[Below is a post that was made on Facebook 14 hours ago. I have the asked the poster for suggestions about how to extend the sharing outside of Facebook.]
Hi y’all, this is something I wrote to my friends who are considering voting for Trump. Please feel free to share.
“We pledge to you that we will root out the Communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical-left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country, that lie and steal and cheat on elections … The threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous, and grave than the threat from within. Our threat is from within.”
Donald Trump
November 11, 2023, during a Veterans Day speech
To my friends who plan to vote for the ex president: I take your vote very personally.
I take it as a direct threat to me, as a “far left” pro-choice, social justice Democrat and activist. And more importantly, I take it as a threat to many of the people I love and care for deeply (dear loved ones who have political beliefs that are also to the left of yours. Friends who are pro choice, feminist, gay, transgender, immigrant, outspoken activists, Muslim, Palestinian, African American, Jewish, journalists, etc. ).
As a white woman, I have a little more of a runway to speak to you. But the ex president has been busy, and has already smeared, shamed, vilified and bullied many of his “enemies” into silence and terror. Many of my loved ones and friends.
But understand this, we are all the “vermin”, the “sinister, dangerous, and grave” threat from within that he gins up fear and hatred of. I am that threat, along with a huge number of people I care about, and millions I don’t know.
Think about that. How would you feel?
I know there is a lot of stupid stuff going around, much of it anonymous cowardly comments online. A lot of people spew dumb, hurtful, hateful, violent stuff.
But it’s different when the person at the top of your movement openly and carelessly threatens and demonizes his “enemies”.
And worse, when he doesn’t get pushback from people who are in the next tiers of power in this country (leaders of the Republican Party, billionaires, media outlets). It’s coming from the top.
And finally when it doesn’t get pushback from you.
When has the leader of the other party said anything that even comes close? There is absolutely no comparison.
Violence and retribution has become the rallying cry of the leader(s) who your potential vote will put in charge of our country. In charge of the welfare and safety of people like me and my loved ones. Human beings like me, who are your neighbors and fellow Americans.
And let me be clear, I’m not talking about getting my feelings hurt. Politics has always been a rambunctious game.
I’m talking about threats of violence.
When your candidate spews threats, it’s meant to frighten and terrorize us.
And believe me, I cultivate my courage every day to overcome the anxiety of living in a country where people like yourself seem to be willing to roll the dice on a “leader” who is literally calling me and my loved ones names that were used to gin up hatred of Jewish, immigrant, gay and “far left” citizens of Germany who were exterminated in concentration camps. People like me, who the ex president refers to by the very same words the nazis used: “vermin” and the “enemy from within”.
Tell me, how would you feel if I were advocating violence against you, if I were voting for someone who called anti abortion activists, conservatives, Christians, or republicans “vermin” or “the enemy within”? Or if I voted for someone who relished and salivated for RETRIBUTION against you? What if you and your loved ones were in its sites, as objects of that kind of literal threat and demonization?
It’s not a joke.
Your vote puts us in danger. Into the direct path of harm, violence and retribution.
And please know, in the end, you may find yourself in the same danger. No one is ultimately safe in a society that runs on threats of domination and violence. To
So I’m asking you, are you really ready to vote for this guy? The guy who literally said the words above? Who says in clear English what he plans to do to people like me and my loved ones?
Are you really ready to choose him over us?
No comments:
Post a Comment