If You Vote for a Racist, You Are a Racist

Denial does not vindicate you

Politics is a system of arguments and responses. One side makes a statement, and the other side issues a response. In a perfect world, the voting public would weigh the merits of both sides and arrive at their conclusion based on the strength of the evidence provided. However, in practice, that idealized scenario is rarely achieved.

In the divided states of America, modern politics is more akin to watching a sporting contest than an intellectual engagement of ideas. The spectators cheer at the volleys and salvos of their candidates without reserving much time to evaluate the merits of the argument. The system is backwards. Voters are supposed to hear the arguments and then make their decision. Today, voters observe the arena with unshakably predetermined loyalty.

The result is that there is a massive disconnect between people who evaluate evidence, and people who passively observe the spectacle. In a normal election, the discrepancy between candidates doesn’t make it worthwhile to ruin longstanding friendships over politics. That’s not the case in the 2020 presidential election.

Denial does not vindicate you

Denial is a powerful force that allows people to navigate the world without bearing the burden of crushing guilt. When an individual can absolve themselves of responsibility for the evil they’ve contributed to, they’re able to achieve some semblance of life satisfaction.

It’s important to recognize how prevalent denial is. You probably see it every day and don’t even recognize it. We all know a married couple where one spouse is abusive or unfaithful and the other seems to be totally oblivious. The truth is the victim isn’t unaware, it’s just that s/he has adopted a survival mechanism of denial in order to get through life.

Denial is like a pain killer that numbs you to reality and gives you the time to process some major life event. Even when you’re living in a state of denial, some part of your mind is still able to make connections and construct a new perception of reality. People like to use denial to justify themselves, but it’s a false concept because denial makes you numb, it doesn’t make you blind.

If you are blind to transgressions, you enable them

For years, leaders of the Catholic church chose to cover up the actions of priests that were raping children. Church leaders elected to move these sex offenders to different areas of the country and allowed them to continue their horrible behavior unchecked. To some extent, this is still going on today because the church has never been made fully accountable for this evil behavior.

Even while this was going on, people knew it was happening. However, the fact that their local priest might be a child rapist is more than most people can process. So, instead of taking appropriate action, communities looked the other way and denied reality. There are even reports of parents sending as many as four or five children to the same priest, only to have every single one of them get violated.

In that situation, the offender comes to believe that he has tacit permission to perform his abusive behavior. After all, if a parent objected to the treatment, why would s/he continue sending the children?

Denial of racism

Racism is among the most repugnant of human institutions. It’s so ugly, in fact, that many people simply don’t have the mental strength to face the fact that it exists. These people want to get up in the morning and tend their flowers or watch ‘Wheel of Fortune’ without having to engage in unpleasant thoughts about how so many people in our society are exploited, mistreated, and abused.

They’ve built up walls in their own mind and insist that racism doesn’t exist. The mind is capable of terrible delusions.

Consider, again, the victims of child abuse. Children don’t wash their own clothing. If there is blood in a child’s underwear, a parent should notice. A person who knows not to ask questions because they don’t want to hear the answers, is just as guilty as the person performing the acts of abuse.

If you vote for a racist, you are racist

Many people will deny that their candidate is racist. They even believe that they are entitled to act offended that you would suggest they are racists themselves. “How dare you insult me!” They sputter, defiantly. “I’m not a racist!”

But if you present evidence for why a candidate is racist, and a person chooses to ignore it, then they are just as guilty of racism as the candidate.

Ask them, “What if you are wrong? What if he is racist? If you vote for a person who is a racist, even without knowing he’s a racist, what does that make you?”

It’s no justification to try and claim that you had no idea a person you supported was evil. As a decent person, rooting out evil is one of your primary responsibilities. You can’t sit there and claim that you get to believe anything you like and that you shouldn’t be held accountable when you enable the behavior of cruel and oppressive people.

If you can’t be bothered to recognize evil when you see it, then you shouldn’t be voting.

There’s plenty of evidence

Donald Trump is clearly a racist. Racism denial has become a fundamental component of his campaign. These days it seems like most of his supporters spend more time talking about why he’s not a racist than they do talking about what they like about him. When the only thing you have to say about your candidate is that “he’s not racist,” perhaps that should provide an indication that you might want to reevaluate your position.

When it comes to the 2020 election, we cannot be content to allow people to deny Trump’s racism. People are always offended when you disrupt the personal delusion that allows them to navigate life. Interventions are always painful. They will insult you, you might lose them as friends. But all of these consequences are preferable to the alternative.

Take a stand for compassion

We must all be resolved not to allow anyone we know to go into a voting booth ignorant of what it means to vote Trump. Adults are going to make their own decisions, and you can’t change that. However, you can let them know that this election isn’t a game. It isn’t an argumentative position. A vote for Trump is a vote for racism. It’s a vote to hurt people.

There is no valid argument to justify people who tolerate and enable abuse.