I hate elections in the same way that I hate dining in a cafeteria with lots of options, every single one of them disgusting and overpriced. But I don’t mind taking 30 seconds to fill out a few ovals with a pen. I can’t think of anything I do that’s easier. It’s harder to get back into a website that wants a new password than it is to vote. I’m a little sick, in fact, of hearing from former presidents who launched goddamned wars without the hint of any concepts of any plan but who now demand that I make a “plan” for my voting. Stop spamming me with texts and emails, both of you monstrous gangs of con-artist slimeballs! Please? I voted long ago, by mail. I was done in under 30 seconds. I didn’t vote for either of you. I don’t live in one of the handful of states where it could possibly matter if I did.

But, more so, I hate elections in the way that I hate magical forces that massively drain useful activism of funding and energy while transforming millions of people into, not lesser-evil voters, but evil-is-wonderful believers for the rest of their lives. Sadly, the logic of lesser-evil voting (theoretically followed by uncompromised 100% honest and clear-sighted activism) doesn’t seem to work with most members of homo sapiens — not just because “Do what we want or. . . or . . . or . . . or we’ll vote for you anyway no matter what” is a weak demand, but — more so — because the minute your average person picks a lesser evil candidate, said person begins believing that candidate is good, believing it to in fact be a civic duty to believe said candidate is good and to spread all good news (true or not) about that candidate and mountains of bad news (true or not) about the other candidate. People become the servants of one team of the oligarchs we used to call “public servants.”

However . . . (you knew there was going to be a however, right?) . . . if you’ve read this far and are still reading, if you haven’t already denounced me as working for the foreign government you most love to hate, then I’d like to share a secret with you that I’d prefer you didn’t share with people who can’t think very well. I propose that devoting 30 seconds in a swing state to voting against Donald Trump would be a wise move. I think you should devote countless hours to reforming U.S. elections, abolishing the electoral college, and legal bribery, and gerrymandering, and corporate media control, and the United States Senate. I think you should invest your life in working for peace. I think people surrounding the U.S. Capitol until the weapons stop would be good for the world and the elections. But on the question you care about: yes, I think you should vote against Trump. And even if you don’t, I think you should reject the popular BS about Trump being a peace president.

Trump is not even a tough guy. He likes to insult women, foreigners, immigrants, gay people, black people, handicapped people, principled people, etc., etc. But he campaigned on ending the war on Afghanistan. Then the generals told him not to. And he didn’t. Biden had to do it. He campaigned on cutting military spending and then boosted it. Just like Obama. Just like Biden. He campaigned on revealing secrets about the assassination of John Kennedy. Then the CIA told him not to. And he didn’t. You think he stands up to NATO, but he got NATO members to increase their military spending more than Biden did, even though Biden had the advantage of a war in Ukraine. Obama had refused to send weapons to Ukraine, and Trump started sending them — without which Biden might not have had a war in Ukraine. Trump not only boosted U.S. weapons sales to evil governments around the world but broke the usual decorum by openly bragging about it. Trump would have had Soviet-style weapons parades through DC if he’d been allowed to. You think Trump made friends with Russia, and the stuff about him selling out to Russia is all a load of crap. You’re only right on the second half of that. Trump tore up treaties, made threats, told lies, refused agreements, expelled diplomats, bombed Russians in Syria — with a friend like Trump, Russia doesn’t need enemies; with an enemy like Trump, NATO doesn’t need friends. Trump backed and used military force around the globe, including for coups, and even ATTEMPTED A COUP IN DC. A peace candidate? This guy? Think about how much war depends on bigotry and vice versa, how dependent war is on the acceptability and celebration and glorification of hatred and violence. Trump is the opposite of a peace candidate.

He is not the opposite of Kamala Harris, who is a war and genocide candidate. But Trump says he wants to out-do her. I’m not suggesting that you believe him, exactly. He says everything and its opposite and forgets it all quickly. You couldn’t simply believe him if you tried. But he has a record as president that disqualifies him from any public job. He has a criminal record that allows him only to pretend to work at McDonald’s which would not actually hire him. We all know perfectly well how perfectly hideous Harris will be if left to her own devices. But among those of us who plan not to leave her to her own devices, let’s share an understanding: the precedent of putting a thug like Trump back in for a second round would be among the worst precedents we’ve ever set. Don’t do it.