People are not happy with their choices for the 2016 presidential race. “It’s a choice between lesser evils,” say some. “All politicians are corrupt and evil, the entire system is broken,” say others. “I’m going to sit this one out or vote for a third party,” say an alarming number of people.
Are you guys serious? Really? Even if you’ve been disillusioned by the past eight years of a Democrat in office, it’s important to remember what a Perfect Republican America™ would look like. That is, the America that a fully Republican-controlled government would engineer if Trump were to win the White House.
We know what this America would look like because the 2016 GOP party platform has been released and holy shit. The new Republicans willingly nominated a racist reality TV show host to be their presidential candidate and then proceeded to think to themselves, “Y’know, we can go crazier."
Here are three additions to the 2016 Republican Platform.
1. Official embrace of “conversion therapy”
Despite its somewhat innocuous title, conversion therapy is a dangerous and disproven relic that conservatives continue to practice on their children. The therapy uses harmful and psychologically damaging techniques to keep a person from being anything but straight and cisgender. And although it is unanimously condemned by the American Psychological Association, it exists in the conservative mainstream and is now a part of the Republican platform.
2. Labeling of pornography as a public health menace
What? Seriously, what? The opiate addiction crisis or gun death rates aren’t important, but porn is? It really shows how insanely out of touch Republicans are. Aside from carpal tunnel syndrome, I don’t think porn is hurting the nation any time soon.
3. Blocking of all legal protection for LGBT people
While discrimination has always been a cornerstone of their platform, Republican rhetoric has taken a particularly transphobic slant as of late. Violence against trans women, especially against trans women of color, occurs at a staggeringly high rate. Not only do Republicans want to keep them from being legally protected, they consider passing laws that keep trans people from using the bathroom to be of the utmost importance.
So even if you really hate Hillary Clinton, I don’t understand why you would let your personal dislike outweigh the vision the GOP has for America. And don’t cling on to the hope that Republicans won’t actually enact their plans; the Executive branch is currently the only Democrat-dominated branch of our government.
If you are not doing everything you can to keep Donald Trump out of the White House, then this is the America you’re OK with. An America that strips protections from our most vulnerable citizens. An America that looks to the '50s and '60s with fond remembrance instead of horror. An America that is giddy with the idea of Christian theocracy.
I don’t want that America, so I’m voting accordingly. That’s not fear mongering or lesser evil-ism; it’s common sense.
