What do we have to lose if Trump wins? Nothing less than our lives and our freedom.
Black America, Election Day is coming, and it is do or die for us. If you haven’t voted early, you must vote on Election Day. You must go to the polls and defeat Donald Trump. This man must be stopped at all costs, because he will be your undoing, the end of your children’s hopes and dreams—our destruction.
–Donald Trump’s political assault on black intelligence–
This warning is not hyperbole, nor is it intended merely for shock value, or lifted from the talking points of a DNC playbook or the Hillary Clinton campaign. And while African-Americans have been warned every four years to fear and loathe a particular candidate for the destruction that individual would wreak, 2016 is not a fire drill. This time, it’s real, and this is all about self-interest and self-preservation.
Don’t beat Trump as a favor to Hillary Clinton. No, Hillary is not Barack Obama, and we know this. You may not be as excited this time around, now that the brother is no longer running for the White House. Many would have voted for the president for a third term if allowed. Others wanted Bernie, or whomever. Whatever your position, you must be selfish and cast a ballot against Trump, to continue the legacy of President Obama.
Judge Trump by the company he keeps. Consider the man’s inner circle. Trump says he would consider appointing Chris Christie as attorney general — assuming the New Jersey governor does not end up behind bars for Bridgegate — and more importantly, Rudy Giuliani as the head of homeland security. Imagine Giuliani, who presided over an epidemic of police brutality as mayor of New York City, implementing a nationwide program of stop-and-frisk and the wholesale rounding up, detention and disappearing of black and Latino men, Muslims, and any other perceived enemies of Trump, the supreme leader.
Would Trump put Sheriff Joe Arpaio in charge of immigration and customs enforcement? How about Ben Carson as the surgeon general, or crazy ol’ Sheriff David Clarke as FBI director? We already know that the FBI, which has a history of waging war on black people and assassinating its leaders, already has Trump’s back. And they are willing to work with the Russians and the hipster Klansmen, known as the alt-right, to steal this election.
He is a racist, a xenophobe, a bully and a misogynist, and an alleged rapist and pedophile. Understand that this is about more than just Trump but rather a movement against progress, a movement against the blackening and browning of America. A movement against multiculturalism and a nation that makes room for those who are not white men. Something is happening, something existentially wrong here, and you see it, what Bill Maher called a “slow-moving right-wing coup.”
–Media mum on lawsuit alleging Donald Trump raped 13-year-old girl–
All of the white nationalists, the white supremacists, the neo-Nazis and the KKK are falling in line for this man. And they are excited because they see 2016 as their time to shine, their last stand. “Make America Great Again” means “Make America White Again.” Already, a majority of the babies now born in the U.S. are children of color, as are a majority of the kids in the nation’s public school system. And this frightens some people. That is why they will take our long-fought, blood-stained right to vote if we allow them and take away everything we have, dismantle the institutions of government, eviscerate the rule of law and imprison political opponents.
I do not besmirch anyone who believes black America can withstand and weather the devastating storm Donald Trump would bring or that American democracy is resilient enough to withstand one egomaniac. I do not, however, believe we can afford to entertain this highly risky political science experiment. History is replete with examples of strong and free democratic societies that crumbled once placed under the spell of a deranged cult leader.
And yes, black folks have been through rough times, beginning with the Middle Passage and continuing through slavery and Jim Crow and everything that flowed from there. We continue to catch hell, this is true. But we also have a great deal of trauma, and a need to heal, to seek justice and demand reparations, and continue to fortify our communities and get what is ours. What does black America accomplish by staying home — whether in protest or through apathy — and allowing a man into office who will render black life even more precarious and imperil our future?
“Every critic, every detractor, will have to bow down to President Trump. It’s everyone who’s ever doubted Donald, who ever disagreed, who ever challenged him,” said Omarosa Manigault, one of Trump’s useful idiots in blackface. “It is the ultimate revenge to become the most powerful man in the universe.”
While we are not privy to the details of Omarosa’s contract with Trump or how many chicken wings he promised her in exchange for selling her soul to the devil — in this case, a white supremacist devil named Donald Trump — she is on the money this time. If elected, Trump will take revenge on black folks and so many others and punish us in a ruthlessly effective, comprehensive and decisive manner. If you doubt this, look at Trump’s campaign rallies, when he instructs his goon squad to mete out physical violence against black protesters.
When we vote against Trump and help America dodge the bullet, black people once again act as this nation’s moral conscience and force the country to stand by the lofty principles that are written on paper yet are often reluctantly executed in the real world.
And with Hillary Clinton beholden to the black vote, this provides African-Americans with political capital that they must cash in. That means holding a President Clinton accountable, and ensuring that all those photo ops with the “Mothers of the Movement” were more than political opportunism from a privileged white woman whose husband built a career on mass incarceration.
And if she fails to deliver, the voters may replace her with the next person. Yet, if Trump is victorious, we may very well lose permanently, as there will be no guarantee of future elections. Remember that even Hitler was elected — at first.
Just vote. Don’t be cute on Election Day. How dangerous is a Trump presidency, you ask? Well, how prepared are you to pick cotton?
Follow David A. Love on Twitter @davidalove