I fully understand the fear of the Trump. I too fear that. But I also fear the art of the no-win situation; the “lesser-of-two-evils” that keeps us in a grid-lock that benefits no one but the most powerful, and continues to condemn millions to misery, poverty, and death. Something HAS to happen to stop it. I have seen many kindred souls, who love the earth and fear for it as I do, decide that the risks are just too great to do anything but begrudgingly vote for Hillary. I see that, and a large part of me feels the same. But over the past almost two years, the sense of urgency about this Ecological Crisis has also raised my sense of disgust with the status quo, since it is that which has kept this “momentum” going that is driving human civilization to the brink, and with it, all of earth’s systems of support for life.
And so as I hear the concerns over Trump and how “we have no choice”, I am painfully torn. I support my fellow sojourner’s laments over what the Trump means, or could mean, even as I see another 4 years (at the least) of almost certain continuation of the same avoidance of the needed medicine of economic reform and energy infrastructure re-tooling. Anything less than “Keep it In The Ground” and rapid divestment (with the intended effect of speeding up the transition to sustainable energy) will only kick the can down the road, and lock in even worse repercussions down the road, and these may well be much worse than what the Trump could “accomplish”.
I also have to think that with the “high alert” with which The Trump possibilities have been received, the resistance to his antics will be stiff (to put it mildly). And this is assuming he would win were the vote to be split between the two establishment parties and the independent factions. And there is good reason to believe that it could be better in the long run to have this “reckoning” sooner rather than later, since the later that “or-later” is, the worse of a scenario that becomes.
The consequences of continued “incrementalism” could well be worse than what would happen if Trump were elected. If we have increasingly worse and heightened ecological effects as a result of continued renewal of old-world, fossil-fuel-economy, “unlimited growth” assumptions, we are bringing these upon ourselves, and apparently wagering against what those consequences will be for the quality of life as a result.
So these kinds of thoughts are what give me pause; that keep me from “approving” the “lesser of two evils”. I’m not all that convinced that it will be “lesser”. The ecological consequences are still an unknown as to just how damaging, and just how fast, and what various “tipping points” have been surpassed or how quickly we need to act (the obvious answer here, in our uncertainty, is “ASAP”. Yesterday. 30 years ago. And yet here we are, 30 years later, allowing ourselves to be distracted again by “greater dangers”. I’m not at all sure about that.