Like many of you, I am weary this election season. In the early part of the Democratic primaries I was enthused. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and also Kamala Harris, and sometimes Amy Klobochar were articulating progressive political positions with which I agreed. Joe Biden, who eventually won, was not my candidate. Though I understood that defeating Donald Trump was the most important thing, I stopped following the campaign.
I have resisted writing this blog because I am so disgusted by Republican moves to suppress the vote, Trump’s attempts to slow the delivery of mail-in ballots, his declaration that mailed ballots are likely to be fraudulent (there is no evidence supporting this), and his unwillingness to say that he will accept the election results. The possibility that the election could be stolen or that Trump will refuse to leave office turns my stomach and frankly terrifies me because many of Trump’s white male supporters have guns and are willing to use them.
I voted absentee from Greece in the California primary about a month ago and mailed my ballot a few days later. I can only hope that despite the Post Office slowdowns my ballot arrives in time to be counted. Yes, I voted in a state that will go to Biden, but it is also important that Biden wins the popular vote by a wide margin in order to ensure that Trump will not declare victory in the face of defeat. I was lucky enough to be able to cast my ballot for Congresswoman Barbara Lee, outspoken progressive and critic of American’s endless wars. She is sure to win, but it made me feel good to vote for her nonetheless.
Today I am writing to those of you who have not voted yet and are registered to vote, but are so dispirited that you are thinking of not voting. Please vote, even if it means missing work and standing in a long line. Please vote even if you don’t really like any of the candidates on your ballot.
The future of the American democracy is at stake. Donald Trump and his Republican allies have shown that they don’t care about the political process. All they care about is getting re-elected and lining their own pockets and those of their rich cronies. If they cared about the political process, they would not be suppressing votes, they would not have flip-flopped on filling Supreme Court vacancies in the year before the election, they would not countenance tampering with the functioning of the Post Office, and they would be loudly denouncing the idea of discounting the election results. It is important that we not only defeat Trump, but that we boot Republicans out of office in the Senate, the House, and in states where voter suppression is occurring.
Eric Alterman provided a short list of very good reasons to vote Trump out in The Nation:
If that isn’t enough to get you to the polls, you might consider Michelle Cottle’s New York Times’ Opinion piece listing 53 reasons you should vote, beginning with:
- Because when it comes to white supremacy, there are not “very fine people” on both sides.
- Because children should never be kept in cages.
- Because military service members are neither “losers” nor “suckers.”
- Because China isn’t the one paying all those tariffs.
- Because Mexico is never going to pay for that damn wall.
- Because wearing a mask during a pandemic should not be a partisan issue.
- Because QAnon is a dangerous, totally bonkers conspiracy theory that should be denounced.
- Because the federal government should not be run by a bunch of “acting” officials chosen for their bootlicking abilities.
If you are still not sure, read 45 more reasons to vote tomorrow.
And then, go out to vote tomorrow! Please!
Please share this post too!
Carol P. Christ is an internationally known feminist and ecofeminist writer, activist, and educator who lives in Heraklion, Crete. Carol’s recent book is Goddess and God in the World: Conversations in Embodied Theology. Carol has been leading Goddess Pilgrimage to Crete for over twenty years: join her in Crete. Carol’s photo by Michael Honneger.
Listen to Carol’s a-mazing interview with Mary Hynes on CBC’s Tapestry recorded in conjunction with her keynote address to the Parliament of World’s Religions.
feminismandreligion.com 
Great post, Carol. Thanks very much for this strong message and all the thoughtful reasons why it is important to vote for Biden-Harris!
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I found the organization “Democrats Abroad”, and they assisted me in getting my ballot by email much earlier than one that would have been mailed to me. After filling it out, I then mailed it in and got confirmation when the County Clerk received it. My ballot got to Michigan a full month before the election. This was far different than the primary when my ballot arrived only four days before the election with insufficient time to mail it back from Canada.
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All well put but I do take issue with one of your statements. Its not the year before an election, its the week before an election! Far worse and far more hypocritical. I hope such actions spur enough of an awakening about how things just aren’t working to begin the process of radical change. Its certainly what I work for!
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Trump is criminally insane. He reminds of Hitler.
