To all of my friends in the United States getting ready for the 2024 presidential election, please listen:
Please don’t vote for Donald Trump.
Kamala Harris is awful. She is. She’s more of the same authoritarian imperialism we’ve seen in the past, and you don’t have to vote for her, you can choose a third party if you like, but whatever you do, please do not vote for Donald Trump.
Donald Trump is a fascist in the truest sense of the word. There is no reason to vote for him unless you are a wealthy, white, cisgender, heterosexual man and you despise anyone who isn’t you. Otherwise, you will be under the boot heel of his administration.
It has been often cited, but it’s still true:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
—Martin Niemöller
Martin Niemöller lived through Hitler’s occupation of Germany, and despite being far right and deeply conservative, was placed in a concentration camp along with millions of other innocents. He managed to live through it and had a change of heart.
There are versions of that quote that includes Communists, and other groups that were rounded up and oppressed at the time, but the point remains the same: if you stand by while others are targeted, people you don’t know and don’t feel connected to, you will find your connection to them soon enough when you are rounded up and, loyal to the state or not, punished for whatever reason the state deems necessary.
No one is free unless and until we are all free.
Please don’t vote for Donald Trump if you care at all about your own life, and the lives of the people around you. Reject his bigotry. Reject his xenophobia. Reject his unadulterated avarice and hatred.
Reject his hate.
.Red
