As I was trolling Facebook the other day, I stumbled across a discussion on a friend’s wall where one of his friends suggested that Hillary was worse than Trump and she was voting Green because of it. I nearly lost my mind. But I chilled it down a notch and then sent the poor fool a few links. I started with this article titled A Gentle Talk With My Friends. I’ll include a few excerpts here, starting with one for the right side of the aisle:
To My Moderate Conservative Friends:
This is a tough time for you. For years, I’ve said “The Republican party is saturated with racist jerks who’d like to raze the Constitution to the ground,” and you said, “No, no, that’s not who we are, we believe in firm laws and equality.”
Then you wake up to discover that your official candidate’s a guy who literally doesn’t know how many articles the Constitution has, and David Duke is so thrilled by Trump’s candidacy he’s come out of the woodwork. You’re not a racist – I wouldn’t be friends with you if you were – but you’re realizing that Trump is representing an ignorant, anti-science, pro-white wing of the party that you tried very hard to convince me didn’t exist.
Worse, those people you claimed didn’t exist (or were just background noise) are, in fact, dominant.
The Ferrett
Here’s a second excerpt for the left side:
To My Liberal Friends Saying “There’s No Difference” Between Hillary and Trump:
There’s no delicate way to say this, but do me a favor:
Look down at your hands.
Yeah, every one of you who said that and looked down at your hands will have noticed that you’re white.
It’s pretty easy to claim there’s no difference when you’re not the one he’s targeting. I get that you’re mad, and it’s a legitimate anger; Hillary’s a prickly candidate.
But do you think the Supreme Court Justices that Trump will nominate – and he will nominate them – will make no difference in your lifestyle ten years down the line? (Go look up Antonin Scalia’s record, then ponder Trump’s statements of Our Beloved Scalia, then ponder what the court would rule with four of him on the team.)
Do you think that your LGBTQ friends will be treated the same in a Hillary-as-President world versus a Trump-as-President world?
The Ferrett
…and if that doesn’t convince you, read this:
See, that’s the problem with Presidential protest voting. You think you’re sending a message, but the guy who wins the Presidency hears “I won, I get to do what I think is best.” The guy who loses maybe hears a message, but that guy lost. And after two years of President-in-office, all those Presidential protest votes evaporate in people’s memories to become, well, another Democrat or a Republican won.
The Ferrett – Why Your Presidential Protest Vote is a Wretched Idea
…or maybe you could read something from my own blog. Something like this:
There have always been third parties. There are several third parties right now (parties 4, 5 & 6?) The system is rigged to only allow two parties to have any real power. The system has been rigged since the Republicans rose to national prominence with the dissolution of the Whigs in 1854 over the question of slavery. This is the point that seems to be glossed over time and time again when it comes to the subject of the two party system we are currently trapped in. It isn’t that I don’t care about third party politics. The system itself isn’t setup to recognize minority parties in any real way. It has been codified and calcified over the course of 200 years to the point where, in certain states, it is all but illegal to be a member of any party aside from the Democrats and Republicans. Third parties, minority parties, minority factions cannot alter the system because it is insulated from their efforts by layers of interference.
And still the question appears “how can anyone vote Democratic or Republican?” The answer is demonstrable; we vote for them because one of the two of them will win. One of the two of them will win because in the vast majority of races throughout history the political system in the US has been controlled by one of two dominant parties in the US. These protest votes for alternative presidential candidates, this entire obsession with the top office? It is completely unwarranted because the president is not (and should not be given) the powers of a dictator.
I have other friends who can’t bring themselves to vote for Hillary. I say “so what?” all the offices down-ballot, ALL OF THEM, should not suffer because you don’t like the candidate at the top of the list. Voting is the last act in a series of acts in which you should have at least brought something that you agree with to the table.
If that didn’t happen, maybe you should change parties. Just remember that the current system only acknowledges two and can’t be changed except from inside those two parties. The sooner we accept this fact, the sooner we can get to work fixing the system.
Postscript
You don’t like the person at the top of the ticket? Join Indivisible and change the party that picks the person at the top of the ticket through organizing with like-minded citizens. It is the only way to make real change.
Trumpismo won and we were spared a third Clinton presidency. I don’t know too many people who can look back over the last four years and say with a straight face “Hillary would have been worse.” There are those who will say that, but most of them are dismissible as lunatics and propagandists.
The members of Indivisible created an agenda and a movement and they defeated Trumpismo at the polls, the way that power in a democracy is supposed to be wielded. They/We can do it again and again and again. Join us and help make this country what it always should have been.
