by Mindy Clegg
As I start this essay, early voting just began in my state of Georgia which is a critical swing state. Our secretary of state announced record turn out on the first day of early voting. By the time this is posted, I will have already voted, and perhaps that might be true of many Americans who frequent this website. Others might reject voting all together, as they might feel voting has become a pointless act. While true that voting is not the only act of democratic participation, in this case avoiding a worse-case scenario with a second Trump presidency who has a well-organized fascist movement behind him is critical for any positive change in the near future.
The roadmap for a second Trump term (Project 2025) ignores the many challenges we face as a society in favor of blaming the “other” and criminalizing dissent from Christian nationalism. Some try to argue that Harris, who seems to be pivoting to a centrist position on at least some issues, might not be much better. I am advocating embracing the lesser of two evils here and casting your vote for Harris. Let’s highlight some very good reasons why avoiding the nuclear option of fascism is always the right move.
One of the biggest sticking points for voters on the left (and rightly so) is the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Even for many staunch supporters of the Zionist project, the war is becoming harder to justify as it expands to Lebanon. Frustrated Arab American voters in Michigan have been angered by the lack of traction on ending the war by the Biden administration. As a result, some are claiming they’ll cast a vote for Trump, which seems wild, considering he refuses to acknowledge that Palestinians even exist. Others are leaning towards Stein, who espouses an anti-war stance. She did gain the endorsement of David Duke which she rejected, but one wonders why. Foreign policy is one area that the voters have little direct input on and historically, the majority of the public vote on domestic issues.
At times, wars and the threat of wars shaped our choices of president, such as during the Vietnam war. The choice is rarely stark, as US wielding power abroad is a bi-partisan issue. Many Democrats tend to be more hawkish at times, such as when Kennedy and Johnson expanded US involvement in the Vietnam war. Electing Nixon in 1968 proved to be a disaster, as his “plan” to get us out involved widening the US bombing campaign, trying to do so in secret, and setting neighboring Cambodia down the path of genocide. As bad as what’s happening right now in Gaza is (and it’s really, really bad), another term of Trump would mean the full liquidation of Gaza, an expansion into Lebanon, and even a major strike on the Iranian nuclear infrastructure.
The entire region would be set ablaze (more than it already is now). This would be in service of ensuring that white Evangelicals get the setting for what they believe will be the return of Jesus to punish their enemies. The bloodier the conflict in the region, in their thinking, the better. This is not to say that we should accept the current state of affairs. It is clear that more pressure needs to be put on Biden (and Harris if elected) to do something meaningful to stop the war. Some of that pressure needs to come from Congress, though. Voting for Trump will not fix the problem.
Climate change also animates younger voters and those on the left regardless of age. Despite the successes of the Inflation Reduction Act, passed in 2022, many feel that what the Biden administration has failed at meaningfully addressing climate change. On that, I feel we need to push back, at least a bit. Could more have been done by the administration, and more importantly by Congress? No doubt. However, this was a problem over 150 years in the making. Humans living within “civilization” (or perhaps “history”) wondered about our relationship to the environment and our impact on it. In modern era, scientists have been studying our impact on the climate since at least the late 19th century. Does any incoming administration need to treat climate change like it’s the emergency that it is? Yes. Is any one administration and congress going to instantly fix climate change by passing laws in the short term? Seems doubtful. Nor will the worst effects of climate change be ameliorated solely by US action. We can and should be leaders in the field, rather than dragging our feet. American politicians and some of the tech robber barons are betting on technology to save us, but as Rebecca Solnit noted this week, we already have solutions to climate change, we just need to will the implement them. That will fall to us as voters to put greater pressure on our elected officials, locally, nationally, internationally. Pitching it as the US being a leader in the field could help us get to the tipping point of dealing seriously with the issue. We know that Trump will abandon the shift to green energy, and insist on endless drilling and continued reliance on fossil fuels. He sees climate change as a hoax, even as he claims to support clear air and water initiatives. He’s lying, which should be our assumption about almost everything he says.
