It's been a long and grueling election season, seemingly one that started even before the last midterms. There's been some high drama, some tough primaries, some genuine courage (http://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/transcript-ted-cruz-convention-speech), and some terrifying indications of Russian intentions. But finally, we're left with a binary choice. And while many will be understandably disappointed with the choices that we have, I think that there is really only one moral, reasonable, defensible choice to make, and it's the clearest choice we've had in a long time.
On one hand, we have a candidate who touts his prowess at business as his main selling point, but who we know has lost over a billion dollars in a year. He vilifies the disempowered and the vulnerable. He courts racists. He blatantly judges women on their looks first, last, and only, and now we know he is a serial sexual assailant, on the basis of both his words and accusations of many women. He is the entitled child of privilege, he contributes nothing of value to society, a braggard who thinks he knows better than everyone else with absolutely no basis in reality, despite being manifestly unable to even speak coherently on the subjects he claims to be an expert in, who shirks all responsibilities he might hold to others, including debts owed to people with the misfortune to have done business with him, and he seems to share a mutual respect for dictators and despots such as the president of Russia, who is rightly viewed by most of the world as a pariah.
On the other side of the aisle, we have a candidate with long experience in government, a track record of advocating for the downtrodden, and widespread respect. She isn't a perfect candidate by any means. She definitely lacks some of the natural rhetorical instincts of her opponent. She prefers secrecy to openness, learned from decades of very public scrutiny. But the bottom line is that she is a decent person, and her candidacy has been downright inspiring since it hit its stride. And the bottom line is that some extremely well-funded efforts have failed to find anything seriously questionable in her past. The worst conspiracy theory against Clinton isn't half as bad as what Trump openly says and does.
So, the election breaks down very simply. All the horrible people in the country, the white nationalists and neo-Nazis and neo-Confederates, the "mens rights" activists, the people who think the hardest thing to be in this country is a white, male, Christian, the Deplorables and their whole basket, will vote for Trump. The decent folks will vote for Clinton. And the profoundly confused and indecisive will vote third-party or some other nullity. Because this isn't an ordinary election. This is a stark choice between the dominance of the entitled white male, and an open, welcoming, all-embracing society. It isn't enough that Trump loses, as looks almost inevitable now. He must be trounced and humiliated. He must be made an example, so that in the future, no one will even consider nominating a candidate like him. Because if we don't move the country past this white self-victimology, we will continue to wallow in it until it destroys us. We can't continue ignoring sexual violence and intimidation, we can't continue to ignore the systemic violence and discrimination against especially black people, and we can't continue to vilify the poor while we make every excuse for the rich, if not because the ignorance is immoral, then at least because demographic shifts won't permit it much longer.
On one hand, we have a candidate who touts his prowess at business as his main selling point, but who we know has lost over a billion dollars in a year. He vilifies the disempowered and the vulnerable. He courts racists. He blatantly judges women on their looks first, last, and only, and now we know he is a serial sexual assailant, on the basis of both his words and accusations of many women. He is the entitled child of privilege, he contributes nothing of value to society, a braggard who thinks he knows better than everyone else with absolutely no basis in reality, despite being manifestly unable to even speak coherently on the subjects he claims to be an expert in, who shirks all responsibilities he might hold to others, including debts owed to people with the misfortune to have done business with him, and he seems to share a mutual respect for dictators and despots such as the president of Russia, who is rightly viewed by most of the world as a pariah.
On the other side of the aisle, we have a candidate with long experience in government, a track record of advocating for the downtrodden, and widespread respect. She isn't a perfect candidate by any means. She definitely lacks some of the natural rhetorical instincts of her opponent. She prefers secrecy to openness, learned from decades of very public scrutiny. But the bottom line is that she is a decent person, and her candidacy has been downright inspiring since it hit its stride. And the bottom line is that some extremely well-funded efforts have failed to find anything seriously questionable in her past. The worst conspiracy theory against Clinton isn't half as bad as what Trump openly says and does.
So, the election breaks down very simply. All the horrible people in the country, the white nationalists and neo-Nazis and neo-Confederates, the "mens rights" activists, the people who think the hardest thing to be in this country is a white, male, Christian, the Deplorables and their whole basket, will vote for Trump. The decent folks will vote for Clinton. And the profoundly confused and indecisive will vote third-party or some other nullity. Because this isn't an ordinary election. This is a stark choice between the dominance of the entitled white male, and an open, welcoming, all-embracing society. It isn't enough that Trump loses, as looks almost inevitable now. He must be trounced and humiliated. He must be made an example, so that in the future, no one will even consider nominating a candidate like him. Because if we don't move the country past this white self-victimology, we will continue to wallow in it until it destroys us. We can't continue ignoring sexual violence and intimidation, we can't continue to ignore the systemic violence and discrimination against especially black people, and we can't continue to vilify the poor while we make every excuse for the rich, if not because the ignorance is immoral, then at least because demographic shifts won't permit it much longer.
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