This started out as a comment to ian douglas rushau‘s great diary “Today is not the day to talk to me about ‘decent people’ who vote for Trump,” but as you can see, it grew.
There's a meme circulating on Facebook that says, in effect, that regardless of the outcome of the election, the losers should not despair and the winners should not gloat. That we should be kind to people who are on the losing side, because this election has been hard on everyone.
I feel the need to respond to that, because it’s a false equivalency. The election may have been hard on everyone, but only one side is actually going to feel real effects depending on the outcome.
If Secretary Clinton wins today, I will not be gloating, but I will be enormously relieved. Why?
Well, the preservation of our democracy all aside, let’s list all the ways in which I violate the norms and beliefs of these small-minded, bigoted supporters of the Republican candidate.
I’m a Jew. I’m queer. I’m married to a same-sex partner. I have two children (now adults, and both voting for the first time today) who are Latinx and queer or gender nonconforming. I hold a Ph.D. and I teach at a university. Most of my students have an immigrant background, are people of color, or both.
If the Republican candidate wins this election, I will be one of the first ones put up against a wall and/or placed in a cattle car to the camps.
As to the rest of it — “be kind because we’re all having a hard time in this election” — I understand the sentiment, but I can't agree with it. LGBT people, people of color, women, non-Christians, the disabled, the poor, and so many other groups have so much to lose if the Republican candidate wins. The people who are voting for him have no similar loss waiting for them if he loses.
So I will despair if Secretary Clinton does not become President. I will not be able to treat the people who voted for her opponent with any kind of civility. You see, by their vote, they are saying they think I should not exist. They are saying that misogyny, white supremacy, homophobia, anti-Semitism, nativism, and racism are the order of the day. I cannot accept that.
Now, I will grant that they have fears, but none of their fears are going to come to fruition under a Clinton presidency. Those fears — that she’s going to take away everything that represents their way of life — are largely smoke and mirrors. Most of my fears, on the other hand, would come to fruition in a Presidency under her opponent. So it's very hard for me to have sympathy for them. Also, their way of life is based on racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, white supremacy, and other unjustified and unjustifiable biases.
So I don't really care if their way of life ends. They will not end up in a camp because they're hateful assholes. I might, because I’m a Jewish, disabled, queer intellectual.
I cannot have sympathy for them. I cannot be civil to them. They are threatening my life, not just a belief system or a political position.
I know that some of them are our mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers, co-workers, classmates. I know that some of them may be the best person in your church, who volunteers for everything, brings cookies to the kids and takes meals to the shut-in congregants. I know that some of them are working at important and necessary jobs in your communities. I know that they may tell the funniest jokes or make the best coffee. I know that many of them may be pillars of your communities.
It doesn’t change the fact that by their votes for the Republican candidate, they are threatening my life. And the life of my husband. And the lives of my children, and my students, and my friends.
As you can see, I hold some pretty strong views about this issue. I’ve already been chided about a comment I made (which has apparently since been deleted) that said that I frankly don’t care if we destroy their way of life, because their way of life is unacceptable, backwards, small-minded and un-American. And I’ve been told that my view is un-American because it violates other people’s freedom to live the way they want to live.
Yeah. Let’s be honest here: The way they want to live and the beliefs that they hold put my life — my actual life, not just my way of living — in danger. So I’m sorry that I don’t much give a damn about their freedom in this case. They also have a responsibility as citizens, don’t they? And we put limitations on freedoms all the time in order to ensure the safety of the public (not being allowed to yell “Fire” in a crowded theater comes to mind, as an example).
Your right to swing your arms ends where my nose begins. This entire campaign — from their side — has been a continuous punch in the face. I’m tired of having nosebleeds just so that they can scream their beliefs out into the world and encourage people to intimidate voters at the polls and threaten to shoot anyone with a Hillary sticker on their car. I’m tired of it.
Their unfettered freedom led to this election nightmare. The Republican candidate this time around was an inept, blundering, egotistical fool — and he made it all the way to a major political party’s nomination for the Presidency on the strength of the bigoted beliefs held by the people who voted for him. If we get lucky enough that our votes keep him out of the White House this time, we must address this problem before this happens again.
If we’re not working actively to eradicate those beliefs by education, we have to at least apply enough social pressure that those beliefs become socially unacceptable to express in public again. One way is to take back the House and re-draw the Congressional district lines to remove the gerrymandering. Statistically speaking, if we did that, they would not have the ability to get their beliefs enacted into law, because they would not be able to elect “safe” right-wing candidates. Another way is to speak out when we hear them expressing those views, and condemn them for expressing them.
But if we just assume that defeating him in this presidential race, this time will make them all slink off into the darkness again, we’re screwed.