Dear Millennials and Independent Voters,
Leave the angst at home. Go vote and vote for Hillary Clinton and a Democratic Congress, and the next day join the fight for what we believe in. There really is no other choice. Not the Green Party or Libertarian.
I was on the electoral battle line as an environmental leader during the 2000 election in Florida, where Democratic candidate Al Gore made historic blunders. What happened then should make it clear why the only vote this election cycle is for Hillary Clinton and for a Democratic Congress.
During the 2000 presidential campaign, millennials and independents were angered by Gore and his campaign advisors who guided the candidate in the final months, avoiding issues like the environment.
The Gore campaign reckoned the line delineating their candidate from George Bush was so bright, so clear and self-evident that there was no need to emphasize his core positions. When pressed on local controversies like the redevelopment of the Homestead Air Force Base, they snarled, "Get a life!"
Perhaps the Gore team worried the environment would be used to gin up campaign money against him and jeopardize battleground states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida. Perhaps they were sensitive to the argument against environmental protection as a job killer or something other people could afford. Whatever the case, Gore was silent.
For millennials and independents in 2000, Ralph Nader filled the breach.
Reportedly, today's millennials and independents are not thrilled by Hillary Clinton, but if you are interested in reform, pay attention to history. The corporate backlash against what millennials and independents want is real and far better organized than you are.
There is no way to sugarcoat this point: whatever one thinks of George W. Bush, Jr., "incurious" or a good guy misled by advisors, those in his inner circle pushed the United States to terrible outcomes. American voters and taxpayers would take those outcomes back in a heartbeat if we could.
Dick Cheney, Bush's vice-president, and Donald Rumsfeld, secretary of defense, lied to the American public and steered the US to a war in Iraq that cost trillions and treasure in American blood. Cheney diverted environmental policies to fossil fuel industry lobbyists, costing precious lost time in the battle against climate change.
Consider Trump's inner circle as a reliable indicator of what a Trump presidency would hold for America. Trump never served, not for a day and not for a term, in public office. Like Florida's governor, health care scammer Rick Scott who heads the shambolic Trump national campaign finance team, Trump would arrive at the executive office with a slate of advisors so empty and blank of talent, he would have to fill thousands of slots in the federal government by relying on the advice of the same re-treads and lobbyists who populated the earlier Bush administrations or, worse yet, from the ranks of GOP staffers on Capitol Hill.
The candidate whose sexual groping on live television sent his poll numbers into a dead zone is being advised by Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House who represented the Moral Majority while having an affair as his wife lay dying of cancer, Roger Ailes, Fox News architect and alleged groper who the Murdochs terminated from his gun-filled sanctum protected by surveillance cameras. Trump advisors include NJ governor Chris Christie who may yet face criminal charges for creating a commuter disaster on the George Washington Bridge to punish a political enemy. Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of NYC, blamed President Obama for 9/11 and is unhinged by his own illogical arguments in defense of Trump. Business leaders for Trump are mainly tied to fossil fuel industries and climate change deniers.
Trump's rise to the top of the Republican Party has already eroded the credibility of the United States. Financial markets are reacting adversely to his campaign. In the astonishing event Donald J. Trump would be elected, putting conspiracy theorists and liars in the White House, financial markets would buckle.
There are some voters who lament both candidates. Some claim we can "survive" Donald Trump, that he won't get anything done so just let the bull-in-the-Oval Office.
Millennials and independent voters: Donald Trump knows so little, demonstrates such vanity and volatile connection to reality, that you must leave your angst at home. This is no time for magical thinking.
We were young once, too, survived the 2000 election, and say to you sixteen years later: don't, don't go down that road again.