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Reblogged this on petrujviljoen and commented:
#Trumpmustfall
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Like you I am weary… I personally cannot engage with politics at all. I voted the day I received my absentee ballot. It is hard for me to wrap my mind around those that don’t believe our lives, our sanity, is at stake – not to mention the fate of the earth. “The future of the American democracy is at stake. Donald Trump and his Republican allies have shown that they don’t care about the political process.” I will, of course re-post this entry on FB… Thank you for posting this information…. may all share it widely.
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I’ve volunteered to Get Out the Vote (GOTV) for several organizations, but I also had to consciously limit my exposure to politics and the news because of the crazy atmosphere of tRumpian politics.
I live in Washington DC & lately the atmosphere here is just very bizarre & disquieting. Store fronts are boarded up across town in anticipation of election day or post-election day violence. I read this morning in the WaPost that tRump is putting up an enormous fence to secure our White House against potential demonstrations. The fence will encompass not just the WH & the grounds but also Lafayette Park.
May the Goddess guide us to a victory against fascism.
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this is exactly what I am afraid of – and trump is behind this violence that now he even fears – how Fking ironic.
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Yes, yes, yes! Biden wasn’t my total favorite, but I think I’d vote for a werewolf or an oak tree or a whale to get the lying orange T. Rex out of the White House. Off the planet! Trump is a psychopath and a sociopath and is doing everything he can to turn the U.S. into a fascistic state. And doing nothing about the Covid to kill us all off.
I’m seeing boarded-up businesses here in Long Beach, too. Business owners and managers are worried about violence as the election results begin coming in. I’m not sure we’ve got any Bugaloo Bois here in Long Beach, but as we all know, they travel……….
I voted a couple weeks ago and safely deposited my ballot in the real drop box outside the Senior Center. Y’all may have read that the Republicans set up a bunch of fake drop boxes here in California and apparently refused to take them down.
Yes, scary! Yes, may the Goddess guide us to victory. But you know what? Mars was a Tuscan agricultural god before he was conflated with Ares, who was a berserker. Mars was generally peaceful and fought primarily to protect his people and his turf. Tuesday is Mars’ day. We can appeal to Father Mars for protection. I did that 10 years ago and he sent me two legionaries to guard my apartment. So on Tuesday, call out to Father Mars for help! And Mercury goes direct tomorrow. That may help, too.
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Reblogged this on ravenhawks' magazine.
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Thank you for this rousing call to the polls, Carol. I voted early, first time we’ve had early voting in New York State. I was reassured by the efficiency of the process, but I know not all states are as well organized and accommodating. Here any mail-in ballot postmarked November 3rd will be counted.
This year we can and must vote for the Earth. No candidate is perfect, but with some there is hope, with others, none. May peace and healing prevail.
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I also thank you. Today’s San Francisco Chronicle had an excellent article, Tony Bravo’s “Election Referendum on Toxic Masculinity?” Bravo talks about “the swaggering, objectifying, consumption-obsessed, thrill-seeking, narcissistic brand of American masculinity that’s been presented as a virtue for the past 40 years….” He gives some all-too-familiar examples, such as the “strange phenomenon” of heterosexual couples where the woman is wearing a mask but the man isn’t. “This total lack of consideration for how one’s personal behavior affects your community is the other deadly virus that’s come to a head in 2020.” Of course, Trump is the embodiment of this other pandemic, one we can’t afford to ignore by failing to vote.
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Great post, Carol. But here on FAR, you’re preaching to the choir! I’ve been telephoning with the Democrats to get out the vote. And I have some hope that despite overpowering gerrymandering here in Wisconsin that the state will go for Biden. We won’t be able to reverse the dominance of the Republicans in the state legislature, and our State Supreme Court will remain Republican-controlled, but we have a chance of having the outcome I hope for on the national level. Maybe that will turn the tide in terms of the out-of-control coronavirus surge that Republicans have fostered by overturning all the precautions mandated by our Democratic governor. It’s been a hard year on so many fronts that I can’t wait for the election at least to be over.
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‘Trump is criminally insane. He reminds of Hitler’.
Strong words but I tend to agree
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Thank for your post, I am at the same stake , crossing fingers that the election will come out good for this country, we need a person who really cares for it’s people.
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