately, I was extremely wrong and I cannot figure out why people like him.

He seems great up against people like Bush and Clinton, who have had families dominating in politics for decades. He’s anti-establishment. People love that this election cycle. I’m totally fine with outsiders coming in and wanting to run for president. That’s part of what I think makes this country great; someone doesn’t have to be in a specific family dynasty to be the leader of this country. But when that outsider, in this case Trump, has absolutely no intelligent idea about any issue facing this country, I have a really big problem with it.

Trump sounds great on the outside, yelling and screaming about change and pointing fingers at other candidates, such as Rand Paul and John Kasich, to make them look bad, as he has done in many of the debates. But once the voters look underneath his aggressive rhetoric, they’ll learn he has no substance.

He has no experience in politics and doesn’t understand why his plans will not work. He knows nothing about foreign policy, tax reform and has a dangerously expensive immigration policy. He lies on stage, as he did this past week to Becky Quick when confronted about calling Marco Rubio “Mark Zuckerberg’s personal senator.” This information was taken off Trump’s own website. Trump doesn’t even bother to own up to the fact the moderator got these facts off his website. He just lies and still leads the polls.

I get it, I really do. People are tired of the normal people running Washington but not actually getting anything done. I am, too. But Trump doesn’t understand anything that goes on in Washington, either. He will run the country into the ground as president and he’s a dangerous possibility. He terrifies me in every possible way. I’d rather have no president for four years than to have him as president of this country. Trump won’t make this country great again, he’ll only destroy it beyond repair.

Ashley Atherton is an opinion writer for The Kent Stater. Contact her at [email protected].