Who do you love?
It’s a heavy time and we’re all feeling it. The escalation of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Netanyahu’s tragic moves in Rafah, devastating landslides in Papua New Guinea. While there are certainly more pressing issues in the world right now, I wanted to take this opportunity to recognize that alongside this global legitimate trauma, the prospect of a dismantled democracy is still very much on the horizon for America.
And so I thought I’d bring us back today to the on-going stakes here at home and what this election is still really about for me: it’s who you love. Let’s get after it.
Who do you love?
We’ve got two starkly different candidates vying for office. And though I don’t know what motivates our choices in the voting booth, I do believe that we all contemplate if these candidates and their policies align with our values, and the impact they’ll have on us, our loved ones, and our communities.
❤️ Think of a woman, any woman that you love.
Your mom, sister, daughter, aunt, friend, colleague. Whether Trump’s “leaves it to the states” or a national abortion ban prevails, women’s reproductive rights will not be theirs to own. Pulling the lever for Trump threatens to relegate any woman you love to second-class citizenship. It’s akin to saying to any woman you love, in the face of rape, accidental pregnancy, fetal abnormalities, life-threatening pregnancies, or the need for IVF or medical abortion, that you believe they shouldn’t have the fundamental right to control their own bodies and lives. Instead, that decision should rest with their state or some distant (likely white and male), disconnected figure.
And so, a vote for Trump is a vote against the basic freedoms, agency, and rights of the women you love. It’s that simple.
❤️ Think of someone you love that is a member of the LGBTQIA+ community.
Your parent, sibling, child, family member, friend, colleague. Pulling the lever for Trump means endorsing policies that will drastically roll back their civil rights. His vision endorses a government that refuses to acknowledge their right to marry who they love, advocates for stripping away gender-affirming care, reinstates the transgender military ban, opposes workplace protections for LGBTQIA individuals, and opposes funding for schools that teach LGBTQIA inclusive curriculum.
And so for the LGBTQIA+ individuals that you love, a vote for Trump will deny their right to be who they are, and love who they choose to love. It’s that simple.
❤️ Think of a child you love that is between the ages of four and eighteen.
Your child, niece, nephew, a cousin, your friend’s kid. Pulling the lever for Trump will significantly alter their public school experience and shape their future. Trump’s plan to abolish the Department of Education means crucial decisions regarding curriculum, teacher training (including arming them with weapons), school security overhaul (fencing/metal detectors), promotion of prayer and religious ideologies, book censorship, vaccination and mask policies, and even a parent’s power to choose school principals, will be handed back to the states to decide.
I’m saddened that our children have grown up bearing the weight of school shootings and learning a sanitized version of history. But, a vote for Trump will expose the children we love to a future where schools resemble military zones, teachers are armed, truthful history is omitted, identities aren’t affirmed, and the boundary between religion and education no longer exists.
❤️ Think of any senior you love over the age of 65.
Maybe they’re getting ready to retire, or already relying on programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid or enrolled in Affordable Care Act insurance plans. These programs have been their safety net, allowing them to envision a more fulfilling retirement. Pulling the lever for Trump puts these programs on the chopping block to fund the national debt.
And so for the seniors in your life, who lack the time or means to recover from potential cuts to entitlements, a vote for Trump threatens their safety net.
❤️ Think of anyone whose family immigrated to this country.
It might even be you, as we’re all descendants of immigrants. Pulling the lever for Trump will set off a “private red-state army” to execute the largest deportation in American history. Immigrants who arrived legally as children under DACA could face deportation. Children born in the U.S. with legal status through Birthright Citizenship might be deported. The muslim ban could be reinstated and expanded.Trump has vowed to use the National Guard and the U.S. military to round up and deport millions of undocumented migrants, rather than offering a path to citizenship for those who have been paying taxes and are contributing members of our society.
Imagine the impact this would have had on your family when they immigrated, and on the 11 million families being threatened today.
❤️ Think of the planet we call home.
The air we breathe, the web of life that sustains us, and the severe shifts in weather patterns, already disrupting the balance of nature. Climate change is no longer a distant threat, it’s a stark reality affecting our health, environment and economy. Pulling the lever for Trump risks a severe and catastrophic setback of U.S. climate policy, undoing progress made under Biden, and fast-tracking projects like gas pipelines and oil drilling while granting hefty tax breaks to fossil fuel barons.
While this may not feel as close to home as the ones we love, in fact, it’s the only thing that matters for all of us.
And the list goes on.
- Think about anyone you love that believes in democratic ideals and global alliances and Trump’s intentions to withdraw from NATO, cozy up to authoritarian regimes and become his own version of a “dictator on day one.”
- Think about anyone you love coping with mental illness and Trump’s plans to reinstate large mental institutions for the severely mentally ill could regress mental health care and further stigmatize those with mental health conditions.
- Think about anyone you love living in an under-served community and Trump’s promise to deploy the National Guard to “tackle high crime” exacerbating tensions rather than alleviating any issues.
- Think about anyone you love who might be vulnerable to petty crime and Trump’s support for legalizing police shootings of shoplifters, raising serious ethical and safety concerns.
- Think about anyone you love who is living paycheck to paycheck and Trump’s plans for tariffs and a trade war with China leading to a spike in inflation, adding financial strain to those struggling to just make ends meet.
- Think about all those you love who don’t make over $800,000 and how Trump’s proposed tax cuts benefitting the top 1% will continue to exacerbate the wealth gap and economic inequality and burden the majority of us (not within the top 1%) with higher taxes to offset the deficit the tax cut brings.
Regardless of whether you belong within any of these groups or how directly these policies affect you, in a democracy, we have the power to shape our own lives as we see fit. How lucky we are. Yet, within our communities, our interconnectedness, our commitment to each other, forms the very fabric of a world where every individual’s autonomy is respected. For me, this is what it means to love — an ethos that transcends boundaries and fosters a society where everyone thrives on the freedom to pursue their own path.
In the coming months, we can expect that the Republicans will continue to try to divert our attention away from what this election is really all about, even misrepresent their intentions around the most controversial of issues (read: abortion). In the end, this election is not just a vote that will determine our nation’s future, but more importantly a belief in the power of community and our vote in solidarity with those we love. Spread the word and we will prevail.
