Recently, the opinion polls indicate that Donald Trump – a convicted criminal, a pathological liar, and the latest in a long string of rightwing demagogues – is likelier than not to be elected President of the United States.
I was born and raised during World War II, a time when fascist armies seemed on the verge of conquering the world, and perhaps this accounts for my feeling of alarm at the current revival of rightwing extremism in the United States and elsewhere. This alarm seems justified today not only by the hate-filled rhetoric and program of the latest crop of would-be führers, but by their popularity. Indeed, their popular appeal is deeply disturbing and difficult to comprehend.
So, as I contemplate the current political struggle over the future of the United States, I wonder about the views of many of my fellow-Americans.
Do you really approve of Donald Trump’s constant incitement of hatred, cruelty, and violence?
Is his frequent spouting of racist slurs OK with you?
Is his plan to seize and deport between 15 million and 20 million immigrants acceptable to you?
Are restrictions on women’s rights – including the right to their bodily autonomy – satisfactory to you?
Do you really believe that the escalating climate catastrophe is a hoax?
Are you content with new legislation restricting the right to vote?
Do you find the planned destruction of unions and of workers’ rights appealing?
Do you really favor providing the super-rich and their giant corporations with additional tax breaks?
Are you opposed to legislation to reduce the epidemic of gun violence?
Are you ready to replace civil liberties and the rule of law with a police state?
Do you favor massive cuts in federal funding for health, education, and welfare, including the abolition of the U.S. Department of Education?
Are you content with huge increases in military spending?
Are you ready to abandon European democracies struggling to defend themselves against military conquest by Vladimir Putin?
Do you favor the continued slaughter of Palestinians and oppose a just settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
Are you enthusiastic about scrapping nuclear arms control and disarmament treaties, threatening nuclear war, and getting ready to wage it?
I confess that it’s tempting to say that, if you truly approve of these oppressive practices and policies, maybe you deserve to live with them. But something within me – some shred of hope, perhaps, about human nature – says that maybe you’re really not comfortable with them after all.
And if you’re not comfortable with them, then it’s time to open your eyes, rouse yourselves from your stupor, and vote as if the future of the United States and the world depends on it. Because it does!
Lawrence S. Wittner (https://www.lawrenceswittner.com/ ) is Professor of History Emeritus at SUNY/Albany and the author of Confronting the Bomb (Stanford University Press).