some tentative (and likely unpopular) thoughts on the election

Some tentative (and likely unpopular) thoughts on the election.

1. I honestly never thought Trump would win. But he did. In some ways, he's the festering boil of centuries of white supremacy, racism, sexism, colonialism, and patriarchy coming to head. But in a strange, reactionary kind of way, he's also the embodiment of a populist distrust of the government. This is the reality we have to live with, and what we do in response will make all the difference, which will have to include defending those who'll almost certainly be targeted by discriminatory policies and possibly even violence (e.g., women, immigrants, people of colour, the LGBTQ community, etc.).

2. I feel deeply sad for everyone who voted and campaigned hard for Clinton. This was a tough and shocking loss for nearly half the electorate, for gender equality, and for our political future. And among the biggest seeds planted for that loss are the DNC picking an establishment candidate over a populist, moderately revolutionary outsider; the failure of the Clinton campaign to campaign harder in key battleground states like Michigan and Wisconsin; the media for essentially creating this reality TV star turned politician and fostering his image as an off-the-cuff Washington outsider ready to shake things up; and our out-dated, winner-take-all political system (including the electoral college) which ultimately elected him.

3. I know emotions are high right now, and the fear and anger many people feel are real and justified, and I'm sorry for my part in this. I know a large number of my friends will be angry with me for not blindly supporting the Democratic Party because it, and many Democrats in office, cross too many moral red lines for me to support, economically, environmentally, militarily, etc. That said, no matter what the election, people aren't assholes merely for not helping someone else's candidate or party to win if they genuinely don't support them. People have a right to vote for whom they actually agree with and support. And if you hate Trump and his conservative stance on the issues, hold his large number of supporters to task for their support while maybe starting a dialogue with them to let them know how this is going to negatively affect all of us. Plenty are surely intolerant and difficult to reason with. But not every Trump supporter is a racist, sexist, xenophobic bigot. Many of them are simply people who feel alienated by the system and have sided with an anti-establishment reactionary because of that. Instead of further alienating them, we should try to engage them as well as strengthen solidarity amongst the opposition, creating a more united front. We're stronger together than we are divided into warring factions.

4. Unfortunately, this is going to cause a huge backlash against third parties and independents, partially because I think it's easier to blame them for the loss of relatively unpopular candidates or the weaknesses of a flawed system that takes incredible amounts of both time and effort to change. They're an easy target, but they're a scapegoat. If you support democracy, or at least the idea of third party alternatives in a two party, republican system, don't attack them for your party's/candidates loss. It's not their job to get your party/candidate elected. I get it. Trump won and liberals are pissed. But they can't have it both ways. Either they're for democracy and people having a voice, or they want to do away with third parties. Right now, third parties are the only alternative we have to the capitalist two party duopoly that currently steers our political system. But they're struggling every election to break the 5% barrier, which is important in terms of gaining easier ballot access, qualifying for federal funding, and having access to things like presidential debates, all of which is insanely difficult to do when both parties, but especially Democrats, always say that this year is too important for a 'protest vote' and that 'third parties and their voters spoiled the election' whenever they lose any race, meaning that it's never going to be the right time in their minds to vote for anyone outside said established party. They pay lip service to the idea, of course, but only want people to do it when it doesn't matter (i.e., when their candidate is assured the win), defeating the very purpose of having an alternative party in the first place. I'm not sure they understand that.

5. The small hope I have is that this loss will encourage more active resistance to the status quo, and push those within the Democratic Party to move the party back towards the left. For many Democrats and progressives alike, there's almost nothing any Democrat can do to lose their support; and for all the people who say they side more progressive and even revolutionary candidates, they'll never vote for a third party candidate unless they are better on the issues and more electable (which is almost impossible under our current electoral system), albeit without their prior support—and they call this 'pragmatic voting.' While pragmatic from one point of view, this is precisely how the Democrats can so easily be pulled right by the Republicans (because they know they have the majority of the progressive vote no matter what), and it makes other alternatives difficult to organize because progressives won't support them until they get electable, which they can't do without the help of progressives in the first place. We have to work harder to make it easier to have alternatives without disenfranchising huge cross sections of the electorate (e.g., pushing for the implementation of a more proportionally representative system rather than our current winner-take-all system). And part of that is building these alternative parties up, because they're never going to be able to legitimately compete in our electoral system unless we do.

6. The best response I've seen so far is, "Don't mourn, organize," a paraphrase of something IWW labour activist Joe Hill wrote to Big Bill Hayword prior to his execution. Sometimes we go backwards, but we can't stop trying to move forwards. I know it's easier said than done, and political activism can really burn you out when you're working full time, a student, etc.; but simply engaging in electoral politics (i.e., voting) isn't enough to change the system on its own.

7. If my politics make you angry at me, I'm sorry. I started off thinking that I was a Democrat but quickly realized that I was a lot more left-leaning. I looked at the political big picture from a historical POV and decided that I wanted to work towards more radical change than the Democratic Party offered, or really even allows among its rank and file. As such, I know that my general lack of support for the Democratic Party and capitalism in general rubs many people the wrong way. But I'm passionate about politics and those are my convictions. I'm dedicated to them until such time as they change. If you can accept that, awesome. I'm still with you on a lot of issues and will continue to add my support to those issues and people within the Democratic Party I truly think add a progress voice and policies to the mix. And if you can't, I understand.