October 2020
An Open Letter to Anyone Still Planning to Vote for Donald Trump
If you claim to love a woman, but you still plan to vote for Donald Trump, then you have chosen to overlook behavior that, in any other context, would be enough to get someone fired, put in jail, shunned. Behavior that should disgust you. I don’t need to list what he’s said and done. You already know. You’ve seen it. You’ve shrugged it off. And because of that, you are saying to the world, to the women in your life, to your daughters, your sisters, yourselves… that winning, stocks, job growth, your right to bear arms, whatever justification you’ve come up with, is more important than a woman’s rights, more important than a woman’s worth.
If you claim to be a parent who wants to teach your child to live with integrity, to be respectful, kind, generous, and compassionate, but you still plan to vote for Donald Trump, then you have lowered the bar on what those words even mean. You are showing your children that winning is more important than being honest, that greed is more important than being generous, that being unfiltered is better than being compassionate. You are showing them that it’s better to incite fear and divisiveness than to bring people together, that it’s not only okay to mock and bully, but it is rewarded. And if you are a parent who wishes to safeguard your children’s future and leave the earth livable for them, how can you support someone who, despite the rampant fires and hurricanes, continues to belittle science, who pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord, who cut federal funding for science and the environment initiatives, who puts the stock market and his own reelection before American lives during a global pandemic?
If you claim to care about someone in the LGBTQ community, but you still plan to vote for Donald Trump, then you don’t care about them enough to protect their rights. It’s that simple. The only way you can still think otherwise is because you have chosen to ignore what’s happening. From the moment Trump chose Pence as his running mate, this administration has gone out of its way to undermine progress that has been made toward full equality. From his discriminatory treatment of trans people to his attack on nondiscriminatory protection in the ACA, to his recent push to fill the SCOTUS seat with a candidate whose judicial views, as evidenced by her court rulings, speeches, and public statements, display a rejection of protections for the LGBTQ community. Take a look at the Human Rights Campaign site if you need specifics. They’ve been keeping a decently thorough timeline.
If you claim to be anti-racist, but you still plan to vote for Donald Trump, then you are in denial. Full stop. This president is racist. His policies are racist. His rhetoric is racist. Racists defend him. You can tell yourself all day long that supporting a racist doesn’t make you racist, that you just want undocumented people to become citizens “the right way,” or that it’s not that you don’t care about the systemic racism that our country still thrives upon, you just feel that “all lives” matter or that “blue lives” matter (FYI: There are no blue people, being a cop is a choice), or that you’d for sure feel the same way if {insert name} had been white… but you are LYING to yourself. Truth is, in a racist society, there is no “not racist” option. The ONLY way to combat racism in a racist society is to actively seek out ways to be anti-racist. And a vote for a racist is the opposite of an anti-racist vote. (Sidenote: Those “undocumented” workers you like to rail against… In 2015, they paid over $20 billion in taxes compared to Donald Trump’s $0.)
If you claim to be a patriot, someone who respects our constitution, but you still plan to vote for Donald Trump, then I can only assume that you have a pretty loose interpretation of what it means to be a patriot and a rather lax understanding of our constitution. (Then again, so does Trump.) And if that’s not the case, if you DO have a deep understanding and respect for our constitution… then how can you possibly be okay with all that he has done and said? How can you be okay with his continued violations of the emoluments clause or how he used taxpayer money to buy opposition research from Ukraine, or his attacks on a free press, the independent judiciary and the independence of the Department of Justice? How do you justify the tax evasion, the fact that so many of his colleagues are in prison, his housing discrimination issues, his campaign against the postal service, his support from QAnon, or the way he downplays NATO’s worth? His impeachment? All of this appeals to you?!
If you are a veteran or claim to love someone who has served our country, but you still plan to vote for Donald Trump, I’m honestly at a loss. Setting aside the fake bone spurs and the disparaging comments about the late Senator John McCain and the fact that he takes credit for the Veterans Choice Act (passed in 2014 by the Obama administration), he openly mocks the democracy that all those “suckers” and “losers” fought to protect. He does so when he attempts to discredit our institutions and he does so when he threatens to stay on for a third term or tells his followers to vote for him twice and he does so when he gets up at a podium and refuses to commit to a peaceful transition of power.
If you claim to be a fiscal conservative who cares about the economy, but you still plan to vote for Donald Trump, I don’t know if you have tunnel vision and can’t see beyond your own bank account or if you’re just cool with the fact that the richest 1% of Americans is responsible for 70% of all unpaid taxes, but either way, your indifference is shameful. He has added $7 trillion to our country’s deficit since he’s been in office. He brags about donating his salary like it makes up for the fact that his golf trips alone have cost actual taxpayers (you know, the “little people” who still have to pay our taxes) $141 million. We all know that Trump is not a good businessman. He’s literally lost everything that’s ever been gifted to him, but more than that, he’s a thief. There’s no question that the system is rigged, but the fact that Trump has taken advantage of it is not commendable; it does not make him “smart.” It makes him a conman. It’s no secret that there is shady sh*t on both sides of the aisle, but we need to start calling out the hypocrisy and stop equating things that are not the same. If you find yourself speaking out against Hunter’s ties to Russia, but you aren’t phased by those within Trump’s family, by his sons’ foreign businesses, by Ivanka gaining 23 trademarks in China and Jared using the White House to find debt loaners for himself, or by both of them making $358 million while working in this administration, you need to ask yourself why.
Joe Biden was not my first choice. Neither was Kamala Harris although she at least supported Medicare for All once upon a few years ago. I have serious issues with the DNC. I’m an unapologetically progressive voter who does not fear socialism and I find it laughable that Trump’s enablers are trying to make Biden out to be some radical leftist. The man is not defunding ICE or the police. He’s not enacting a Green New Deal. Trust me, I WISH he was. I believe we need monumental not incremental change when it comes to our government, our electoral college, our education system, and our environmental activism. I think Medicare for All is something we absolutely need and deserve and would already have if we weren’t such a young and greedy country. But, right now… I’ll take moderate, incremental change over fascism any day… and I’ll LIKE it. 😉
I am now ENTHUSIASTICALLY voting for Biden/Harris. Here are some reasons why I think you should too:
Vote for Biden because Trump has shown America exactly what we have to lose and with Biden, we at least have a chance to protect it, to keep it, to get it back… and move forward.
Vote for Biden because he will ALLOW the creation of clean energy jobs to fight climate change and the federal implementation of a living wage, and because during a global pandemic, healthcare workers, essential workers, parents and teachers deserve to have people in charge who actually believe in science.
Vote for Biden because Americans need emergency relief, the kind that helps small businesses and prevents foreclosures and evictions and under his leadership, we would have a House and Senate that could make that happen. There’s no morally defensible reason why billionaires should get $400+ billion richer during a pandemic while millions of struggling Americans are left to fend for themselves.
Vote for Biden because unlike Trump, he doesn’t have plans to cut Social Security and Medicare. (Yes, he may have felt differently in the past, but he got it together and I can get behind that). He will protect Planned Parenthood, Roe vs. Wade, LGBTQ rights, Dreamers and their families. Vote for him because he respects our military and veterans. Because he actually knows what it means to serve your country and fight for democracy and because he is not a coward.
Vote for Biden because he is an empathetic, compassionate, decent human being who understands sacrifice, who has mourned the loss of a child, who has had true friendships.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve had just about enough of what Trump’s version of “GREAT” looks like.
Thanks for listening. ♥
Rose Fritzky-Randolph 