Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Trump’s Disintegration Means It’s Not Just Safe to Vote Green, It’s Mandatory
20 Oct 2016
🖨️ Print Article

A BAR radio commentary by Bruce A. Dixon

Hillary’s most potent argument among most people isn’t her own record, positions or abilities. It’s the proclaimed need to keep her opponent Donald Trump out of the White House. It’s only this need to prevent a disastrous President Trump that keeps many leftists and progressives in Hillary’s big stinking tent. But the self destruction of the Trump campaign frees them from worry that they might throw the election to the Donald, and opens up the possibility that millions can finally vote their hopes, not their fears.

Trump’s Disintegration Means It’s Not Just Safe to Vote Green, It’s Mandatory

A BAR radio commentary by Bruce A. Dixon

The election is more than two weeks away but the outcome isn’t the least bit in doubt. Hillary Clinton will be the next president of the United States. It’s high time for leftists, so-called progressives and generally sensible people to reconcile themselves to this fact.

The Trump candidacy has shot itself in both feet again and again. Scores of high profile Republican officeholders have deserted their party’s nominee. Donald Trump has failed to rally the section of America’s ruling elite that traditionally backs Republicans seeking high office. Millions in donations one that percenters usually invest in a Republican presidential candidate are finding their way to Hillary, who has opened up a double digit lead in the polls. So many Republican voters are staying home or casting their ballots for Hillary that Democrats may carry some states like Georgia which are normally well out of their reach, and Democrats expect to gain control of the US Senate.

The Donald is certainly a racist demagogue, a thief, liar, a hyper-entitled sexual predator and a loathsome buffoon. But he’ll never be president. Since Trump will in fact never be president, speculations on what kind of neanderthals the imaginary President Trump might appoint to the EPA or the Supreme Court, nightmares about how many millions he’d deport, how high a wall the pretend president might build, or who the imaginary President Trump would jail, drone or nuke after a 3AM Twitter fit are not frightening possibilities we need to take urgent action to avoid. They are bogeyman stories, make-believe, bad science fiction without the science.

If there was ever a need to unite to prevent a President Trump that need is over because the make-believe President Trump has prevented himself. Trump’s definitive meltdown and the temporary or permanent near destruction of the Republican party locks down a runaway victory for Hillary Clinton. It’s a new day, an historic opportunity which opens the way for even the most cautious among us to vote our hopes, not our fears.

Now the Henry Giroux’s of the world who claim voting for the Green Party’s Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka, the only peace, jobs and justice candidates will lead straight to President Trump and “concentration camps” can stop hyperventilating. The Angela Davis types can reconsider whether those who don’t share their fears of the imaginary President Trump are “narcissists,” and the Hillary shills who claim voting for third parties is “white privilege” can just go away.

Since Hillary Clinton has a double digit lead in the polls, she doesn’t need the votes of so-called left and progressive activists. But those activists have their own needs. They need to build their own political home, their own political party. Right now Stein and Baraka are running at four and five percent in nationwide polls, even though restrictive ballot access laws banned Green candidates from the ballot in four states, and forced them to run as “independents” with no party affiliation in seven or eight more.

If Stein and Baraka get five percent of the vote in November, ballot access for Greens will be a done deal in most states, and the possibility of additional federal campaign funds in presidential years opens as well. So the only ways for left and progressive activists to waste their votes is to stay home, or to give them to Hillary. The only place where your vote matters this year is with the Green Party.

For Black Agenda Report, I’m Bruce Dixon. Find us on the web at www.blackagendareport.com.
Bruce A. Dixon is managing editor at Black Agenda Report and a co-chair of the GA Green Party. He lives and works near Marietta GA and can be reached via email at bruce.dixon(at)blackagendareport.com.



Your browser does not support the audio element.

listen
http://traffic.libsyn.com/blackagendareport/20161020-bd-new-day.mp3

More Stories


  • Chinese People’s Association for Peace and Disarmament logo
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Ajamu Baraka Report Back from the US Peace Council’s Peace Delegation to the People's Republic of China
    20 Dec 2023
    Ajamu Baraka reports back from the four-person delegation from the US Peace Council, where he serves on the Executive Committee, to Beijing and Shanghai China hosted by the Chinese People’s…
  • Flooding in Somalia
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Climate Profiteers Exploit Somali Suffering
    20 Dec 2023
    NGOs and other climate profiteers treat Somalia as a poster child for global warming.
  • Lucas de Lima and the cover of his book, “Tropical Sacrifice”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Lucas de Lima’s Book, “Tropical Sacrifice”
    20 Dec 2023
    In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book. This week’s featured author is Lucas de Lima. de Lima is Visiting Lecturer in English at Mount Holyoke College. His…
  • image from Attica Uprising
    Jon Jeter
    From Attica to Gaza, Why the Settler Colony Kills its Own
    20 Dec 2023
    The recent killing of three Israeli hostages in Gaza has elevated questions about the policies of the zionist settler state and the occupation forces. The cold callousness with which they have…
  • A teacher works with students in a school in Ramallah, West Bank
    Essam Elkorghli
    Teaching Hatred and Normalizing Violence Against Palestinians
    20 Dec 2023
    While the education of Palestinian youth is under constant criticism for “promoting violence” against the zionist settler state, the entire structure of Israel is oriented to generate an environment…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us