When it comes to the all critical issue of human and civil rights, at least some of the Democratic candidates down the ballot seem to be failing in the human rights position. As journalist Erin Reed has documented these past few years, the situation for trans people is reaching a crisis. In states where the far right has managed to dominate the GOP, trans people, children and adults, are having their rights stripped from them one by one, under the guise of “protecting the children.” Unfortunately, third wayism has reared its ugly head with regards to protecting the rights of the trans community. In Texas, Reed reported that at least one Democratic candidate seemed perfectly happy to throw trans people under the bus. Harris has not made trans rights a major talking point of her campaign, although her running mate Tim Walz has a strong track record on trans rights as governor of Minnesota. This week, a rumor began circulating that Harris might appear on Joe Rogan’s podcast, a notorious transphobe. One worries about what she might say once the discussion drifts into that issue. She just went on Fox News for an interview with Brett Baier, where one of the transphobic right wing talking points came up, about an inmate receiving gender affirming care. She merely pointed out that the same happened during Trump’s presidency, because it was the law. Few topics have gotten less attention from the Democratic party, outside of activists focused on these critical human rights issues. Attacks on trans and all of the LGBQT+ community has historically been a wedge issue employed by fascists. Pushing back firmly against this is critical for all of our rights. To get the Democratic party to embrace that, we must push them to do so. But much like the other issues highlighted above, Trump is far worse on this issue, and a second term will result in a disaster for human rights across the board. Let’s not forget the Trump position on immigration, which would be another human rights disaster. Human rights would no longer be on the menu at all, eroding what rights we do have even further. Trump holds the fascist position on human rights, that some aren’t deserving of such rights.
One question is who is most likely to vote for the fascists. A recent article by Markos Moulitsas (or at least credited to him) from The Daily Kos about generational voting patterns claimed that Generation X is Trumpier than other generations. The article argued that there were two possible reasons for this state of affairs. First, this (my) generation came of age during the Reagan era, and that meant that they (we) embraced the politics of his administration. We are a entire generation of Alex P. Keatons. The other explanation was Gen X was just dumber thanks to lead poisoning, since leaded gasoline was not fully phased out until the mid-90s. Other outlets have questioned the argument that Generation X (demographically the smallest of the generations size-wise) was more Trumpy than others (or at least qualifying it). It does seem highly unlikely that my generation could swing ANY election on their own. But also if white Gen Xers are breaking for Trump (especially men) perhaps it has less to do with which politician we grew up with or how we were collectively poisoned by corporations, and more to do with our general cynicism. The oldest Gen Xers grew up in the 1970s and remember Watergate as one of their earliest political memories. The younger of us grew up with Reagan as president. Not all of us identified with him, though. Despite the “morning in America” narrative associated with Reagan, his administration saw renewed fears of nuclear war and a wave of scandals. Our primary youth subcultures were punk and goth, both cynical subcultures, although punks by the late 1980s was a much more politically aware subculture and many punks joined in anti-nuclear protests and embraced anti-Reagan rhetoric. Our cynicism was well earned. We still make up the smallest generational demographic of American voters. Not all of us embrace cynicism, such as the Vlogbrothers, John and Hank Green, who regularly advocate for active participation in our systems to improve them as best we can. None the less, if (white) Gen X is a cynical generation, willing to back an authoritarian, perhaps that needs to be better understood why so many of us embraced that social position–we are a byproduct of our times.
Back in 2016, Rebecca Solnit said that voting is not a valentine, rather is a strategic move (a chess move, specifically). She’s right. We need a better collective way forward on a number of issues, no doubt. Anarchists have historically focused on the failures of the state, noting how it is a particularly oppressive form of political organization. They are not wrong on that point. But pulling the rug out from the structures we’ve built, as some accelerationists would have us do, does not fix these complicated problems either. It merely opens us up for more problems. In our current, highly problematic political system, one path forward means greater involvement and putting pressure on our political leaders and fellow citizens. Starting with reform of our current mass media and internet landscape would help, as would electing more diverse group of politicians, as well as younger politicians. Voting is only one way in which we can shape our country and world. Investigate other means of creating change, especially locally, at the grassroots level. For this election, the choice of who to vote for in the presidential election is crystal clear. The fascist won’t fix it, while the centrist Democrat will do far less damage, especially if we make sure they embrace the right side of these and other issues. Voting for the imperfect Democrats up and down the ballot will help to throw out Trumpists. What is hopeful is that even some Republicans seem fed up with the MAGA movement and the damage it’s doing to their party and the country. Let’s send a message and get past this chapter in our history to move forward.
Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now.