The Lost American: Addendum

Someone I am close to called me after I sent him this, (the original article). He is a white male, late 70s, a Liberal like me. We spoke of someone we are both close to, a male in his mid twenties who would best be described as Progressive. I am not revealing their identities. The male in his mid 20s voted for Jill Stein. I was told many people his age either voted for Stein or sat out the election believing a real change is need and Harris was not it. My first response was that this young man may as well have voted for Trump. The truth is, he lives in a state that was guaranteed to vote Blue like my state of Oregon. The truth is, the two of us are in agreement: Things need to change. We share the belief that this country—and, really, the first world—is run by corporate interests. Both Trump and Harris not to mention members of the House and the Senate, are controlled by these corporate interests. I agree with this younger man, this is why I voted Independent in 2012 and 2016. 

I am a self professed “history nerd.” I am interested not just in occurrences and dates, but the reasons why facist movements and dictatorships are allowed to florish and take over a country. I am fascinated by the cult of personality surrounding men like Mussolini and Hitler. Stalin is responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of Soviets, but a generation ago you would hear old Russians lamenting him being gone. I do not see Trump as a Mussolini or a Hitler, he is not a “believer" as those men were, but he is a skilled manipulator, he knows how to push buttons, how to trigger that small, scared Gollum that skulks inside all of us. Make America Great Again, MAGA. Trump has become simply the figurehead, he got the movement in motion and the reverence had to make him feel like a big man. But he is—be all accounts—not a reader, it would be safe to assume he does not know (or care) what happens when a facist movement reaches steam. But, I disgress.

This system does not work. The white male in his 70s who called me feels that, the male in his 20s does, as do I. The system is set up to serve the wealthy, not us working people. How do you change it? How do you get a progressive leader in place in a country that has moved so far to the right? In a country where socialism is a dirty word? If we keep voting for Bidens and Harrises and Bushes aren’t we just continuing this system that doesn’t work? Part of the problem is our voting systems; the popular vote difference between Harris and Trump was not that vast, it was the electoral college system that sunk Harris. Also, there is not a level field and “air time” for all candidates—how is an Independent candidate with a few million dollars to spend going to compete with someone who has a billion? Another issue with strictly using voting as a means to “defeat the system” is that you are battling the “Great and powerful Oz,” not the little man behind the curtain. You change the system by battling that guy, by affecting his means of acquiring and keeping wealth. Okay, how do you affect his means to acquire and keep wealth when the people who make the laws are also wealthy….and want to keep the wealth they have? This is the billion dollar question.

I loathed voting for Harris as I loathed voted for Biden. I agree with the young people who decided not to vote for either, it was brave of them but it was also niave. Jill Stein was not going to win this election; you use your vote on her you may as well have voted for Trump. As much as I agree that the system needs to change, this MAGA movement troubles me, the self professed “history nerd.” They believe in law and order, they believe in giving cops a lot more power and yet many people of color---people at a higher risk of dying during traffic stops—voted for them. I am uncomfortable with the language their figurehead uses, I am uncomfortable with how at ease their leaders are with the tenants of white supremacy. To me, curbing MAGA is more important than changing the system but I respect and understand the reasoning why these young people voted third party or sat out the election. I respect it, but I lament it because, to be blunt, MAGA scares me. But…how long do we go on with the system? How do we truly defeat it? God, I truly wish I knew….