despite the fear-mongering that happened this week, there will be an attempt to “reset” by the media, so as not to appear biased, because a horse race is good for ratings, and an attempt to make this look like “just another election,” or a choice between “the lesser of two evils.”
donald trump is not a normal candidate.
this is not just another election
this is not a choice between the lesser of two evils.
you cannot get away with voting a third party.
a book i have been thinking about, not to get all godwiny but, is ron rosenbaum’s explaining hitler. not only is ronny one of our best journalists/writers of long-form nonfiction (even though he’s kind of a crank), but it also goes a long way to explaining how these things appear normal, until they’re not normal. he talks a lot about the culture of germany at the time, about the media (including the brave folks in the poison kitchen that were calling adolf on his nonsense from a very early time), how there was a belief that the nazis were controllable (as we all know from oscar winning movie cabaret). all of it. and it also gets into how effective hitler was at playing everyone - the government, elements of the media, the people themselves.
everyone thought it was just another election, until it wasn’t.
one of the lingering things left over from the bush era and exacerbated by some actions obama has taken/been forced to take, is the increasing use of executive orders. bush signed 291. Obama’s up to 235. and yes, executive orders can be stayed by courts, but think about the kind of executive orders donald trump might sign. off the top of my head, he could sign an executive order saying that the u.s. government isn’t going to buy any product that sends job overseas. the whole government. think about what that might do.
and that’s not getting into the really terrifying stuff about donald trump, like the fact he loves vladimir putin, like the fact he’d tell nato to go fuck itself if they don’t pay up, like the fact he’s talked about loosening libel laws to make it easier for people (peter thiel cough) to sue publications they don’t like, like supreme court supreme court supreme court, like the fact he wants to put virulent homophobe and misogynist mike pence into power, like the fact like the fact…
i have spent a not insignificant portion of my life - since i was maybe a teenager - reading about and studying hate groups, militant organizations, this particular homegrown strain of american terror. i know what it looks like.
this is what it looks like.
as barry o might say, let me be clear. i am a pretty bleeding heart liberal and yes, i’m a straight white dude. if the purplest blue dog democrat in the senate were at the top of the democratic ticket, would i vote third party against donald trump? no. i would rather vote for that candidate against donald trump.
this isn’t about being a hillary supporter. this isn’t about being a trump supporter. this isn’t about left vs. right, conservative vs. liberal.
this is about democracy vs. totalitarianism.
voting third party, especially, especially, especially in the swing states, is a vote for totalitarianism. it’s saying your feelings about hillary clinton are so strong that you’d rather hand donald trump the nuclear codes and a pen to sign whatever executive order he thinks up that morning.
the media, the press, your friends and family will tell you in the coming weeks and months that this is just a normal election.
that trump won’t be that bad.
that paul ryan can keep him in check.
that he’s not really serious about nato.
this is not a normal election.
this really is the most important election of our lifetime. of our children’s lifetime.
but sure, go ahead, vote third party. vote to bring down the american experiment, this messy, beautiful country, this country that has come so far and still has such a long way to go, but has so easily turned towards madness before, and can so easily do so again. but that gary johnson! he’ll legalize pot!
ted cruz was right when he said “vote your conscience.” i think it’s because although he’s a craven son of a gun, he knows that someday, he’ll have to answer for it.
at the end of shattered glass, chuck lane (peter sarsgaard) says that “we’re all gonna have to answer for *what we let happen here.*”
in this election, we are all chuck lane. we are all the staff of the new republic.
we will all have to answer for what happens in november.
but sure. vote third party.
