Decisions

On Undecided Voters: To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. "Can I interest you in the chicken?" she asks. "Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?" 

To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.

— David Sedaris, American humorist 

It's Election Day in America.

The choices have never been more stark.

Rarely, in the history of this nation have the choices been more polar opposites, more obvious.

So, if you're still undecided this morning...

...maybe democracy isn't for you

...seriously, maybe you're just too damn stupid for democracy

...maybe you should be living in a monarchy where government is made up of a hereditary chinless hemophiliac aristocracy and you don't actually have to do anything other than just follow orders like a good little peasant

...or one of those "Democratic Republic of" totalitarian states where you get to vote for whoever the government tells you to vote for and everybody else gets taken out back and shot

...yeah, maybe totalitarianism is more your speed

...maybe you're just a fascist. 

Maybe. 

Because if you're still undecided at this point, you're basically those Germans who pretended they weren't actual Nazis while the ash from the crematoriums fell around them like snow.

The truth of the matter is that you've decided. 

You've decided. 

See, if you're still undecided at this point you've decided on fascism.

If you're still undecided at this point, you've decided that no matter how it shakes out, you'll be okay.

You've decided that you don't give a shit about anybody but yourself. And you? Well, you'll be fine. You're white. You're male. You're straight. You're Christian. You're rich -- or rich enough. You're privileged in some way, in enough ways, that you'll be fine. You're okay. You'll be dead before the bill comes due. It's not you they're coming for. You can afford to be undecided. You can stay home. You can throw your vote away.

You've decided that only profit matters. 

You've decided it's okay for you to pay for the wealthy, and they they shouldn't have to pay their fair share. 

You've decided freedom, liberty, justice, those things are only for those who can afford it.

You've decided you don't give a damn about the poor, the hungry, the sick, the homeless, the disfranchised.  You've decided that those people have it coming. 

You've decided you don't care if American citizens get shot down in the street by militarized police. 

You've decided that you're okay with racism. 

You've decided that seeing the Nazi flag and that of the Confederacy in the streets of America, the very symbols of hate, genocide, and slavery, is something you're comfortable with. 

You've decided that a president who daily lies to your face and calls it patriotism is something you want. 

You've decided you prefer conspiracy theory and hysteria to unpleasant truth and science and reason. 

You've decided that you just don't give a goddamn about the future, about the world you're leaving for your children and mine. If the seas rise and the forests burn and the crops die, you're okay with that. After all, you won't be around to see it and you've decided your profit and your comfort and your politics today are more important to you than a decent future for someone else. 

You've decided that 220,000 dead Americans don't matter. They were just losers anyway. 

You've decided that owning the libs, pissing people off, malice for the sake of malice, is who you are. 

That's you. 

That's who you are. 

You've decided that you want to live in a nation surrounded by walls and barbed wire and machine guns. You've decided that you want to live in a prison of your own making, rather than do one goddamned thing to make the world a better place. 

If you're undecided at this point, you've decided. 

You're just ashamed of your decision and don't have the guts to admit it.

You're not a patriot. 

You're not an idealist. 

You're not standing on principle, because you really don't have any. 

No. You're an arsonist. 

But, see, people die in a fire, and you, you dirty rotten lazy selfish son of bitch, you just want to watch them burn. 

Arson isn't principle, it's terrorism.

And if even if you yourself didn't light the match, if you stand by, undecided, and watch others start the fire, well, you're still a terrorist. 

That's who you've decided to be.

But you can change that. 

You can.

If you truly want a better nation, then you need to be a better citizen. 

Now -- right now -- is that moment. 

You can't blame anyone else. No one but yourself. You have to make your own choices and live every agonizing day with the consequences of those choices.
― Max Brooks, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War