by Ann Garrison
The duopoly electoral system causes shrinkage of the American mind, compelling otherwise intelligent people to conclude that critics of corporate Democrats must be supporters of Donald Trump. The author, who will vote Green, has a rhetorical question for the afflicted. “You trust Hillary, she of the 30,000 deleted e-mails, the $250,000 Goldman Sachs speeches, and the poverty pimping and corruption empire otherwise known as the Clinton Foundation?”
Stop Trump Fundamentalists Can Bite Me
by Ann Garrison
This article previously appeared in Counterpunch.
“If the Democratic National Committee really wanted to stop Trump, they wouldn’t have rigged the nominating process to defeat Bernie Sanders.”
Stopping Trump is like fundamentalist religion. It’s not supposed to require any reasoned explanation. In this aspect, it now reflects the irrationality it decries in the Trump campaign.
Trump has bad taste. He makes liberals squirm. He makes racist, sexist, homophobic and stupid remarks. He’s on his third trophy wife and he Tweeted pictures to make the point that his wife is better looking than Ted Cruz’s wife. He owns gold toilet seats. I mean ICK, YUCK. EEUWWWWWW. He would be such a mortifying President of the USA.
And Trump is no doubt really dangerous, especially to minority populations. He promises to build up our already buff, steroid-and-military-weapons–crazed police state, lead a Blue Lives Matter movement, privatize more prisons and wall us off from the southern hemisphere that our non-partisan elites have so thoroughly exploited for so long. He’s the Law-and-Order Monster from the White Lagoon.
But let’s be honest about this. Trump is also on record in opposition to the Trans Pacific Partnership. He even likened it to rape. He’s on record saying he wants to reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act to re-regulate the banks and financial industries in the wake of the 2008 collapse that so many of us haven’t recovered from and never will. He says that Big Pharma should have to bid on contracts with Medicare instead of charging whatever they damn well please for their pills.
Liberals seem shocked whenever I cite these arguably winning policies. They insist that Trump will walk all that back, that we can’t trust a word he says. To which I say, “You trust Hillary, she of the 30,000 deleted e-mails, the $250,000 Goldman Sachs speeches, and the poverty pimping and corruption empire otherwise known as the Clinton Foundation?”
“So you’re voting for Trump???” they gasp.
To which I say, “Of course not, I’m voting for Dr. Jill Stein.”
To which they repeat, at another decibel level, “So you’re voting for Trump??? A vote for Jill Stein is a vote for Trump!!!”
“When it comes down to it, who would you rather have their finger on the nuclear trigger? Someone who talks to Vladimir Putin or someone who demonizes him?”
There’s not much point to arguing with fundamentalists, but I can’t claim that utility characterizes all or even most of my behavior. Trump, I also point out, says that NATO is obsolete and unnecessarily costly because the Cold War is over. It’s been over since 1989. Trump also says we can’t afford all these costly humanitarian military interventions, Imagine that.
There are abundant rumors that Trump even talks to Russian President Vladimir Putin, aside from his public wisecrack that he hopes their hackers can find Hillary’s 30,000 missing e-mails. Liberal online petitioner CREDO Action took that wisecrack so seriously that they’re circulating a petition labeling Trump a TRAITOR and imploring Director of National Intelligence James Clapper not to share any national security briefings with him.
“Let’s be clear,” Credo Action writes. “Trump’s encouragement of a dangerous dictator like Vladimir Putin to commit espionage and publicize state secrets poses serious national security concerns, and may violate federal law. This unprecedented action is even more horrifying given that Trump is scheduled to start receiving classified national security briefings, reportedly as early as this Friday.”
Now, when it comes down to it -- as it very well may very soon -- who would you rather have their finger on the nuclear trigger? Someone who talks to Vladimir Putin or someone who demonizes him?
GASP. So you’re voting for Trump????
No, don’t be a dummkopf. I’m voting for Dr.Jill Stein. And if the Democratic National Committee really wanted to stop Trump, they wouldn’t have rigged the nominating process to defeat Bernie Sanders, who consistently defeated Trump by greater margins than Hillary in the polls.
Stopping Bernie Sanders’ campaign against Wall Street, gross inequality, catastrophic trade deals and the one-tenth of one percent was more important to the DNC than stopping racist, sexist, homophobic, all-around-bigoted bully and authoritarian Donald Trump.
Ann Garrison is a wrier living in Oakland, California. John Bannister is a writer living in Alameda, California.
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