It's two days until the election. I find myself regretful because I just...feel like there was more I should have done. More videos I could have made, more essays I could have written. I had an idea for an op-ed that I've started but...well, I'm pretty sure news outlets like the op-eds to be submitted when they're actually timely. I wonder if I should have done more canvassing or phone banking.
I wonder if I've done enough, because I need Kamala Harris to win this election on Tuesday.
If you've been watching my social media, you've seen me share and Retweet/Repost a lot of things. You have seen multiple videos from me talking about the candidates. Maybe some of it is distraction because there are moments when I am not sure my mental health isn't going to take a huge hit with a Trump presidency.
I can see the eye roll now from my Trump supporter Facebook friends. The skepticism that Trump will affect me that much, or maybe a mockery of the fact that I am in my feelings about this.
But the fact remains that this election is far and away the most important of my lifetime, a situation which has occurred with each subsequent election since 2004. Maybe even before that, but I had the privilege of not paying attention to politics prior to the 2008 election. Since 2016, the stakes have only gotten higher, and 2016-2020 were, in all honesty, some of the worst years America has faced in the modern era. The idea of going to Trump-era politics again, with even worse people, SCOTUS justices, and ideas coming in, for another four years seems oppressive.
As I sit here, with my glass of Madam Bourbon from Republic Restoratives (this isn't an ad, I just like the bourbon and the bottle it comes in), I think back to a conversation where a friend from high school reached out and asked me why I am voting for Harris/Walz.
It's because I want a president who will lead us into the future without destroying it. I want a president where I don't have to wake up every day wondering what the hell he's going to gut, undermine, screw up, or take away next.
I want a president whose policies (when reviewed by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy) do NOT:
Give most of the tax cuts to the richest 20% in America (from which, despite my privilege, I sit FAR away, as do all of my friends and colleagues)
Give more tax cuts to corporations (who, despite what SCOTUS and Hobby Lobby say, are not people) instead of limiting their greed and their artificially high prices (rather than blame inflation which is actually falling).
I mean, the man has lied about his finances for so long...in fact, I saw that his rally in Albuquerque got cancelled because he literally still owes them all of the money from his previous rallies there - this is the guy people think has good economic policies?).
I want a president who doesn't feel like he has to lie to make himself the biggest or best in the room even when it's easily proven that he was deeply flawed. Economists reviewed:
Economic growth was similar between Obama, Trump, and Biden (thanks, Katryn Bury, for the graphics, and for pointing out that the peak in this graph is just after Biden won the presidency), and Trump's presidency ended DOWN 3.1 million jobs
Biden's job growth was much faster.
Some of that is the pandemic's peak and slowing, respectively, but also probably due to Trump's mismanaged leadership during the peak pandemic.
Trump also misunderstands tariffs and hopes his followers will do the same.
I want a president who respects people of other cultures, instead of leading his supporters to deliberately mispronounce his opponent's name (and you know it's deliberate because they start off saying her name correctly and then repeat it incorrectly like the stupidest attempt at bullying). And you may say that it's just a name, but I think even Donald Trump will tell you that in any interaction, calling someone by the right name is important for respect. I know so many Republicans who want to be respected, so why vote for a candidate who doesn't exemplify that?
I want a president who doesn't threaten to shut down or defund schools who teach what actually happened with slavery or who teach about the oppression of non-white people in this country.
I want a president who
doesn't want to just "get over" school shootings instead of doing something to stop them (which is still possible even while respecting what the Second Amendment actually means instead of an insurrectionist fantasy)
doesn't literally threaten to kill people who disagree with him.
Doesn't incite his followers to riot and commit treason, targeting his opponents in their workplace, if he loses.
Agrees to the results of a fair and free election regardless of the result, instead of telling his followers to already assume things are rigged if he loses.
I want a president who will strengthen the Affordable Care Act's strengths and improve its weaknesses (and maybe even take steps toward single-payer healthcare) instead of just dismantling and going back to the days where insurance companies could screw you over on the basis of a preexisting condition.
I want a president who doesn't celebrate grabbing women by the pussy and then taking away their right to choose what happens to their body after the grabbing. I want a president who respects bodily autonomy and medical privacy.
I want a president who follows real science, not influencers and grifters, not conspiracy theorists who killed children in Samoa and want to bring that policy to the entire United States. I want a president who pretends to tout medical freedom while literally taking choices away from people who want to be healthy, and uses disproven methods in the name of "healthcare" but which will actually cause harm. And I want a president who doesn't need to lie (poorly) about their health.
I want a patient who lets my LGBTQIA+ brethren live their lives, instead of stoking transphobia and homophobia (including targeting Obergefell and gay marriage next).
I want a president who does not call Mexicans rapists, but refers to racist Proud Boys and incels as "very fine people", who stokes racism in his followers so powerfully that I have multiple Facebook friends who assume that everyone in Mexico and South America is a "gangbanger" and every immigrant from Europe is a doctor or an engineer, or that "that Chinese virus" was deliberately brought over here to target Americans or control people and so turned their hatred on Asian Americans.
I want a president who doesn't mock disabled people while claiming to love Christians (seriously the most un-Christian president we have ever had) and threaten to "fix" things so there won't be any more elections if he wins (after he expressed love for dictators - which undermines any confidence in him standing up to them in foreign relations - and a desire to be one). Damn, I legitimately fear for our national security if Trump wins.
Okay, so I want a president who doesn't make me fear for our national security. I definitely don’t want a president with 91 felonies domestically.
I want a president who doesn't wish Biden would "stop holding [Benjamin Netanyahu] back" and encourages Bibi's genocidal aims, while also being known for antisemitism and putting a target on Jewish people as a point of blame if he loses.
I reiterate: I want a president who doesn't pretend to be about freedom while restricting everyone's but his own, and I definitely don't want that guy picking the next Supreme Court justices to make the restrictions happen.
This is long, but every one of these is important. If you've read this far down, I appreciate it. For all these reasons and so many more, I will vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, because my sanity and the sanity of the United States of America depends on it.
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