This week, I am sad to say that the American people have failed every marginalized person in this country. The American people have decided that they would rather have a fascist, racist, xenophobic, sexist, ableist, homophobic and transphobic ex-reality star who can barely string a sentence together as president, than a qualified woman who has spent decades in politics preparing to take the job. The American people have chosen a man who cannot be trusted with his own twitter account to lead their nation, and in doing so they have put every marginalized group in America in danger.
Trump is, without a doubt, the most actively dangerous person alive who the United States could have chosen as their leader. He has built his campaign on a foundation of anti-Hispanic racism and only gone further to prove that there is no oppressed group in the world that he does not hate. I would cite sources to prove these points, but there are too many to sift through. If you have not already come to the conclusion that he is a hateful person, I am sure there is nothing I can do to convince you and all I can recommend is for you to seriously take a look at what you consider kind.
With that said: if you did not do everything in your power that you knew would realistically keep this man out of office, know you have hurt every single person marginalized by society. If you did not vote for Hillary Clinton, the person who most logically would have kept Trump out of office due to the undeniable unlikelihood of a third party candidate making it into office, you have actively hurt every person in the United States who is not white, male, heterosexual, cisgender, able-bodied, of middle class or higher, and a born citizen of the united states.
If you did not vote (but had the ability to vote), if you wrote in a candidate, if you voted third party, and if you voted for Donald Trump, you have proven that you do not care enough about marginalized groups to think about what is best for them in this election. If my inclusion of third party voters and write-in voters confuses you, I have this to say: if you voted third party or wrote in your vote, you knew full well that who you voted for would not make it into office. There is no way you did not know that your candidate stood no chance of making it into office. I don’t care to know your motives behind your choice: if you voted for anyone third party or wrote in your vote, you willingly took away a chance to stop Donald Trump from entering office, which in my eyes is only slightly better than actually voting for him.
Lastly, if you voted for Donald Trump, you know exactly what you did. You voted because keeping your privilege means more to you than the lives and safety of people of color, lower class people, LGBT people, immigrants, and disabled people. There is no explaining away that fact. There is no argument to be made, here. If you voted for Donald Trump you were either seriously deluded or you knew that he would harm oppressed groups in America and you decided you didn’t care.
There is no other way of thinking about it that makes any sense. If you had the ability to vote and did anything less than vote for Hillary Clinton, the only other person who was actually likely to take office over Trump, you enabled him to take office. If you did anything less than vote for Hillary, you did not do your best to protect the vulnerable groups in America who will suffer under Trump’s presidency. If you did not do your best to keep this insufferable, intolerant man out of office, you have decided that the lives and safety of those less privileged than you do not matter to you. If you have done anything less than vote for Hillary when you were clearly in the position to do so, I have lost respect for you and I have a deep issue with you.
This isn’t even to say that I vow to stop being friends with you if you voted third party, voted through write-in, or did not vote. If you voted for Trump I have almost certainly already cut ties with you or are preparing to do so. But if you voted third party or wrote in, I acknowledge your actions were not nearly as bad as voting for Trump. I do, however, still have issues with your decision. I have issues with the fact you did not think it necessary to do everything in your power to stop Trump, and likely always will. If you voted third party or wrote-in or decided not to vote, we may remain to be friends, but know I do that out of respect for the love I already have for you, but know I will not forget your decision. Know your decision enabled a man who will actively harm me as an LGBT citizen. Know I may forgive your decision, but that I will not forget it for as long as I live.
If you did not do everything in your power to stop Donald Trump from taking office, know you have actively harmed every single person in this country who is oppressed in any way. Know that this decision you have made has already created negative consequences for these people, and the consequences in the future will be undeniably dire. Know you have blood on your hands.
