An Open Letter To America Following A Disastrous Election
To Trump voters: Congratulations on your new WALL™ and more tax cuts for the super-rich. You did it! Your ignorance of both empirical data and actual problems facing the nation have elected a Demagogue who has successfully played on your fears and prejudices for his personal gain. Super thumbs up, and I look forward to the jingoistic ultra-nationalist utopia you have planned for us. You wanted a Putin-like authoritarian, well you got one. Let's see how this works out for us. You fucking own it now; Obama is handing over a much stronger America than he was given. We'll see what Trump does with it, and there's no excuse for failure but his own.
To the people who abstained: Fuck you probably most of all. You are literally the worst. You are the ones who justified your sheer laziness by saying "why bother, the candidates are both the same," and you have to be a complete moron think that. Anyone with half a brain can differentiate the two candidates. If you cannot, then you probably lack the mental facilities to read this. If you are capable of reading this, your facile false equivalency does not justify your fucking laziness. You are a piece of shit. I do not respect you.
To those who protest voted, or voted third party: Behind the idiots who stayed home and the guys who voted for Trump, you are the worst. You are the ones who made the same false analogy as those who abstained, but you have the added bonus of smugly "voting your principles." Lemme tell you what your precious integrity bought for you. You got Trump. This rests firmly at your feet.
See, for all your pompous, self-righteous, preaching about "not choosing between the lesser of the two evils," you have only proven that you have NO IDEA how our system works. Let me explain. We have a First-past-the-post, winner-take-all electoral system. That means the question being asked is "Which of the two MOST LIKELY outcomes do you prefer?" It is NOT "Which of the millions of eligible candidates makes you happy in your tummy?" or "Who is the lesser of the four evils?" No amount of wishful thinking changes that. Why? Because GAME THEORY, that's why. Because Math, and the fact that people operate off limited information, that's why.
So in protest voting, you successfully stroked your ego, but that's probably because you can afford to. I'm willing to bet that >99% of the Libertarian voters are of a demographic that will not be significantly affected by either a Clinton or Trump victory. These people have the luxury of voting with their principles because they have the least to lose from the outcome of this election. The LGBT community does not have this luxury, because one party promises to overturn the civil rights they have been desperately fighting for over the course of a half century. The Muslim community does not have this luxury because one candidate promises to enact authoritarian policies that discriminate against that group. The poor do not have this luxury because one candidate promises to throw them off necessary safety nets, and increase their tax burden while reducing that of the very rich. The Hispanic and Latino communities do not have this luxury because one candidate has racist and impracticable policies that will result in their persecution.
So yeah, principles are fine to have, but that's not what elections are about, not the way our system is designed. It is about making tough decisions that aren't always easy. These groups can't afford to vote for their perfect ideal candidate, they have to make a coalition with others who do not 100% share their values or ideals to preserve greater values like freedom, equality, and justice. This coming together and coalition building is actually very American, and also has the benefit of being practical as well.
To all you #JillnotHill or #BernieorBust -ers: All of the above applies to you, but I offer this analogy. Imagine you are living in a house. There is a fire in one of the rooms, and you really want use water to put out the fire, but your roommates want to use sand. Sure, the sand proponents don't take you seriously and kind blow you off. So do you A. grab a fucking bucket of sand and help put out the fire; or do you B. sit there like a spoiled fucking petulant child and yell "told you so!" as your house burns to the ground? Because yeah, assholes, that's what you did.
You let the perfect be the enemy of the good, and it cost us not only the Presidency (seriously fuck the Presidency), but more importantly the Supreme Court. One is a 4-year office, the other is a generation. You just stopped progress for a generation. That's another generation of Citizens United, another generation of assaults on a woman's right to choose, another generation of erosion to our Bill of Rights. But hey, at least the DNC learned its lesson right?!
To the religious right: I name you hypocrites. Read the book of Matthew if you don't believe me. If you voted Trump, you have to acknowledge that your religion is a front for your disgusting fucking hate and/or avarice. You elected a man who treats marriage as a game of musical chairs. You elected a man who BRAGS about sexual assault. You elected a man who has never shown compassion for the poor, the sick, the imprisoned; a man who knows not the parable of Matthew 25:31. You elected a man who is not a Christian, for he strives not to be like Crist, he has NEVER turned the other cheek. Instead he lashes out at the slightest provocation. Even if his target is a Gold Star Family, or a war veteran, or a disabled person. You elected a man who prays to only one god: and that is the God which adorns his tacky Manhattan loft: Gold. Remember Matthew 19:24. And all this is for what? So you can go back to openly persecuting gays? I sure hope you will have a better answer if you ever meet the God you so publicly pray to (see Matthew 6:5).
To the fiscal conservatives: There is no limit to the depths you will sink to keep the system rigged for you. You continue to betray all common decency, demonizing the poor while lionizing your own greed. You gladly vote for Trump, because he is one of you; a man who will exploit every option, with or without scruples, for the pursuit of ever-increasing material wealth. How many of your fellow Americans will you sell out for your own greed, and how much deeper will you sink? Apparently our national security, reputation, and freedom is not too high of a price for your tax cuts and deregulation.
To the Republican Congress: Remember all the bullshit obstruction you did in the Senate while Obama was in office? Remember when you promised to block any SCOTUS nominee for the next 4 years? Yeah, now we have your playbook. Let's see how that goes.
To my fellow HRC voters, and members of the Hispanic, African American, LGBT, and Muslim communities: I'm so sorry. I'm sorry for not being brave. I'm sorry for not being more vocal, for not using my skills, education, and talent to influence more people. I'm sorry I didn't fight hard enough. I should have gotten in front of more people when they brazenly lied, or when they spread misinformation, or when they were simply spreading hate. I'm sorry that, living in a red state, many of these people are my friends, and I didn't want to alienate them. I'm sorry I didn't try harder to convince them, to appeal to the goodness in their hearts, to appeal to their sense of empathy and compassion. I'm sorry I didn't try to reach more third party voters, to help them realize this was about more than their own ego. That so many have so much to lose.
I'm sorry, but now I also promise to do better. This has changed me from an interested spectator to a passionate activist. Bertrand Russel said "The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wise people so full of doubts." I'll no longer doubt myself. We have let the fools and fanatics run roughshod over the disenfranchised, the poor, and the "different" for too long. I'll no longer stand idly by as the anti-intellectuals make a mockery of fact and reason. I will now passionately resist those who are devoid of empathy and compassion for their fellow man.
I have no grand delusions of the difference I personally will make, but it is my hope that many of those like me will see this as a wake-up call, and stop being passive in their patriotism. I hope others like me will realize that we have a civic duty greater than simply showing up to the polls every two years. It is my hope that we may as a single force rise to meet those who would threaten that which we hold dear; our American Way of life. A life based on the Enlightenment principles of our founders, including liberty, tolerance, progress, and brotherhood. This I promise to you.
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