Stop telling trans people they have to vote for anti-trans Democrats. Stop telling them they’ll be responsible for the fall of democracy unless they do.
I’ve been thinking a lot about something @nome.bsky.social posted to Bluesky on Sept. 15: “I do not understand the folks furious at trans people for responding in anguish when the party that they’ve been told would protect them treats their existence as negotiable,” he wrote. “I do not understand thinking trans folks have political power and responsibility where candidates have none.”
In other words, if you’re mad and want to yell at someone, channel your anger toward the campaigns of anti-trans Democrats. Tell them democracy depends on them not being anti-trans.
Interesting to me is the Democrats appear to think that they need to appear anti-trans to appeal to the largest possible demographic. Are that many people really transphobic?
No. Or at least not so much that it determines their vote. But Democratic centrists see a 70% issue as a toss up and fail to understand that the passionately anti-trans voters were never going to vote for them in the first place. The guy who just sort of feels weird about trans women almost certainly has other issues that actually matter to them that they will prioritize above it.
We saw the same thing with gay marriage. Democratic centrists wouldn’t support it until it was basically a forgone conclusion.
It’s really just the traditional centrist Democrat playbook of pandering to the imagined middle. Caving like this doesn’t actually help you win elections. But a good number of Democrats don’t actually believe in anything or care about anything; they’re just in it for power. They’re just chasing polls.
This is also why you shouldn’t believe any transphobic Democrat when they say they’re going to save democracy.
Notice how they never say how they’re going to save democracy? They don’t because actually preventing another Trump will require leaders with a backbone, and these transphobic democrats are spineless cowards. What really needs to be done to save democracy is to vastly rein in the power of the presidency and to dismantle the post-9/11 security state. Those are the actual threats to our Republic.
But look what it’s going to take to actually tear down the surveillance state. You need politicians who will have the courage to stand up and say, “yes, I realize getting rid of these abusive institutions will likely result in some crimes or terrorist attacks occurring that could otherwise be prevented. But frankly, I don’t care. Our freedom and rights are not worth sacrificing for the sake of safety. I am fully willing to see people die if it means protecting our rights. Freedom is worth dying for.”
That’s the only kind of politician that is ever going to save democracy. Simply opposing Trump means nothing. The man’s going to be dead in a few years no matter who wins the next election. What really matters is how you prevent the next Trump. And that requires politicians that strongly believe in rights and are willing to take unpopular actions to defend them.
In other words, it requires the kind of politician that would also be willing to look voters in the eye and tell them, “this trans panic is irrational bigotry. You’re victims of a moral panic. I will not support taking rights away.”
The kind of politician that would compromise on trans rights is simply not one that is capable of saving democracy.