Our choice this year is of huge consequence. It may not be the choice we'd like to make, but think of it like an episode of The Walking Dead. We are faced with a scenario a sadistic 14-year-old boy would think up: we can commit to cutting off our own son's arm, OR THE ENTIRE GROUP DIES. Sure, we could go with a third option, which would be like Rick standing up and running as fast as possible through the forest. We could do that, but what about the rest of the group still left facing Negan? What about CAAARL?!
Hillary Clinton is cutting off Carl's arm.
It's not something most of us want to do (depending on how much we like Carl), but for the greater good of the group, we must. Now I know there are people who genuinely like Hillary, but I'm speaking here to what I am: Bernie people, and also Republicans who can't stomach Trump. Also Floridians. Especially Floridians. Hello.
Now, I am sick to death of the rigged political system too, and it is definitely rigged. I'm not suggesting the vote itself is rigged because there's no evidence for that, but how our candidates are chosen through the primary system, super delegates, the bipartisan debate commission, pre-selected audiences, pre-selected questions, gerrymandering, collusion with the media and plenty of other baked-in-the-cake institutions that lead us to candidates no one really likes, is f**ked! Pardon my language, but it's infuriating.
That said, there's a really important issue that we've been ignoring this entire time. Trump stated in the Republican primary debates (I watched all of them) that global warming is a hoax invented by the Chinese. My gut reaction is to say that Trump is a hoax invented by Dada artists in the '20s who sent him here in a time machine to future-troll us for the sheer sake of absurdity, but alas climate change is real and so is Trump.
To some extent, I am a single issue voter. If we don't have a clean planet with healthy ecosystems to live on and feed from, all other issues are moot. This is the reason I started my California on Fire project. My aim is to show one effect of a warming planet that is happening right now in the form of increasingly unprecedented fire seasons. You can also see the effects on other weather events such as extreme flooding, hundred year storms happening every year, droughts, hurricanes, etc.
The good news is 70% of the US now believes climate change is real and caused by people. Only 26% of Republicans do NOT believe climate change is real. Despite this encouraging progress, climate change didn't even get a single question in the presidential debates, which brings us to our current election choices.
Trump has quietly rolled out a plan (yes, they exist) to end ALL federal clean energy programs and privatize all roads! Endless toll roads, dirty air, dirty water, and accelerated climate change would be the result of a Trump presidency. To say that it would be disastrous doesn't quite cut it (heh), because we are at a fulcrum in the fight against climate change. For the first time in history, the Paris Climate Agreement unites 195 countries across the globe in the fight against climate change. Trump has said he would cancel that agreement.
To me the choice couldn't be more clear: cut off Carl's arm, America. We can get through this. Together.*
*[spoiler] Except Glenn, and the red-haired guy whose name I already forgot.