Elections are always important, but this year's presidential election may be the most important election of my live time. The stakes have never been higher and having ceased blogging to listen to all of the prime time speakers last night at the Democrat National Convention, the competing visions for the nation could not be starker. Donald Trump and the Republicans offer fear, hate, division, discrimination and religious extremism that have become all the more frightening given Russia's apparent attempt to throw the election to Trump by undermining the Democrat Party and Hillary Clinton. On the Democrat side, the vision is motivated by a desire for unity, tolerance of peoples' differences, and a government that works to protect its citizens and temper the abuses of capitalism. Stated another way, the Democrats do not view some citizens as disposable garbage whereas in Trump's world, the "losers" deserve, with much of what determines whether one is a loser being based on one's skin color, faith, national origin and/or sexual orientation.
As noted in numerous posts, what I find so incredibly frightening is the inability or refusal of Trump supporters to recognize that Trump's campaign and some of his first promised actions mirror the tactics of Adolph Hitler in the early 1930's. Trump may not be a new Hitler, but his utilization of hate, fear and division to gain power are beyond troubling and cannot lead to a good ending. This reality was hit upon by a number of the speakers last night, but perhaps most eloquently by Michelle Obama who made the election a choice about what kind of future do we want to give to our children and grandchildren. I for one do not want a future where white/heterosexual privilege is revived or a future where a madman like Trump has the nuclear codes in his possession as Elizabeth Warren so rightly pointed out.
As for Bernie Sanders, he sought to heal divisions and made the case to his supporters that a Trump victory was truly something to terrifying to ever allow to happen. One can only hope that over the coming days of the convention Sanders supporters will realize that staying home on election day or voting for a third party with no chance of victory is not an option and will only serve to put Trump in the White House. Despite Trump's disingenuous appeals to Sanders supporters, Trump is the antithesis of what Sanders wants for America.
Last night made me proud to no longer be a Republican and to find myself ready to work all out to insure that Trump is defeated. While we were watching the speakers last night, the husband made the remark that this election, we need to step things up and do more than we have ever done before. He's right. Quite literally the nation's future is on the line and we must make sure that it is not one ruled by Trump and his fellow fear mongers and haters.
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