Last fall, Jeb Bush was the presumed frontrunner of the GOP. I never quite understood why that was, seeing as, numerically speaking, he was never actually in the lead. As Trump’s popularity grew, I kept asking my friends when we should panic. They assured me that Trump’s popularity meant nothing this early on, that Bush would be the most likely Republican nominee and that Trump was unelectable.
Months later, here we are with Trump as the presumptive Republican nominee for president, with no challengers, and an ever shrinking democratic-lead in the match-up between Trump and Clinton — a disturbing, but steady trend. And still people tell me that Trump is unelectable and that Hillary Clinton will assuredly be the next president of the United States. I feel continually exasperated by this attitude; we have to look at the reality of right now and proceed from there. The numbers show a disconcertingly small gap between Clinton and Trump and a downward trend for Clinton’s popularity.
I was amused by the reaction I got in a coffee shop in Paris the other day as I cited a poll that puts just three percentage points between the two presidential frontrunners. I was speaking to a friend from school about my concerns, and when the woman at the table next to us heard me reference the figure she recoiled and looked at me in horror and astonishment. Yes! There is the panic I need to see — and it’s across the ocean in Paris! So here's what I think needs to happen.
I think an important step one is to panic.
In fact, I think it’s imperative that we start to panic. I think Trump is less likely to become president if we panic now. As they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. But when I say panic, I mean effectively panic. I don’t mean sit in your room, stock up supplies and contemplate the apocalypse. I mean start doing everything we possibly can to prevent Trump from becoming president of the United States.
Why we need to panic.
I don’t actually think I particularly need to convince anyone who would be reading this article why we need to panic about a Trump presidency. Nevertheless, to sum up, let’s put his xenophobia, racism, intense sexism and general disregard for other human beings aside for a second and just talk about his instability. He is a man who whimsically lashes out and who cannot maintain a rational conversation.
All of his statements are assertions, usually with little to no fact behind them. It’s almost impossible to debate with him effectively because he simply states things to be true, seemingly at random. In one conversation about his nasty Twitter post with an unflattering picture of Ted Cruz’s wife, he maintained that he did not think anything was wrong with the photo. When pressed further he claimed, much like a grumpy seven-year-old, that “He started it!”
My point is, regardless of any ideological differences between me and people who might vote for Trump, I am terrified of what such an immature and unstable person could do as the most powerful man in the world — not just to the United States but to the entire world. I, and many of my friends, have, in all seriousness, debated where would be the safest place to go if Trump becomes president.
How to panic.
What does panicking look like? First, be as loud as possible. Write articles, talk to friends, join a campaign. Try to make people understand why Trump is a dangerous option. (Note: that is not the objective of this particular article. This article’s audience is not conservatives, but people who already understand how dangerous Trump is.)
Talk to conservatives. Ask them why they are voting for Trump. Don’t isolate them further, but try to ask them on which issues they agree with Trump. Often, Trump supporters are not necessarily issue-based voters, but more emotional ones. Try to talk about their values and yours, be they Christian values, American values, traditional values or anything else that might be important to them. I would argue that literally all of these values preclude voting for Trump.
Second, mobilize friends. Help them understand how imperative it is that Donald Trump not be president. Particularly appeal to friends who are in positions of privilege who might not understand the urgency of avoiding a Trump presidency. I think it is reasonable to fear for one’s safety under a Trump presidency if one holds any minority or marginalized identity — even just being a woman is cause enough to fear Trump.
Help people see the personal effect his presidency might have. For people in positions of privilege, politics are often removed from the personal, but as any immigrant, queer person, person of color, transgender person etc. will know, many “political” issues amount to society voting on the outcome of your life.
Finally, and I hate to say this as a Bernie supporter, vote for the lesser of two evils. If (when) Clinton becomes the Democratic nominee, we have to throw all of our support behind her. There are so many articles that explain why this is necessary in more detail than I have time for here, but I think it amounts to this: despite Hillary’s ties to corporate America, despite her slow, incremental change approach, despite her flip-flopping positions and despite the fact that I have no confidence that she will follow through on her campaign promises, Hillary Clinton is a stable, rational and reasonable human being.
She may be more pro-war than I like, but she will not enter wars erratically. She may not have supported gay marriage until a couple years ago, but she has always protected human rights and as Secretary of State spoke out in defense of LGBT populations around the world — if not for their marriage, then for their lives. And honestly, when it comes down to it, that is more important to me than marriage and not something I trust Donald Trump to do.
Does the entire political system need to change? Yes. Is a vote for Hillary a vote for that change? No. People who, like me, have supported Bernie Sanders may not see voting for Hillary Clinton as voting for their ideals, but a vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote against Trump and thereby a vote for protecting human rights. Choosing not to vote (or worse, to vote for Trump) is the equivalent of throwing your hands up in the air and saying, “If I can’t have everything, then I won’t protect what I already have.”
