Election 2016

I don’t like asking for presents or favors from friends or acquaintances, but this is something that is really important to me, you, and everyone alive now and in the future. I beseech anyone reading this to go out and make sure that Hillary Clinton gets elected president. Right now, the election is nearly a dead heat and she needs all the help she can get. Please sign up at https://www.hillaryclinton.com/forms/volunteer/ and if you’re too lazy to go outside in person, you can help from home at https://www.hillaryclinton.com/calls/. We have only 48 days (or fewer) left until the election.

I am not trying to sensationalize here, but this year will be the most important presidential election of our lifetime. It really hurts me when I hear people say things like “we’re screwed no matter what” or “it doesn’t make a difference in my life” or “there’s nothing I can do.” The first two statements are blatantly untrue, and as long as these falsehoods are believed by reasonable people, this country could well fall to a bloviating misogynistic, bigoted, clueless megalomaniac. This man has made a mockery of any semblance of human decency. His political career was launched from a racist conspiracy about Obama’s birthplace and his presidential campaign started with a bigoted lie about Mexicans. Do not confuse his lack of filter for a modicum of honesty: 53% of Trump’s statements are rated as “False” or “Pants on Fire” by Politifact. That is not including the 18 lies he spewed on September 20 (https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/778375644321288192). On the other hand, Hillary Clinton’s statements have been rated “True” or “Mostly True” more than half of the time. There is no doubt that Clinton has been far more truthful than Trump.

The fact of the matter is, Donald Trump is a danger to you, a threat to peace in your country and your world, and an impending wrecking ball to your economy. You could well lose your job and not find a new one. The slow economic recovery from 2008 could be but a blip on a dizzying race to the bottom. You are not immune from the damage. If Trump gets elected president and all you’ve done is put in five minutes checking random boxes for California, you are going to have to live with that for the rest of your life and explain to your children and grandchildren that you let this happen. Do not stand by and let this happen without a fight.

I hear a lot that picking between Trump and Clinton is trying to find the lesser of two evils. That is not at all true. Hillary Clinton has been working for minorities, women, and the disabled her whole adult life. She was widely respected as both a senator and a secretary of state while she was in office. Has Clinton made mistakes? Definitely. Is she an eloquent speaker like her husband or Obama? Certainly not. Did she handle her emails very poorly? No doubt. Has she waffled on controversial issues when pushed? Unfortunately yes. But that is the mark of any politician. It is impossible to get anywhere in politics without deceit, lies, and false promises. Yes, even Bernie Sanders has done so and will continue to do so too. Obama is at all-time high popularity ratings despite not meeting most of his initial promises. If you like Obama, Hillary Clinton supports nearly all of the same policies. If you think that Obama has not been liberal enough, then you should not further enable a Republican Congress to get through its preferred policies of tax cuts to the rich and spending cuts on the poor. If you think Obama has embraced too much big government cronyism, then I am sorry, but a man who has made a career of political favors, bankruptcies, using eminent domain, and railing against more trade agreements than even exist is not the cure.

But maybe that’s not enough to convince you. You feel that even if Trump is worse than Clinton, we cannot continue to support the “establishment” any longer. Believe me, it can get a lot worse than the establishment, and far worse than it ever was under Bush. As Will Wilkinson writes for Vox, “From the improbably lofty height of a functional liberal democracy, the path of least resistance is definitely down. On the path up our mountain we push, always, an immense boulder, and it takes a monumental collective effort simply to hold it in place. […] If radicals for liberty and equality can’t be bothered to stop planning their trips to paradise with Gary Johnson and Jill Stein, if they don’t see the point of lining up behind this damn boulder and pushing like hell, we’ve already lost more ground than we know.”