Every two years, without fail, I vote. I even vote in those off-off year elections that pop up in my state every now and then.
Most times, I return from voting wearing my little “I Voted” sticker and feeling pride that I am lucky enough to live in a country where we have the right to select our leaders, a right that so many of our ancestors fought and died to give us. Each time, I see people drive up in cars with bumper stickers for the other candidate. No matter. While I didn’t support Romney, I could understand why someone with different values than mine would. Same with Bush or Dole or Bush or Reagan. (McCain was a different matter — while I could see someone supporting him, I couldn’t imagine how anyone would be comfortable putting a nutcase one step from the presidency.) I could also accept those who chose to vote third party, except for the ones who were self-righteous about it.
This time, though, was different. As I waited in a long, long line, I watched as cars pulled up with Trump/Pence bumper stickers. I listened as people talked about their support of Trump. I listened as a young woman insisted to an older woman — I think her mother — that she would not vote for Clinton, even if that meant Trump would become president; she would instead cast her ballot for Stein.
How? How could we be in a world where people look at a maniac and think “I’d like him to be our president,” or “He should be president because I’m mad at the democrat.” This is a man thoroughly unfit for public office, one condemned by Republican national security experts, foreign affairs specialists, members of the military, and even former GOP legislators. He has advocated giving nukes to other countries, alienating the world, banning immigrants based on religious tests, and the wall the wall the wall. He has inspired a new generation of neo-nazis and racists. And people want him to be president — or don’t care if he is.
There were, of course, people whose reasons for supporting Trump were obvious. Two men behind me spent the entire time in line discussing how anyone who needs to read a translated sign on how to vote should be barred from the ballot box. The other took it further, saying all Hispanic citizens should be prohibited from voting this time because they would support undocumented immigrants over America.
But they weren’t all racists. There were people who looked and seemed perfectly reasonable, who chatted amiably with me, then mentioned their support of Trump or hatred of Clinton. I said nothing other than I liked to keep my choices secret.
I cannot understand how we got here. It’s as if we are not talking about choosing the leader of the free world, but arguing about what television show to watch. I truly believe, truly, that if Donald Trump is elected president, within four years America will no longer be the nation we know. I believe my children’s future will be sacrificed to the ego and instability of this man who would wreck the country if it made him feel better about himself.
I know it stems from the relentless propaganda pushed out by the Fox Newses of the world, with a large percentage of our citizenry — including members of the left -- believing ridiculous conspiracy theories. Have we truly become this ignorant, this disconnected from reality, this incapable of understanding our world?
My depression will pass. I know this because I already feel something growing in its place: Rage, and a willingness to wage war on the greatest threat this country has ever faced: the Republican Party.
Democrats have for too long been the party of courtesy and reason. We should not abandon that. But Republicans have been in a street fight for decades, using anything at their disposal — lies, conspiracy theories, abuse of power — in their relentless grasp for control. With their conservative media bubble, an entire generation of Americans have come to believe they live in a country that does not exist, with gangs of roving immigrants waiting to rape and kill their daughters as Democrats plot how to seize guns, force abortions and destroy Christianity.
We have let this happen. We, like the media with Donald Trump, have allowed lunacy to grow in our sight on the misguided belief that no one could possibly believe this nonsense. The time for politeness is over. We have a country to save.
False narratives must be ripped apart, whenever and wherever they are mentioned. This cannot be done by getting in people’s faces. Question them. Ask, “How do you know xxx?” A good example I used: If elections are rigged, how do Republicans control the house and senate?
If Republicans follow through on refusing to confirm any Supreme Court justices from a Democratic president, we must descend on Washington by the thousands to protest.
And for God’s sake, we have to vote. No more of this, “The Democrat isn’t doing exactly what I want so I’m not going to vote to give her/him a lesson.” That BS is what caused the tidal wave of Republican victories in 2010, which in turn gave us gerrymandered congressional districts for at least a decade.
We, all of us, have to grow up. We have to work hard, we have to confront lies, we have to get over ourselves and vote the way that provides the best direction for the country. This “lesser of two evils” nonsense is a cop out by people who get all of their information from Facebook. We are choosing the direction of our country. When it matters, like it does this time, be part of that choice.
Today, I signed up to make getting out the vote calls. I will be knocking on doors, every election, to make sure sanity returns to government.
We must face the reality of the cancer that is growing inside this country. If we don’t confront it, if we don’t stop it, the next time the demagogue could be smoother, less obviously threatening, but still manage to draw support through a campaign of lies.
We have to save our country. Trump may be defeated. But Trumpism will survive, and we must comm it ourselves to destroying it.
