I’m not here to make you feel better about your vote. You own that. Your candidate showed you who he was – a racist, xenophobic, sexist, narcissistic sexual predator. And you said – “you’re hired.”
I’m not her to reassure you that you really aren’t a racist. I no longer know who you are. I only know that the consequences of your vote have emboldened racists and placed the people I love in fear.
I’m not here to assuage your hurt feelings. My feelings never crossed your mind when you pressed that lever.
I’m not here to take away your “pain” when you have shown no interest in understanding ours.
I’m not here to “get over it.” I can’t get over your choice of xenophobia over inclusiveness, racism over unity, sexism over empowerment, your own individual pocketbook over the needs of the marginalized communities that your candidate, now President elect, attacked. I can’t “get over” the fact that he unleashed a cruelness the likes that we have not seen since Governor Wallace. Nor can I “get over”, let alone “unify”, behind a man who bragged about grabbing women by the “pussy.” I just can’t. It is not about just another election. It is about the fact that the vision that you chose to support terrifies me. You chose hate over love. Exclusion over inclusion. Marginalization over empowerment. Bullying over kindness.
I am here to resist. Resist that hate won. It didn’t. Most Americans rejected his message. I am here to support the people who live in fear of your candidate’s vision for American society and the racist elements of this society that he has emboldened and unleashed.
I too am American. I will not roll over. I will not leave. I will not normalize this President elect who based his candidacy on hate and fear. I will not submit.