Until I went into the voting booth last week I wasn’t entirely sure who I would be checking for the Presidential race – Clinton; or Stein as a protest vote since I still ache with anger and disappointment over the way the DNC conducted the primaries. Please know that I do not live in a battleground state. My choice would only be my own resting place of democratic conscience after enduring this long dreadful election.
I checked the Clinton box. In the end, the short story was that it was important to me that the Trump side see as resounding defeat as possible. The long story is a full laundry list of the horror that I envisioned of a potential Trump Presidency. Fear is not a very inspirational reason to vote for a certain candidate. In fact, being fearful is the exact opposite mental state of being inspired. As a former Berner though, that is exactly where I find myself today. Most of the headlines I read point towards a Clinton win, but there is still a good chance that our nightmare will only be beginning tomorrow night.
Yes my action during early voting mainly rests on fear — I and hate that; but I am an enduring optimist and I feel that hope still has a chance to rise out of the ashes of apprehension after this whole sorry mess is – hopefully - over tomorrow night. Just in case we are closer to the abyss than I think though, I needed to write this to implore the last holdouts.
First, the fear.
If you happen to be part of the last percentage of voters that feels a protest vote is your only chance to teach the establishment a well-deserved lesson, please keep reading. We will have other opportunities (more on that later). For now, we must dwell on the consequences of simply not voting; or not voting for Clinton.
These are tangibles of likely scenarios of a Trump Presidency with a Republican controlled Congress (likely if he wins):
- Human Rights Part I: As a white woman I can only imagine the anxiety that is living as an African American or Hispanic in today’s environment. We have problems in this country of bigotry and racism – that is nothing new. In fact, it is in our historical DNA. It would be an understatement to say that a Trump Presidency would take us in the opposite direction we need to go towards solving these problems. Stories are widespread of increased hatred and violence towards Latino and Muslim populations are commonplace now. Besides Trump supporters feeling emboldened to continue their intimidation of minority groups, Trump himself with a compliant Congress could:
- Make it legal nationwide to use profiling as a sole reason to be stopped by the police.
- Close our borders to refugees of war torn countries and asylum seekers.
- Wrench more families apart as deportation increases, perhaps with a the added visibility of authoritarian agents canvassing neighborhoods with higher concentrations of immigrant populations.
- Additionally, these actions above will increase the misery of illegal immigrants in the hidden dangerous jobs of meat packing, migrant farming and other industries that exploit immigration labor. Do you believe for a second that Trump wants to disrupt production in these industries? No. It will just make it harder for illegal immigration to fight for better working conditions as they hunker down to stay further out of sight.
- Human Rights Part II: Since Trump has stated on multiple occasions that he will be the “law and order” candidate, let’s consider what this dog whistle rhetoric could mean for legislation:
- Make it illegal to film police misconduct that so many citizens have been doing with their cell phones to shed light on these brutal civil rights violations in the hands of some of our police.
- Double-down on the War on Drugs as even more money is spent on military equipment for local police forces. Midnight busts where American citizens have their doors knocked down on suspicion of drug procession increase.
- Swells in violence as those angry at Black Lives Matter protesters act out on their hatred of people exercising their rights to peaceful protest.
- Reproductive Rights: As a woman I don’t have to imagine what it’s like to be “grabbed by the pussy”, it’s happened to me. The fact that there are millions of my fellow American citizens that don’t care about his sexual assault accusations and own verbal confessions alone made be pull the lever for Clinton in the end. It is sickening to say the least. As legislation it would work out as:
- Kiss Planned Parenthood funding goodbye. 95% of the money spent at these clinics is for low-income family planning and women’s health care – not abortion in other words. It will become harder than ever for women that need reproductive health care to find it.
- An increase in anti-choice legislation; and humiliating laws like forced sonograms for women that want to choose to end their pregnancies.
- An increase in laws that allow people to deny contraceptives to women based on their personal beliefs.
- Less money spent in general world-wide by the United States for reproductive health in poorer nations.
- The environment. Trump has publicly stated recently that he wants to kill most of our “regulations” on the environment and large business. “Regulations” is just a fancy word for “laws” or “rules”. So in other words, our laws that protect our water, air, public land from mining, and efforts to combat climate change will be weakened or outright eliminated.
- EPA regulations that protect the people where the Presidency has control without even the actions of Congress will be reversed.
- Clean energy initiatives will be negated or reversed and more money diverted to coal, oil and fracking subsidization.
- The United States will back out of the Paris Climate Agreement to reduce emissions.
- Many of our nations parks and protected lands will be sold to the highest bidder for exploitation or simply private ownership taking away one of our last communal rights to natural beauty both for us and future generations.
In addition to the details above a few more thoughts of Trump’s America:
- LGBT Rights: Mike Pence, his running mate, will perhaps have the most power of any Vice President in our nation’s history. (That includes Dick Cheney.) Pence has extreme views on LGBT equal rights. He believes in conversion “therapy” and the right to deny services, marriage licenses and basic human rights to this community.
- Health Care: Trump wants to repeal ACA. Citizens with pre-existing conditions will go back to legally being able to have coverage denied.
- Education: Think “privatization” and “charters” and less money to be spread equally in our already weakened public school system.
- Security and Surveillance: Trump likes the Patriot Act and thinks surveillance a good policy. Not to mention torture and indefinite detention.
The list goes on and I want to get this published so I must stop typing unless I want to type until way past midnight. Here is my search results page if you want to see for yourself.
And of course, I am not even going down the road of all our biggest fear which is the end of American Democracy as we know it as Trump seizes enough power to end our country’s grand experiment. There has been enough written on that. I wanted to bring the argument down to the tangibles that could be made a reality within our existing system.
Clinton has worked within that system for decades, and I think it’s safe to say, would not grasp for the role of a despot. Of course, the current system is broken and needs much attention but that can happen if we devote the time and the energy as is our right. It is time to crawl out of the darkness of fear; and give ourselves another chance within our existing system by voting for Clinton.
A Little Hope.
A Clinton Presidency means our current laws and regulations, though biased towards corporate authority, get to stand to see another day. We will by no means get to exhale a sigh of relief and bank on Clinton to do everything that is good for the American people. But it means we’ve bought time to right the wrongs of our flailing democracy.
I believe that Clinton is fundamentally a good person. She is caught up in the net of a corrupt system and has to play by its rules. With enough pressure though from we the people we could put enough pressure on her to:
- Strengthen ACA and push towards a single payer option like expanding Medicare for all as an option.
- Increase the power of the Department of Justice to pursue violations of our civil rights by corrupt authorities nationwide.
- Reverse attacks on women’s reproductive rights.
- Work towards broader environmental protects, clean energy, and laws to enact a bigger fight against climate change.
- Enact a fairer tax system and stronger labor laws to reverse much of the class warfare enacted on us by the most corrupt wealthy individuals that have pushed their winners take all ideology on the rest of us.
- Protect Social Security and other social safety net programs.
Again, we need to be there through vocalization and demonstrations. I don’t feel that within the Beltway Bubble Clinton will have the strength to enact a populist agenda alone; and will be feeling the pressure of lobbyists and her inner circle of pro-corporate advisors.
This election is unprecedented. A protest vote or not voting is a luxury from years past that we cannot afford tomorrow. Those voting for Trump just want to watch our world burn on the funeral pyre of their epic anger.
So, I’m begging you America – we must hand Trump a resounding defeat. If we vote for Clinton it will be the first day of the rest of our lives; much like someone who is alive after a close call, like avoiding the bullet whizzing by our collective heads.
I choose the hope of living to fight another day. That day will not be easy, but I am optimistic that it can be done.