In defense of Susan Sarandon, and by extension Jill Stein et. al. ? [View all]

[guillaumeb]

Last edited Thu Feb 16, 2017, 05:25 PM - Edit history (1)

Numerous posts have talked about so-called limousine liberals like Sarandon and Stein and their positions regarding Donald Trump being President. One can also read numerous posts at JPR asserting much the same thing.

But if we look at the position that Trump is somehow, on some level, preferable to Clinton, how can we approach that in a positive way? How can a positive be made out of an apparent huge negative?

First, I believe any argument must concede that the Trump Presidency, no matter how long it endures, will be a negative for the bottom 90% of Americans. GOP spin and framing aside, Trump is a tool of the 1% just as the GOP is a tool, and that tool will not be used to build, but to destroy.

But if there is any positive that has occurred so far, it is that many Americans are organizing, and protesting, and calling their respective Congress members to register their opposition to the GOP agenda. So this activity is a positive, but only if it represents a new normal for Americans. Far too many Americans only pay attention to politics after Labor Day in Presidential election years.

And if there was any negative to the Obama Presidency, it was that obviously some Democrats saw the election of Barack Obama as somehow solving things. As if the election of one person could be the savior, the solution. And some Democrats obviously felt that electing President Obama was enough because these deluded Democrats did not bother to vote in the crucial 2010 elections.

And the result of this Democratic non-vote, this complacency by Democrats, was that the GOP took control of the House of Representatives. And the result of the new GOP House Majority was that President Obama faced massive House obstruction from 2010
through 2016.

In 2012, again Democrats were motivated to vote, but 2014 saw a repeat of the 2010 complacency as the GOP took the Senate.

So if Trump's election can motivate Democratic voters to wake up and get active, Trump might just have done the Democrats a favor for 2018 and the crucial 2020 Presidential election that will also affect the 2020 Census redistricting. Democrats must realize that, arguments about demographics aside, people actually have to vote and pressure their Congress members all of the time.

And this does not apply to the hyper-aware and well informed DU community. The obsession with politics here is evident. But DU members must preach the gospel of political awareness and involvement to our friends and family and neighbors.