Dear US-American friends
I need you all to be rational now. I know you were very, very excited, and now you’re very, very disappointed. Bernie Sanders is amazing. He is what you never thought a politician could be. He is genuine, radical, passionate, and above all things, good. As in, an actually good person. Trustworthy. All those things that Hillary apparently isn’t. The movement, as witnessed from over here, is amazing. Many of us cheer for Bernie. We would elect him, here in Zurich. I know, because we have elected people just like him. Hell, we would get him elected on a national level, because we have had Chancellors just like him. Genuine, passionate, trustworthy. Who fought for their ideals, and made a real difference.
I get it. You’re terribly disappointed, because he lost those weird primaries you have. And yes, there was a bias in the DNC. You are, therefore, also furious. And you have every right to be disappointed and furious. I’ve been there. Actually, as a Swiss person, I have an opportunity to be absolutely devastated while simultaneously seething with rage every three to four months. That’s how often we’re being called upon to exercise our democratic privilege to vote. We don’t just elect governments, we also vote on issues. As do you, it’s just a matter of frequency. So, every three to four months, EVERYTHING hangs in the balance. Remember the disastrous outcome of the Immigration Reform in February 2014? Of course you don’t. The far right won with 50,4% vs. our 49,6%. Disastrous decision, far reaching results, AND SO DAMN CLOSE. Rage, I tell you. For days, my blood was boiling. But what is a body to do? Leave the country? Move to Scandinavia, because, as everybody knows, that’s where paradise is. So, in short, I was throwing a little tantrum. Kinda like you are, right now.
Sulking, or worse, throwing it all away, is not an option. When you lose a vote, you buckle down, redouble your efforts, and win the next one. As we did. The next initiative to come out of that bottomless intergalactic butt hole that is our People’s Party – an initiative that was so racist and xenophobic, Trump will probably seek to emulate it once he hears of it – we rallied early, we rallied loudly, and we won. Of course, that doesn’t undo the damage wrought in 2014. But it showed us that we could turn the tide.
You can turn the tide. Not this time around, not in November 2016. But in 2024, you will be ready. By then, you will have done your GODDAMN DEMOCRATIC DUTY and gone out to fucking vote in the Midterms. What is your problem with the Midterms? Do you not understand that, basically, when you elect a Congress, the president can be whoever, because he/she will not get anything done with a hostile, obstructionist Congress in place? Do you see the endless amount of bullshit Obama had to contend with, because y’all stayed home for the Midterms, when voting matters, the most? He cannot even get fucking Congress to fucking look at his SCOTUS candidate. Not for any legal reasons, of course, but just because he’s black, because you allowed the religious fanatics to choose Congress for you, and the bunch of racists they elected treat the President of the United States of America like some jihadist immigrant piece of shit.
Have you noticed that there’s a vacant seat on the Supreme Court of the United States? A vacant seat that decides which way the now very balanced (or, as some say, deadlocked) SCOTUS goes in the future. Are you fond of Roe vs. Wade? Yeah? So am I. It would be a shame if it were overturned, as one of Trump’s candidates said he would like to do. I have some other distressing news. I checked everyone’s age on that body. By far the oldest person is the awe-inspiring and much beloved Ruth Bader Ginsberg, aka. The Notorious RBG. She’s 83. YOU might fancy you can sit out four years of Trump. But can she? Don’t get me wrong, I want this formidable woman to reach a positively epic age. I want her to live to a hundred and twenty, and hold her seat all this while. But in all honesty, there is every chance the next president gets to fill two positions on what is probably the most influential institution in your country. The SCOTUS determines how you can live. Whether your body is yours to decide what to do with. Whether you can marry whoever you choose. Whether black people can use the same drinking fountain as white people. Yes, that is the power of your Supreme Court. And you’re about to hand it to a sociopath.
No, Trump is not Hitler. But you know what? Hitler wasn’t quite Hitler when he was elected. It was a gradual process. READ IT UP. Do you know why we, the people of Europe, are concerned about your election? Because we look around, and we see the same thing happening in our countries. Britain takes the cake (or the biscuit, or whatever) in the area of the exceptionally stupid, but others are not far behind. In Germany, the Neo-Nazis are on the rise. They don’t call themselves that, but a turd by any other name would smell as foul. In Poland, the extreme right wing government is being investigated for anti-constitutional measures, as they are trying to subvert the autonomy of the judiciary, effectively obliterating the separation of powers that is the very foundation of democracy. And let’s not talk about Turkey. Are they even Europeans?
So, basically, we’re collectively heading down the road of the early 1930s, and we really don’t need you to be our frontrunners. While we are working on stemming the tide on or own front lawn, we don’t want to have to worry about a crazy person at the helm of the only known Weapon of Mass Destruction in existence, aka. the United States Armed Forces. The president you elect will not just impact you; the Rest of the World ™ is at his/her mercy. Read that again. WE are at YOUR mercy. Now, again, my stakes are relatively low; odds are, your gazillionaires have some money bunkered here somehow, and we’re not gonna be the first target on anyone’s list. But brown people everywhere are dependent on you recognising the impact you have on the Rest of the World ™. I repeat: IMPACT. Because that’s a thing bombs have.
Is it likely that Hillary will never bomb a brown-people country in her presidency? Probably not. But it’s not going to be her go-to solution. With Trump, all bets are off. You think he’s just posturing? All sound and fury, signifying nothing? Yeah, that’s what they thought about Hitler. And then he went from joke to Reichskanzler, and the rest is history.
Listen to Bernie: vote for Hillary. And in the Midterms, go and elect little Bernies everywhere; make her have to work with a Congress that is to the left of her position. Force her hand, the way the Republicans forced Obama’s hand for the last, like 200 years (sorry, all those Filibusters made this last legislative period feel really long). Build up the Democratic Party in Bernie’s image. Or the Green Party, if that’s your thing.
It’s called a grassroots-movement for a reason: you build it from the ground up.
Build it. It’s up to you.
oerlike 