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The People You're Standing Next To

If you haven't read the Arizona Republic article I posted yesterday, do that right now, because it's probably one of the best things to come out of this election season.

One of the most striking things about the article is this section:

"To those of you who have spit on, threatened with violence, screamed at and bullied the young people going door-to-door selling subscriptions, I give you those dozens of young men and women themselves. Many sell subscriptions to work their way through school. Most were too frightened to share even their first names here. But they are still on the job. They know that free speech is part of a society that values hard work and equal opportunity."

Now, I still see people on my Newsfeed all the time who are posting things like "I don't agree with Trump about ______ but I'm still voting for him." Their explanation is that they don't support his more incendiary platforms and behaviors, and that they therefore can support him without feeling guilty about it.

All I want to say is this--

Look at who you're standing next to.

Maybe you, yourself, aren't a misogynist.
Maybe you're not racist.
Maybe you're not homophobic.
Maybe you think POW's *are* heroes.
Maybe you don't think women who get abortions should be jailed.
Maybe you don't think we need to deport millions of people, thereby destroying families and sending our economy into a tailspin.
Maybe you do think climate change is real.
Maybe you don't believe in killing the families of terrorists, and you agree that doing so would constitute committing war crimes. Maybe you think grabbing or kissing a woman without her consent *is* sexual assault.

And so maybe with all that, you think, It's okay. I can vote for Trump, because I don't support any of that stuff, I just like the other things he and the GOP stand for.

Well, here's the problem.

The person standing next to you? The one who's also voting for Trump. Statistically speaking--

They probably are a misogynist.
And a racist.
And homophobic.

Odds are, they're the person who's going to the rallies and slapping the offensive bumper stickers on their car. They might be the person who's shouting out hate speech and spitting on young people selling newspaper subscriptions. They could be phoning in death threats to newspapers.

You might be a lovely person, but who are the people standing next to you.

Now, all political parties have bad apples in them, I know that. I'm not naive. I'm sure if I went to a Hillary rally I could find some awful people there as well. The difference is--those people would not be reflecting the public platform their candidate is putting forth. If I heard some racist or sexist at a Clinton rally, I wouldn't have a problem turning to those people and telling them off, because I wouldn't, you know, fear for my life. Because I could say "You don't belong here" and mean it.

I'm not sure I could say that at a Trump rally if I was voting for him.

The Democrats who raised $13,000 to rebuild the Republican campaign office that was fire-bombed--that's who I'm standing next to.

So yes, you can be an exemplary citizen--a kind and decent human being--and still vote for Donald Trump this year, but...

Take a look around you.

I'm guessing you're not seeing a lot of people like you.

Now ask yourself--

How do you feel about that?

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