What’s in a Vote?
Tomorrow is Election Day. In any other year, any other campaign, with any other candidates, most of our thoughts would be dominated by a desire to see the campaign ads come to an end and those damned campaign signs taken down around our neighborhood.
Not this year.
Since 2015, we’ve seen activists around the country tell us about how dangerous Donald Trump would be if elected President. Once he was elected, many of us hoped that his words were nothing more than aggressive political grandstanding, that he would pivot back toward something more moderate and we would have a semi-forgettable four years. I recognize that I am extremely privileged to even have ever had those thoughts, and I apologize. Everything about Trump’s candidacy was unprecedented, and to paraphrase the popular phrase, “he just said the quiet parts out loud.”
Nothing new came out of Trump’s mouth during his campaign and during the last four years. We knew that the Republican Party was host to a population of racist, xenophobic, sexist and largely hate-filled people. Previously, I would wager that there were Republicans who were not those kind of people. But now, they’ve decided that it’s not a deal breaker, so they’re included.
We know how Trump feels about
women (“grab them by the pussy”)
Mexicans (“Mexicans coming to this country are rapists, drug dealers”)
People who have disabilities( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFOy8-03qdg)
Gold Star families(https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/gold-star-family-slams-trump-selfish-divisive-actions/story?id=50545536)
POW veterans(https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/did-trump-call-mccain-a-loser/)
His reticence to openly and thoroughly rebuke white supremacists and white nationalists will always stand in stark contrast to his remarks about the populations above. Telling a known terror group to “stand back and stand by” is not a denouncement, it’s an order to wait.
For four years now, we’ve watched as he’s targeted one marginalized group after the other, all while continuing to line his pockets and take vacations on taxpayers’ dime.
So, what’s in a vote?
This year, it’s a vote for the future. A chance to find our footing before we fall off a precipice of unknown depths. A chance to show our most marginalized neighbors that they do matter, that they are worthy.
Voting for Joe Biden is about more than Joe Biden, it’s about our tomorrow. A tomorrow that we need to fight for. For fair elections and safety as we carry out our right to vote.
For our neighbors who can’t vote tomorrow.
Breonna Taylor
George Floyd
Ahmaud Arbery
And so, so many others.
Anyone who sees a quarter of a million Americans dead due to Covid-19 is not a President. They’re a failure, a coward and inadequate. We’ve watched quietly as doctors, epidemiologists and countless other health professionals have advised this administration, all to be cast aside and chided as a fraud because they refuse to align with his lies. We’ve watched quietly as Covid-19 became the third highest cause of death in the United States. (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiTgJiyl-TsAhWrhHIEHXy1A4cQFjAAegQIAhAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.scientificamerican.com%2Farticle%2Fcovid-19-is-now-the-third-leading-cause-of-death-in-the-u-s1%2F&usg=AOvVaw3_rgCRLGU_D7epc_uCfCmw)
We need a President who cares.
If you’ve voted early, thank you. Unlike Donald Trump, I won’t stand in your way of voting for someone I don’t like. If you voted for Trump, you made your choice, but I still wouldn’t take it away from you because our citizens deserve to have their voice heard in a fair election.
“Neutrality means that you don’t really care, because the struggles go on even when you’re not there.”
This is not an election to sit out. If you’re able, go vote. Vote for the future you believe in.
