Ten Reasons Why It’s Immoral, Delusional, and Cowardly to Listen to People Telling You to Focus Your Efforts on the November Elections

January 22, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

North Korea—From his first days in office, Trump has issued a crescendo of threats against North Korea, including the threat to use nuclear weapons and trigger an unimaginable calamity that could kill millions of people. Last month, H.R. McMaster, Trump’s National Security Advisor, said in a BBC interview that time for a non-military resolution to the U.S. confrontation with North Korea is “running out ... and ... we have to be able to compel [emphasis added] the denuclearization of North Korea without the cooperation of the regime.”

Is it really ACCEPTABLE to place all your hopes on a Democratic election victory 10 months away, and a calm and orderly transition a few years down the road?

Iran—With no evidence, Trump condemns Iran for supposedly violating a nuclear agreement it signed with the U.S. and other world powers, and in October he announced his refusal to re-certify that agreement. A short time later, the Pentagon said it is reviewing the “full breadth” of its options in the Middle East, one of the most volatile and contended regions of the world. One Iran expert told a reporter that “the buzz ... is that there’s going to be a very significant ... escalation against Iran.”

Is it really ACCEPTABLE to place all your hopes on a Democratic election victory 10 months away, and a calm and orderly transition a few years down the road?

Immigrant Youth—Trump is threatening to completely end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a program that has temporarily prevented almost 800,000 immigrant youths (“Dreamers”) who came to the U.S. as infants or children from being deported. Trump claimed to extend DACA protection from deportation to March 5 this year. But, in fact, time had already been running out every day on an average of 120 Dreamers who were losing their status—until a federal judge ordered a stop to this, for now. And now Trump is using hundreds of thousands of young people as human bargaining chips during negotiations with Democrats in his move to build a border wall. Now, with the government shut down, DACA is “off the table” even as the Democrats have conceded on the border wall, more money for the military, and other reactionary measures.

Is it really ACCEPTABLE to place all your hopes on a Democratic election victory 10 months away, and a calm and orderly transition a few years down the road?

The Environment—Trump and his fascist entourage are aggressively endangering all life on planet Earth, and mock the very idea of environmental protection—Trump has declared the well-established fact of human-caused climate change to be a “hoax.” They have opened up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, withdrawn the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accord, announced plans to expand offshore drilling to almost the entire U.S. continental shelf, slashed 1.9 million acres of National Monument lands from environmental protection, rescinded key restrictions on fracking, and removed dozens of federal environmental regulations.

Is it really ACCEPTABLE to place all your hopes on a Democratic election victory 10 months away, and a calm and orderly transition a few years down the road?

Racist Attacks on Black People—Trump has unleashed an endless barrage of racist insults and threats against Black people; calling NFL players who refused to stand for the U.S. national anthem in protest of rampant police brutality ungrateful “sons of bitches” who should be fired, and belittling other Black athletes, political figures, and artists. He has sent “the Feds” to occupy Chicago, said he approves of police being “rough” in their treatment of “thugs,” and his “Department of Justice” has undertaken initiatives (including the federal criminalization of marijuana) to intensify the mass incarceration of Black and Brown people.

Is it really ACCEPTABLE to place all your hopes on a Democratic election victory 10 months away, and a calm and orderly transition a few years down the road?

Promotion of White Supremacy—Trump has filled his cabinet and close entourage with unabashed racists and white supremacists. He has stated his support for and repeatedly re-tweeted statements from open racists and Nazis. He recently endorsed the Alabama campaign for the U.S. Senate of Roy Moore, who thinks America was “great” when slavery existed. He called Haiti and nations of Africa “shithole” countries, and the regime has cancelled Temporary Protection Status for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador, Nicaragua and other countries, threatening them with deportation.

Is it really ACCEPTABLE to place all your hopes on a Democratic election victory 10 months away, and a calm and orderly transition a few years down the road?

Attacks on Abortion in the Name of “Religious Freedom”—Since taking office, Trump—the predator who has boasted of his repeated sexual assaults upon women—has presided over 63 abortion restrictions in 19 states and laws in 15 states taking aim at funding of family planning programs and providers. On this year’s anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision giving women the right to abortion, Trump hailed these attacks and rescinded guidelines aimed at keeping states from defunding abortion services including Planned Parenthood. He promises more aggressive attacks on abortion. His Department of Health and Human Services just decreed that entities that receive Medicare and Medicaid funds must allow their employees to refuse to do medical procedures like abortion for what they claim are religious or moral reasons.

Is it really ACCEPTABLE to place all your hopes on a Democratic election victory 10 months away, and a calm and orderly transition a few years down the road?

Transformation of the Judiciary—Trump appointed to the Supreme Court Neil Gorsuch, a Christian fascist who has issued rulings supporting police murder and government sponsored torture, who is opposed to all abortion and has equated it with polygamy, duels, prostitution, and illegal drugs, and who is against the separation of church and state. Trump is stuffing federal courts with scores of Christian fascist judges, with the intention of solidifying their fascist enforcement and interpretation of law for decades.

Is it really ACCEPTABLE to place all your hopes on a Democratic election victory 10 months away, and a calm and orderly transition a few years down the road?

Destroying Barriers Between Church and State—Trump has repeatedly said that in the U.S. people “don’t worship government, they worship God,” and he has given unprecedented access to his White House to Christian fundamentalists, while retweeting utterly vile and hateful anti-Islam messages. He signed an executive order on “religious liberty” that aims to allow religious institutions to participate openly in electoral activity without losing their tax-exempt status as they would have under previous federal rules; his “Justice” Department backed a bigoted baker who refused to serve a gay couple on religious grounds, and the tax bill he signed in December provides extraordinary breaks to people who send their children to religious schools or provide them home schooling, while undermining funding for public education.

Is it really ACCEPTABLE to place all your hopes on a Democratic election victory 10 months away, and a calm and orderly transition a few years down the road?

Promoting Anti-Scientific, Anti-Rational Thinking—From the day he lied about the size of his inauguration crowd to today, Trump’s attacks on the concept of truth and the ability to understand reality is central to his entire program. Not only does he lie about everything to serve the promotion of his fascist agenda, he attacks and denies the scientific method and truth itself.

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So we ask again, is it really ACCEPTABLE to place all your hopes and bets on an election victory in 10 months and a calm and orderly transition a few years down the road? How much damage to the people and the planet will have been done by that day—if it ever comes? How much more firmly will the machinery of fascism be erected, and how much more empowered would the regime be to foreclose any such “orderly transition”?

Vote with Your Feet, Vote in the Streets!

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