Dear American voters, just as I would ask a dear friend not to get a tattoo on his face, I am writing to ask you not to vote for Donald Trump. While such a decision would send a message, expressing your justified anger at the pain you have suffered, it is likely to permanently scar you, ruin your life chances and leave irreparable consequences. After his rally in Madison Square Garden, no one can doubt what he plans to do to you.
I can guess where you think I'm coming from, but I don't like Democrats. Unlike the staff of the British Labor Party campaigning for Kamala Harris, I have nothing to do with them. Although there have been some improvements under Joe Biden, the value created by the middle and working classes has been going into the hands of the wealthiest for decades regardless of which party is in power. It is the result of 45 years of neoliberalism, a debilitating program to which both parties are committed. I share the horror and disgust that many of you feel at Biden's foreign policy, especially his support for the Israeli government as it carries out the genocidal offensive in Gaza and the invasion of Lebanon.
However, all of this would be worse under Trump. He said last week that Benjamin Netanyahu is "doing a good job" but "Biden is trying to stop him... and he should probably be doing the opposite." Earlier this year, he said of the Israeli government, "They have to finish what they started." If Trump, as he allegedly threatened, "will not give a penny" of aid to Ukraine, Vladimir Putin could do to Ukraine what Netanyahu did to Gaza. Any possibility of peace on both fronts would go from unlikely to impossible.
I share the horror and disgust that many of you feel at Biden's foreign policy, especially his support for the Israeli government as it carries out the genocidal offensive in Gaza and the invasion of Lebanon. However, all of this would be worse under Trump
For all their faults, Biden and Harris are trying, albeit unevenly, to protect the American people from the worst aspects of capitalism. But Trump is the worst aspect of capitalism, summed up in human form: greed, lies, fraud. Although he remains vague on the details, a group of right-wing thugs, under the umbrella of Project 2025, has laid out the path he is most likely to follow. During his first presidency, Trump tried, but thankfully failed, to destroy the Affordable Care Act. If he wins again, he will fail less often. His team will dismantle dilapidated public protections for the middle and working classes. Trump's plans would accelerate the insolvency of Social Security and Medicare. He will dismantle the government and replace experienced officials with loyalists. "Head Start," the program that provides child care and preschool education, offering at least a chance for success for all, will be abolished: if you are born poor, you will be even more likely to stay poor.
Never underestimate the vengeful nihilism at the heart of this movement. The glitter-eyed fanatics behind Project 2025 and other similar programs will destroy everything you hold most dear, partly for commercial interests - but also to enjoy the pain they inflict. They will destroy beauty, joy, community and hope precisely because other people value them.
Even if in 2028, Trump or his designated successor somehow allows a change of government, which seems unlikely, some of the impact of another term will be irreversible, especially as his team attacks the environment.
His climate policies will take us even faster towards the horizon of the Earth system. There will be no recovery for beautiful untouched places that will be handed over to fossil fuel exploiters, mining and livestock companies, construction firms. When disasters strike, they won't be there for you. Trump, a modern-day Nero, during his first term withheld disaster aid from countries he deemed insufficiently loyal. His callous and chaotic response to the covid-19 pandemic contributed to the deaths of 350.000 Americans in 2020. Compare this, for example, with Taiwan, where only seven lives were lost that year thanks to extremely effective measures. This is an ironclad rule: Trump only serves himself.
Trump's greatest feat is that he managed to convince ordinary Americans that he is on their side. And it's not
Some of you may profit from the new Trump presidency, but only at the expense of others. His game is, and always has been, a zero-sum game. His friends can prosper, but only if his enemies fail. And the nature of the enemy will constantly change.
You can already see how the network is expanding. Trump clearly said that people who do not come from "nice countries" - he mentioned Denmark, Switzerland and Norway - "poison the blood" of the USA. Your blood, according to his worldview, does not become any less "poisonous" over time. He has already set up Jews as scapegoats if he loses the election, a tactic as old as the world.
Maybe you're white and Christian. But you might discover, in a few years, that you are the wrong kind of white person, or the wrong kind of Christian. Gay? A person with a disability? Terminally ill? You may not have to wait long before you too start "poisoning the blood" of the country. As his takeover of the judiciary progresses, women will once again be reduced to second-class citizens whose primary purpose is to serve men. Who is "your" in "I am your revenge?" Trump carefully avoids defining it. But one thing is certain: the answer will keep changing.
It's not hard to imagine Trump-supporting militias turning into death squads if he wins, protected by sympathetic police, a docile judiciary, and presidential pardons. If that happens, they would be used to intimidate his opponents. Each rage will weaken the sharpness of the next, until you become so used to the rage that you no longer have the capacity to react. And since Trump now enjoys near-total immunity, there won't be anything anyone can do to stop him.
Will the rest of the establishment and the less extreme media, professionals, government officials and legislators seek to protect you? Most will comply, driven by fear and self-interest, the forces to which almost everyone in public life is subject. That's how it works, and that's how it always has been.
Men like Trump, damaged, scared, pathologically insecure, resistant to love and therapy, can only relieve their pain by inflicting pain on others. Compassion is a foreign concept to him. No curiosity, no wonder, no kindness, no connection with the hearts of others, no cheerfulness of spirit. Instead, there is ego, anger, resentment, impulsiveness and cruelty. Those who are not at peace with themselves destroy the peace of other people.
We need to build a world where one can win and the other does not lose, a world where kindness, decency and togetherness prevail, where the fortunate help the less fortunate to avoid disaster. Democrats will accomplish less of this than they should. But Trump will make everything worse. Please, dear friends. Don't do it to yourself.
The author is a "Guardian" columnist.
Translation: A.Š.
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