I’ve often entertained and contemplated the questions surrounding what happens if we don’t “rally around Hillary”. Hillary and her supporters have claimed that it is like voting for Trump. Many Sanders supporters are supporters precisely because they are (myself included) are saying “Enough is enough”. And when faced with the possibility that a big drop in Democratic support might well enable a Trump victory, I’ve often heard that this is the price of change: some chaos that will wake us up.
My take on this is that the chaos will not be avoided by a Clinton presidency either. Either Trump OR Clinton will face fierce resistance their entire term. I would certainly prefer the resistance to a far less chaotic Hillary presidency. But the choice is this: Do we speed up and accelerate our march toward chaos by electing Trump, or do we let Hillary let us continue to boil like frogs in a kettle and be assured by her that she’s got our back? The supreme challenge we face is the Climate Crisis.
If we fail to confront this, we will do nothing for racism, income inequality, or gay rights. We won’t have an economy that works for anyone, and eventually it won’t even work for the richest, who think they can keep themselves from being touched by this. They worship their money and think it will save them. It will not. Sooner or later, people will be FORCED to accept this because it will be happening and it will be unmistakable that we have really failed to respond, for the effects will be all around us. And when we let it get that far, we’ll be in for even worse. It’s already building up to come, from things we’ve done 40 years ago.
Compared to what will be happening, the difference between having a Trump and having a Clinton as President now will be a relatively small problem. Climate upheaval and ecological chaos will continue to exacerbate racism, war, and general unrest and mistrust. We MUST find our way to the realization that if we don’t prioritize moving ASAP to an Ecological Civilization, we cannot begin to begin to make the changes that defeat racism, bigotry (both racial and sexual) , income inequality, and war. There is no justice without ecological justice which underpins it all.