Americans take our benefits for granted. We take our safety, roads, food supply, law and order, ambulances, fire departments and many other advantages for granted. So many advantages! While so much of the world lives under war or threat of war, of famine, disease, desertification of formerly fertile land, Americans have it so good. Most of us have a floor under our feet while lots and lots of the world have dirt. Even when we are very, very poor (and I am an American who has actually starved) there are still helpers here, and grocery stores and food banks. In some countries there isn't even any food. Period. No medical care, paid for or not, just no medical available (which is why I donate to Doctors Without Borders every month). Americans, in general, have it far easier than so many other people. (Please realize I am fully aware of the inequality of lives in our culture, the problems, too, with racism and intolerance. But compared to the rest of the world, Americans have it much better in general.)
Hillary Clinton has worked tirelessly for the health and well-being of all of us, and for women and children in those dirt-floored houses, too. She knows how to get things done. She has survived a decades long misogynistic propaganda attack by the Republican party and she's still here fighting. I don't think I could do that. I think she's one of the strongest women alive.
We need to make sure she is elected because Trump isn't an option. You all know what he is. He has no real policy. He has only "I'm gonna do this" and "I'm gonna do that" statements that in real life, cannot be done. His knowledge of how a bill becomes law, for instance, something every child learns in school, is nil. What do people get when they uplift people who are celebrities just for being celebrities? Trump is the culmination of the Paris Hilton/Kardashian phenomenon of adoring the famous for being famous. That's it. Most people wouldn't know who he was if he hadn't had a ridiculous "reality" show.
It's far past the time for a third-party "protest" vote. Young people, you need to get real. Trump is following the path to dictatorship. It's what he admires (Putin, Kim Jong Il and I bet if Mussolini were around he'd go out to dinner with him) and it's what he will try to achieve. This isn't to be pooh-poohed. You say, "Oh, he won't get elected anyway so I'm going to vote my conscience." But what you are doing is throwing away your vote. Your candidate, whomever he or she is, can't win. Can't make a statement, can't affect anything. But what happens is that it takes away a vote from sanity.It takes a vote away from community services, health departments inspectors, the FDA (which guards the food and medicines we take), the Environmental Protection Agency, which keeps Big Oil from drilling fucking everywhere and fracking your water into total, undrinkable poison. And so on.
Under Trump our road system would fall to bits. All the government safeties that keep your life livable would go away. No health insurance except for the rich. No food stamps, no public health departments to get vaccinations for your children. Possible martial law. Wars in multiple countries. Possible world war. Massive inflation, and food shortages as the road systems fall apart. Jobs going overseas just like that. Higher taxes to fund the wars and weapons and military. A draft to supply fodder for the wars. You may have to leave your family to fend for themselves and go to fight to protect the interests of Trump's beloved corporations.
If you are a person of color, LBGTQ, or any other marginalized group, voting for Trump is like signing your death warrant.
It's not time to get all "principled" and "show them how mad you are" that Bernie didn't get nominated, or that you think Hillary is a "crook," even though she's not. It's time to be a grown up and realize what is at stake here. Vote for the woman who is a real candidate, not for the crook who will destroy the country.
Is this what you want your children to live? Is this what you want for your family?
Go ahead and vote for Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, Daffy Duck. But remember you have been warned.
