Why Vote? What Difference Can It Make?

Many years ago, I had a conversation with a supervisor at my job concerning the question of faith and politics. He was a staunch believer, a respected member of his sect. That night he told me that adherents to his religion were discouraged from voting or having anything to do with political issues at all. I told him that American slavery was a political issue. I asked, what would have happened if people of conscience had not mounted a political response to slavery? Would black people still be enslaved today? “Oh no,” he insisted. “Somehow it would just ended on its own.” He left me speechless. Had it not slavery had been ended, by the time we were having our little conversation, human bondage would have been a multi-trillion dollar industry. Do you mean that without bloodshed and legislation, the enslavers would have just opened the doors of freedom to their chattel?

A say in the political system is what separates America from totalitarian regimes all over the world. And that say is established by the vote. And yet, here in the 21st century, many of our neighbors and kin are refusing to answer the call to go to the ballot box because they don’t think that their vote can truly make a difference. People who stood out in the cold at the crack of dawn to cast a vote for President Obama, are not turning out in this election and that’s a problem.

Friends, the stakes are high. I remember the day that Donald Trump announced his candidacy with a powerful declaration that Mexican immigrants being sent to America were rapists, criminals and drug involved people. His solution was to propose a great wall between Mexico and the United States which would be financed by Mexico. When I heard that statement I assumed that he was finished even before he got out of the starting box. I wondered what enlightened person in today’s world would support someone with those bigoted, intolerant views? To my surprise and perhaps yours as well, I found that there were millions of zealots out there willing to take up Donald Trump’s cause.

Donald hadn’t even begun to toss down the gauntlet at the point. He went on to make ugly fun of a paraplegic, criticize veterans and the family of an American hero who fell in battle defending his country, brag of groping women he didn’t even know, threaten to bar adherents to the Islamic faith from even entering the country, criticize the looks of a Republic rival’s wife and even insinuate that the other candidate’s father may have had some connection to the Kennedy assassination. When Trump went as far as to say that a judge overseeing his case could not be impartial because his parents were from Mexico, even Paul Ryan the leader of his party called it, “The textbook definition of a racist statement.”

The Justice Department sued Trump’s housing corporation not once, but twice for refusing to rent to black people. And less we forget, Mr. Trump took out a full page ad calling for the death penalty when some youth of color were accused of raping a woman in Central Park. Years later when DNA evidence overturned the case and the City of New York was forced to pay literally tens of millions of dollars to settle the lawsuit, Trump still would not acknowledge the innocence of these men who had spent years and years in prison. On Tuesday, November 8th, this same man may be on his way to the White House.

You might ask what difference does it make who becomes the President? Why bother to get up and go out of my way to vote? One of them is just as good as the other.

Let me take you back to 1865. After Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, Vice President Andrew Johnson ascended to the presidency. Whereas Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation which eventually led to the abolition of slavery, Andrew Johnson was one of the most racist men ever to be called “Mr. President.” Johnson was a slaveholder who lost his highly prized human beings when slavery was outlawed. After being sworn in, Johnson removed protections set in place to stop southerners from exploiting or brutalizing the ex-slaves. He disenfranchised blacks who were eligible to vote. He did not promote the prosecution of those who would lynch and burn people of color. He allowed African-Americans to be turned into second class citizens. Andrew Johnson fought against any proposed civil rights which would benefit African Americans. President Johnson set a tone for the nation. The rancor and vinegar in his heart spread through America like a virus.

Last Friday night I was waiting on the bus here in Oakland, California when a teenage boy turned in my direction and hollered, “Hey, that lady just called us all n*****s!” It turned out that the elderly woman was upset because of a bus delay. She was angry not only at the bus driver but as it turned out all of us of darker hue who happened to be within earshot.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, such talk used to be considered backward or intolerable.

Mr. Trump’s calls for violence against dissenters and his wrong-headed stances against people of color have made racism fashionable for some. They feel as though they can peek out from beneath the manhole covers now because the Republican nominee who hesitated to denounce former Grand Dragon David Duke has made it safe to come outside now.

Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King once said, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.” Why should you vote on Tuesday, November 8th? If you don’t, a greater evil than you can imagine may triumph and you may regret your decision to let it happen for the rest of your life.

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