Head to the polls, your very lives may be at stake

Americans recently experienced a trio of tragedies that once would have been unimaginable. After failing to gain entry to a black church, a white man in Kentucky shot to death two African Americans at a Kroger’s store. A man living in our own South Florida backyard terrorized the nation for several days by sending mail bombs to CNN, a former president and other prominent Democrats, all of whom President Trump has criticized. A white supremacist went to a Pittsburgh synagogue, where he shot and killed 11 people and wounded six others.

I long ago abandoned any hope or expectation that Trump would become the leader that our nation needs. Still, I am saddened by how he and other top Republicans continue to ignore how the vitriol in his speeches, tweets and deeds contribute to a growing wave of hate taking hold across America.

Trump did not build the bombs or load the shooters’ guns, but it’s not a stretch to believe that the rhetoric that comes out of the White House on a near-daily basis may have armed them with the confidence they needed to threaten and take others’ lives. The hate that led these men to commit such heinous acts likely began brewing long before Trump’s entry onto the national political stage, but as is evident by the images plastered on the bomb builder’s van, his words can have dire consequences.

It is no coincidence that, with the Republican-majority U.S. House and potentially the Senate at risk, Trump has fired with all rhetorical guns blazing. Recently, he declared himself a “nationalist,” a racially coded term that former KKK leader David Duke enthusiastically applauded the president for using. Thousands of active-duty soldiers have been sent to the southern border to form a human wall to fend off a caravan of migrants who are months and thousands of miles away from anywhere near the United States. This Willie Horton tactic is being accompanied by a chorus of conservatives who are accusing these desperate people of being a Trojan horse for Middle Easterners and gang bangers and spreading plagues that no longer exist.

Mid-term elections are typically low-turnout affairs. Without the pageantry of a presidential campaign, people tend to forget what’s at stake. There is more at stake this year than there has been in a very long time. Democrats have a fighting chance to regain control of Congress’ lower chamber, which will give voters a fighting chance to continue having access to affordable healthcare and to have lawmakers who will not take from the poor to give to the rich and put politics above humanity.

In addition, several governors and mayors are on the ballot, as well as other key office holders, such as state legislators, city councilors, school board members and a host of other candidates whose decisions impact our daily lives in more ways and more significantly than many voters realize.

Interestingly, although there are 36 gubernatorial contests this year, Trump is obsessed with only one — the race between Andrew Gillum and Ron DeSantis. After spending the past two years trying to erase President Obama’s legacy, he is working overtime to try to make sure that Gillum, who like Obama has captured the nation’s attention, doesn’t build one here in Florida, by using every opportunity to libel or slander him in sometimes overtly racist ways. And because whenever possible the president finds a way to make everything about him, he wants DeSantis, the man who has not offered any plans about how he would address Florida’s needs, to be governor of this key swing state when he wages his 2020 re-election bid — a task that will be much more difficult if Gillum is elected.

The good news is that Floridians are smarter than he thinks we are and will not be fooled by racist and underhanded tactics. I urge everyone who has not yet voted early in person or by mail to head to the polls on Tuesday. Vote like your life depends on it because, based on the outcome, for some it very well may.

U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Democrat, represents Florida’s 24th District.