Opinion | Politics

Charles Trimble: Tribal nations must join together for Hillary Clinton

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Charles "Chuck" Trimble. Courtesy photo

Your choice is Hillary or Trump, Period!!!
By Charles "Chuck" Trimble
CharlesTrimble.Com

I am increasingly concerned, even fearful, of what is going on in the national Presidential election, with the totally irrationally-insane and venomous stuff spewing out of the vile mouth of Donald Trump and the lynch mobs that show up at his rallies.

And the full-front attack against Hillary Clinton in three best-selling books by assassin authors, a movie (Hillary’s America), and slogans (“Lock her up,” and “Crooked Hillary,” etc.), show a coordinated radical war against the prospect of the first woman President in U.S. History. And the not-so-veiled threats in the form of predictions, such as Trump confidante Roger Stone had made on a radio talk show predicting that a Clinton victory would spur a "constitutional crisis," widespread "civil disobedience" and even a "bloodbath." These “predictions” are self-fulfilling signals to the likes of the gun-wielding Yahoos beholden to the NRA.

I expressed reservations about Hillary Clinton in a piece I wrote in March justifying my support for Bernie Sanders: “My biggest doubt about Hillary is that she and Bill seem to believe that they are not bound by any laws except maybe gravity, although they may yet challenge that too. I don’t want a Democratic presidency bound up by lawsuits and investigations through four or eight years because of her obvious sense of immunity and her carelessness. But there is no one in the GOP lineup that I would vote for, and I wouldn’t sit out an election and not vote, so Hillary will have my vote if she is the candidate.”

I had high hopes that Bernie Sanders would secure the Democratic nomination, but by mid-campaign it was clear that such was not to be, and I only hoped that Bernie would concede honorably and graciously, which he did. I also hoped that he would urge the multitude of idealistic, charged-up followers of his to vote Democrat, which he did also.

And finally I hoped that those followers would heed his urging and ensure a Democratic White House, a Democratic led Congress, and a Supreme Court to retain hard-earned Constitutional human and civil rights protection. But this has not been the case so far: Many have made their disappointment and displeasure boisterously known at an otherwise unifying convention, and many are still demonstrating against Hillary Clinton in her early post-convention campaign appearances.

But out of love for country and tribal nations, and fear as to what could happen to the United States and, consequentially to an increasingly fragile social and economic world order if Trump should win, I would hope that the Bernie-or-Bust holdouts will vote for Hillary Clinton. The race is between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump -- Decency and Evil. A disillusioned Democrat trying to make a statement by not voting or by voting for the Libertarian or Green candidates, is in fact voting for Donald Trump.

Charles Trimble, Oglala Lakota, was born and raised on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, and was principal founder of the American Indian Press Association in 1969 and served as its Executive Director to 1972 when he was elected Executive Director of the National Congress of American Indians. His website is charlestrimble.com and he can be reached at cchuktrim@aol.com.