Susan Sarandon Was (Is) Right
I voted for Jill Stein.
No no, not in the presidential election. I voted Hilary for President when it came down to the endgame. But I am registered Green in California, so Hilary did not appear on my primary ballot. In the primary, I voted for Jill Stein.
When I thought to write this post, I discovered that, a year into the Trump presidency, Susan Sarandon was still raising controversy around the 2016 election. I don’t agree with Sarandon that Hilary was very dangerous, though I don’t say she is necessarily wrong either. Where I do think she was right is when she says, “This is a revolution. Maybe things had to get so bad before real change actually could happen. We just have to stay awake.” She expressed similar belief before the election: “Some people feel that Donald Trump will bring the revolution immediately, if he gets in. Then things will really, you know, explode.”
In an Advocate commentary (from which I took the first Sarandon quote above), Amanda Kerri argues that the reason Sarandon is wrong is that so many people are being so grievously injured by the Trump administration. I would add the obvious, that our government apparatus, our governing norms, and our very democracy is also being grievously damaged. I hate that this is happening. I hate everything about the Trump presidency, my white privilege not withstanding. (Like Kerri, I am a trans woman, and I particularly sympathize with the trans folks who are being hurt by the administration. But here, again, my middle-class white privilege shields me from these effects.)
“Maybe things had to get so bad before real change actually could happen.” — Susan Sarandon
However, look at the strengthening of the progressive left now happening: more women and people of color running for office, AOC and The Squad ascendent, Indivisible groups everywhere, protests abounding, a strong and popular slate of progressive left 2020 presidential candidates, and so an. This is things exploding in revolution, just as Sarandon predicted. Voting Hilary was a vote for continuing the status quo. Trump’s election unquestionably accelerated the revolution.
Revolutions are always messy. Let’s just hope we can have ours without setting up the guillotine in Times Square. Not that I wouldn’t mind seeing a few Wall Street bankers’ heads roll. You know, it could get to the point where my own white-privileged head rolls … and that would be alright by me. Because, as Bernie Sanders continuously reminds us, the only chance we have of moving our society to the next level is for the people to rise up by the millions in a revolution. Sixteen years of Clinton and Obama proves that Democrat business as usual ain’t ever gonna get us there.
So the question in the 2016 election came down to this: Do we minimize short term suffering by continuing along with the status quo, or do we endure serious short-term pain as the price for a much brighter future? I chose the status quo when I voted for Hilary, but the wisdom of the crowd chose Trump, albeit few chose him for the purpose of fomenting the revolution.
The same question is asked of us now, in the 2020 election, and the stakes are incredibly high: Continuing the status quo likely means the end of civilization in 50 to 100 years due to climate change. But then again, the re-election of Trump could mean the end of civilization within the next 4 years due to nuclear winter (less likely, but certainly within the realm of possibility). The third choice is revolution, but it is far from certain.
Is the revolution really here? If we vote Sanders or Elizabeth Warren can the revolution really happen, or will we just wind up back at the status quo due to the inertia of the system? Will you take the chance and vote for one of the truly progressive candidates in the primaries, or will you vote the decidedly status quo option of Joe Biden? If the election is Biden vs Trump, will you vote for the status quo, or hope to further stoke the revolution by not voting Biden (whether you vote Trump, or third-party, or stay home)? Can we move our society to a higher level, and avoid the end of civilization? It will not be decided by you, or me, or Susan Sarandon, but by all of us, and by the grace of The Flying Spaghetti Monster, however you conceive Him.
