Don't Think, Just Vote Our Way

In a way, this editorial is a companion to my posts from the last two weeks. We are going to examine one of the more common arguments in favor of a Trump vote in November and how it is nothing more than shallow bullying.

In the past 5 years, I have heard every single bumper sticker slogan in regards to how to vote. Most are pretty silly when you stop to think about it. According to the people I interacted with in 2016, my third party vote was both a vote for Trump and a vote for Clinton. As the political creature I am, it felt pretty good to legally make two votes at once!

The one that is very common among the right currently is, "If you don't vote Trump, the riots will continue!" You want to know a secret? The riots will never end. They will not under a Trump Administration nor will they end under a Biden Administration. The federal government, by design, has very few opportunities to end any of these uprisings. It is a state issue, and as long as you have 24 states with Democratic governors, you will have 24 states unwilling to quell the violence. Violence that will only increase under a Trump reelection.

It is no secret that the criminals behind these riots are fueled by their hatred of Trump. They are already saying to anyone who will listen that they will burn it all down if he gets a second term. I believe them. If they are willing to deify rapists and domestic abusers, they are certainly willing and able to burn down innocent businesses all over the country. There is no denying it. Wouldn't that then be enough to say that a vote for Trump is a vote to continue the violence?

A vote for Biden is no guarantee that the riots subside either. Far too many people see the presidency as this magic bullet. Everything will be perfect if we only vote for a certain candidate. What they don't understand is, a vast majority of the government that oversees your life is at a local level. Many in the African American community learned this the hard way during the Obama years. They were told that electing him would solve all their problems. When things didn't change, they became angry. Now that Trump has made them furious and lashing out, if (when) Biden doesn't fix their lives immediately, they will lash out with even more intensity.

My friends on the right know all of this. They have made it a key point in this campaign. It doesn't stop some of them from trying to use it to browbeat people into voting for their candidate. It is everything that is wrong with political discourse today. It is just this side of petty name calling. If you can't defend your candidate without threats, you are no better than a schoolyard bully. Heck, I may just leave the president vote on my ballot blank just to spite you. I can assure you, I am not the only one.