Linda Rawles

I had to cancel going to the Women’s March with a dear friend. This is my message to her.

Dearest Friend: I can’t go to the march on Saturday. I so wanted to go, ever since I bought my plane ticket for the big one in Washington a few days after Donald Trump won. This was just a few weeks after he announced that he could grab my private parts without my permission, because he is wealthy.

Even though I recently broke my leg and couldn’t travel to D.C., you know I consoled myself with going to the one here in Phoenix. I would “march” on my scooter, or if I had to I would crawl, dragging my destroyed ankle in the process. It was so exciting to join others across the country in a mass repudiation of bragging about sexual assault, making fun of the disabled, deporting millions, and being generally deplorable. Other than continuing to rant on Facebook, I have not known what to do. This was my chance! And to do it with you and other women I love!

But now I have read the platform from the organizers. I didn’t even know there was such a thing until a fellow libertarian texted me a copy. My heart sank. I have seen the country dissolve into a false choice for quite a while. You and I, while not always agreeing, have discussed that we want a different choice rather than the socialism of Bernie Sanders or the fascism of Trump. We and our friends still believe in a mostly free market and the American Dream, even while we decry the loss of civil liberties, police brutality and the demonizing of the “other” who is not like us.

I know you are disappointed in my decision, but no more than I am disappointed in the organizers for turning it into an event beyond one focused on women’s rights and outrage at Trump for being a sexist xenophobe. You might even be mad at me, but no angrier than I am at the organizers for making this into a socialist protest for wealth redistribution, regulation of business and other economic goals that were promoted by Sanders and rejected by America.

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Do they really want to narrow the concerned opposition in the face of impending constitutional crises over Russian intrigue and hidden conflicts of interest? Can’t we who are so very concerned about juvenile tweets and unstable narcissism believe in freedom of contract, property rights and economic as well as personal liberties? I am so confused and sad.

Years ago, I was raped. You probably don’t know that. I don’t tell many people. I also miscarried a baby at the hospital, alone, when the nurses wouldn’t help me once they found out the father was black. I grew up poor in Trump country — Indiana. I was a single mother, struggled through school to become a lawyer, and now watch in horror as women continue to support this brute. I recognize a sexual predator and a sexist, and there is one about to enter the White House. I hate it.

Why couldn’t I march about that in solidarity with the others who have had it tough, without rejecting a system that allowed me to work my way out of it? I wanted to march for human dignity. For civility and kindness. For opportunity and hope. Why couldn’t I drag my broken ankle down the street for freedom, instead of for a universally failed economic system?

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This platform means I would be marching for the contradiction of wanting to welcome all to American opportunity and equal rights, while at the same time promoting the confused progressive agenda and the further death of what is good — yes, good! — about capitalism. I don’t believe in corporate welfare, but I own two businesses and am proud of making honest money.

I could go on, but I won’t. Godspeed to you this Saturday. I wish I could be there. You have no idea how much, for I am afraid we are spiraling into a left-right boomerang that meets in an authoritarian society. Then, there will be no marching.

Linda Rawles, a libertarian who believes in animal and environmental rights, is a higher-education regulatory lawyer by day and runs her wine pub by night. If Trump is not impeached, she may move to Costa Rica. Follow her on Twitter @RawlesLinda

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