This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Even though my father only had an eighth grade education and I was raised on a ranch ​nine miles out of a small Utah town, I was able to earn a Ph.D., teach college, become an American diplomat, serve as Human Resource Director for the 2002 Winter Olympics and now lead international disaster response teams for the United States in order to save lives and alleviate human suffering.

I was on the White House advance team for the Re​a​gan-Gorbachev meetings in Reykjavik that marked the beginning of the end of the Cold War, recognized for courage by the Department of State during a civil war in Chad, helped stop Ebola in Mali and most recently led the United States Disaster Assistance Response Team in Iraq.

In short, I have led a wonderful life despite my humble beginnings. However, after serving our country during a portion of six separate decades, I am very concerned that we are now ​controlled by political and business elites who no longer care about future generations. These elites, along with their fellow travelers in the media, have driven the United States into record debt, entangled us in foreign adventures that drain our national treasury and literally killed the American dream for millions of Americans.

In spite of this, we are asked to continue to support these corrupt elites who care for nothing except their own narrow self-interests. They tell us that we must listen to their foreign policy experts who have led us into unwinnable wars, given rise to brutal terrorists and negotiated one-sided, unfavorable security and trade deals. They tell us that we need to continue to follow their domestic policy gurus who have destroyed the American economy, driven millions from the workforce, pushed the middle-class to the brink of disaster and taken all hope away from the poorest among us.

Well, it's time to throw these corrupt elites out, and for this reason I support Donald Trump. With all his imperfections, he is the only candidate who offers the possibility of a break with the failed past. The fact that 50 Republican foreign policy experts disavow him sends the message that he will not follow their failed policies and that they will not be part of his administration. The fact that establishment Republicans refuse to endorse Trump shows just how much the elites are threatened by him and his promises to upend the current system that only benefits these elites.

When my friends say they are afraid of what Trump will do, my response is, "What have the elites done in the past that has benefited you and what will they do in the future to make things better for you and for your children and grandchildren?"

If Secretary Hillary Clinton is elected, the same Democrat elites will continue to do more of the same. If Bush, Romney or McMullin were to become president, the same disgraced and failed Republican elites would again take power and continue to do more of the same.

So, Trump offers the only glimmer of hope to get rid of these elites, whose loyalty is only to themselves. Given where they have taken us, what have we got to lose by taking their power away?

Am I certain that a Trump presidency will succeed? No, but I do know that we cannot continue to do what we are doing and that Trump is the only one with a chance to break the power of the people that have gotten us into the mess we are now in. And that's why I support Donald Trump.​

Ronald Mortensen is a retired foreign service officer who lives in Bountiful.