I’m not talking here about Clinton’s policies on voter enfranchisement. That is important, and her policies are good — but today, I’m talking about something else.
A lot of people can’t vote. Most of them would vote Democratic if they could. If you’re thinking of not voting in this Presidential election — or if you’re thinking of voting third party — I’d like you to consider voting for Clinton, on their behalf.
Voter disenfranchisement is a real thing in the United States. Obstructions to voting have been thrown up all over the country: they include insufficient voting hours, inaccessible polling places, voter ID laws (no, these laws don’t prevent voter fraud, that’s a myth), deliberate misinformation about voting, laws banning felons from voting (which disproportionately affect black and brown people, since that’s who the racist police system targets), and more. To give just two of the more egregious examples, Wisconsin has been systematically failing to provide voters with the voter IDs they say they need; and Texas recently had their voter ID laws smacked around by a federal court for illegally discriminating against blacks and Hispanics. What’s more, Trump has been encouraging his supporters to intimidate voters on Election Day — and the Trump campaign is actively organizing this intimidation campaign.
And the voters who are shut out by these obstructions would overwhelmingly vote liberal, progressive, and/or Democratic, if they could. There’s a reason these policies are put in place by Republicans. Many Republicans have explicitly said so. They don’t want black people, brown people, poor people, trans people, immigrants, to vote — because most of them will vote Democratic. I shouldn’t have to say this, but I’m going to: If you know that millions of citizens don’t like your party’s policies and don’t want to vote for you, and your response is to keep these people from voting, there is something seriously wrong with your party.
If you think voter disenfranchisement is wrong, there are a lot of good reasons to vote for Clinton. She’s pledged to make voting more accessible to more people, and to re-enfranchise people who have been shut out of the political system. She’s pledged to repair the Voting Rights Act, set a national standard for early voting, make voter registration automatic when citizens turn eighteen, and more. Trump, to the degree that he’s expressed anything resembling a coherent position on this, supports voter ID laws, opposes same-day voter registration, opposes voting rights for felons, and has made false, unsubstantiated claims about a supposed epidemic of voter fraud in support of tighter restrictions on voting access. (See above: voter fraud is extremely rare, and these policies don’t prevent it. They keep people from voting who have a right to vote.)
But one of the best reasons to vote for Clinton is to give disenfranchised citizens a voice. The people being shut out of voting are among the people whose lives will be most deeply damaged by a Trump presidency. You may not have your own life thrown in the crapper, or put into literal danger, by a Trump presidency. Millions of people will. And many of those people have had their power to do something about it systematically destroyed. Most of them would vote for Clinton if they could. They can’t. Please give them your vote.
(Comment policy: In addition to my regular comment policy, I’m going to ask people to keep comments narrowly focused on this issue. This is not a platform to discuss everything else you do or don’t like about Clinton or Trump. Thanks.)