To the editor: While I appreciate any argument against voting for Donald Trump as someone who could one day bring world peace, columnist Robin Abcarian the assumption that voting for a third-party candidate is simply “against Kamala Harris” is wrong about the state of our country and the world.
It is insulting to assume that voting for the status quo that Democrats (and non-Trump Republicans) represent is what any logical, peace-loving person would do.
It ignores the fact that there has been a bipartisan effort since World War II to impose “free market capitalism” on our lives, either at gunpoint or with the threat of impoverishment. if we do not participate in the globalized market economy system. deregulated environmental and economic exploitation and competition.
For hundreds of millions of people around the world, freedom is about more than defeating those who threaten reproductive rights and the mass deportation of immigrants. These are meaningful social safety nets, real environmental protections, and an end to American economic and military imperialism.
Gaza was destroyed under a Democratic president, and yet are we to believe that a vote for Harris will save it? Promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are ineffective and should we believe that our grandchildren will not suffer immensely from climate change?
Matthew Neel, Sherman Oaks
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To the editor: Abcarian’s pitch to voters outraged by US-backed abuses against Palestinians boils down to this: Things are bad for you under President Biden (but not for the rest of us), things will stay bad for you under Harris (but not for the rest of the world). we), we think things will be worse for you under Trump (and probably for the rest of us too), so kindly, keep us all comfortable and don’t vote your conscience.
In fact, Abcarian tells us that we and our concerns do not matter enough to justify defined policies aimed at ending U.S.-funded Israeli war crimes. I hope, for her sake and for others equally comfortable with empty arguments, that Democrats will motivate many more voters to join them – because this reasoning doesn’t move us.
Nadir Elfarra, Los Angeles
