Mike Balogh

First and foremost, I would like to state that I am in no way a Hillary Clinton supporter and I fully understand political vandalism is a crime. I take responsibility and accept the consequences for defacing a Trump-Pence billboard.

But before you dismiss me as a simply a young degenerate who doesn’t know anything about life, allow me to at least explain the context of my action.

I am a white male in my 20s, attending college while working a full-time minimum-wage job. I pay my taxes and have a clean criminal record.

For the last five years of my life, I have been involved in grassroots politics and media. I have held up plenty of protest signs, signed countless petitions and supported political candidates. And yet, many citizens feel as I feel now. We have observed the slow erosion of our democracy through the passing of the Patriot Act, the NDAA, Citizens United, and the overall corporate dominance of government policy. We have seen how financial status and lobbying has outweighed the status of average citizens. The average individual citizen has no real power today — no real voice to be heard.

My generation will be the ones to inherit this mess. My generation must inevitably deal with the increasing threats of economic instability, never-ending war, and severe biosphere changes. For the cognizant youth, their “choice” of Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton is not a choice, and it exemplifies the current disgraceful state of our country. There is no sight of a bright future for us, especially if self-described authoritarian Trump takes control of the most powerful office on the planet. We have no faith left in our government or our leaders. We are collectively disenfranchised. This is why some are compelled to take nonviolent political action, even if it is simply spray painting a message over political propaganda.

“Fascist” and “Corrupt” were written on the Trump banner because that billboard is a symbol of intimidation in our community. That billboard represents the racism and violence experienced by many Hispanics, Muslims, and African-Americans from the white nationalists who support him.

If you think he is some sort of noble, successful businessman with altruistic political intentions, you are tragically misinformed. This man openly calls for his supporters to physically assault people who protest against him. This is a man who admires dictators and says he would knowingly drop bombs on innocent civilians in the Middle East. This man is the morally destitute role model our children will look up to if he becomes our next president. How then, is it surprising that regular citizens are turning to civil disobedience to have their voice heard, given the circumstances?

The words fascist and corrupt were used to illustrate exactly who Donald Trump is. And their intention was to provoke citizens to think deeply about our leaders and where our country is proceeding. The American population is being led astray by wolves in sheep’s clothing, and it is ignorant to believe the conscientious youth will idly sit by as their future continues to look like a bleak, unavoidable dystopia.

I am not advocating others to commit political vandalism. I am relaying the motivations for why it was done so that the public may understand the reasons that precipitate direct political action.