As November quickly approaches, a sense of fear has instilled itself within me. Normally, a presidential election would be the least of my worries, but as former president Donald Trump resumes his campaign, I find myself worried beyond belief.
According to an article by Vanity Fair, “Donald Trump, former president of the United States, struggles to tell the truth, and that when we say that he struggles we mean every time he opens his mouth, dozens of lies fly out like the monkeys in The Wizard of Oz.” He is also a convicted felon after being found guilty on 34 accounts of falsification of business records in the first degree. How a convicted felon can run for the most important position in our nation is beyond me. What I find even more alarming, though, are his ties to Project 2025, a far right-wing, conservative plan to “make America great again.”
Project 2025 includes plans to restrict access to reproductive care for women, dismantling the Department of Education, restricting LGBTQ+ rights (although nothing is listed in the plan about outlawing gay marriage), removing all climate related plans and returning to the use of fossil fuels, granting the president of the United States most governing power (similar to a dictatorship) and so many more alarming initiatives all compiled into a 900-page document.
As a woman, I fear for my well-being and access to basic healthcare. As a bisexual, I fear for my ability to marry the love of my life if that person just so happens to be a woman. As a student, I fear for my future education and whether the important events of U.S. history will be cut out of textbooks so that we are doomed to repeat ourselves. As a child of teachers, I fear for my parents’ well-being and financial situations. As a part of the younger generation, I fear that I will live to see the next mass extinction event because we are killing our planet. As a citizen of the United States, I fear that we are moving more towards 1940s Germany each day.
What is even more frightening is that all of my fears are steps away from becoming my new reality. Every day that visa to Canada or that dual citizenship in Luxembourg is looking better and better.
There is only one way to avoid this dystopian future, and that is action. I have no control over who is elected to office because I will not be of voting age, but some of you readers have that opportunity. So I urge you to vote. Even if Vice President Kamala Harris isn’t your first choice, she is better than a man who has been compared to Hitler and who takes that comparison in pride.
As Vice President Kamala Harris said in a recent speech that is now going viral, “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.”
We must use that context so that we are not doomed to repeat the same mistakes as those who came before us. We must vote.