This letter is a plea to the young – and the not-so-young – who are tempted to sit out the November presidential election out of anger and frustration at the Biden administration’s failure to do more to leverage a cease-fire (at least) in Israel’s brutal attack on Gaza.

Please don’t.

Instead, please consider the real-life catastrophic consequences of a Trump win. I understand and sympathize with voters’ outrage. I, myself, though Jewish, have protested and written to our congressional delegation urging the president to exert more pressure – including stopping military support – to end the war. But voters must remember that Trump is no friend to Palestinians. It’s he who recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2017 and cut off contact with the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, when Abbas objected. Moreover, when he was in office, Trump was close friends with Israel’s right-wing prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Please know that not voting will only accomplish one thing: It will help elect Donald Trump, who has overtly threatened to abandon the rule of law, overturn our constitutional democracy and jail dissidents. While I am not an uncritical Biden cheerleader, I urge people to look at his domestic successes in job growth and his historic expansion in green energy investments, not to mention his unqualified support for reproductive freedom.

Please understand that this is essentially a binary choice, since RFK Jr. has no chance to win. A protest “no” vote is, effectively, as good as a MAGA endorsement.

Eve Raimon
South Portland

Copy the Story Link

« Previous

Letter: Sportsmanship reigned at Class AA basketball final

Next »

Letter: Article on school bonds didn’t tell full story