By Senior Copywriter, D’Anne Witkowski
It’s spooky season. Some of my neighbors have gone all out with Halloween decorations, but no house is more terrifying than the one with the casket-sized Trump sign on the porch. The sign says “Trump Pence” because it’s left over from 2020. “Pence” could easily be turned into “Vance” with just a change of two letters. But maybe that’s too much effort.
During the Lions v Cowboys game, I saw Trump’s new anti-trans campaign ad. It honestly shook me to my core. I still feel sick to my stomach about it. The ad’s tagline is “Kamala’s for they/them. President Trump is for you.” It’s not that I was surprised by the nature of the ad, it’s just that I know how vulnerable transgender people are, especially transgender youth. Republicans want everyone to think that they are monsters. The same for immigrants, migrants, and asylum seekers. “Vote for us and we’ll save you from these monsters” is really all Republicans have to run on. That and tax cuts for the rich.
And yet the race between Vice President Harris and Trump is a toss-up according to most polls. The same is true for a lot of key congressional races. It’s frustrating. It’s disappointing. It’s American politics, baby!
So much scary stuff is happening in the world right now. We’ve got the unconscionable murder of tens of thousands of Palestinians and Israel’s broadening offensive in the region. We’ve got Russia’s continued war on Ukraine. We’ve got hurricanes that just ripped through North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, killing hundreds. A Trump presidency would make all of these issues worse. No doubt he’ll help to accelerate the murder of Palestinians and will stop sending aid to Ukraine to help his buddy Putin. He’s already hampering hurricane relief by spreading lies about FEMA.
Trump’s vile portrayal of migrants is another horror. If elected, he promises mass deportations. And he’s indicated that he isn’t just talking about people who are here illegally.
According to Politico, “[T]he former president has escalated his xenophobic and racist rhetoric against migrants and minority groups he says are genetically predisposed to commit crimes. The supposed threat migrants pose is the core part of the former president’s closing argument, as he promises his base that he’s the one who can save the country from a group of people he calls ‘animals,’ ‘stone cold killers,’ the ‘worst people,’ and the ‘enemy from within.’”
You know who talked like that? Hitler. Seriously. Trump is on some Hitler-level shit right now.
“He is no longer just talking about keeping immigrants out of the country, building a wall, and banning Muslims from entering the United States,” Politico reports. “Trump now warns that migrants have already invaded, destroying the country from inside its borders, which he uses as a means to justify a second-term policy agenda that includes building massive detention camps and conducting mass deportations.”
This is genuinely scary. Especially because Trump has plenty of supporters who would love to volunteer to round up migrants, a.k.a. act out their racist militia fantasies in real life. It is truly hard to wrap my brain around the amount of harm Trump will do to people who are just trying to live their lives and get by like the rest of us.
And then there’s abortion. There are so many horror stories about people who have been unable to get abortions in states that have bans now. Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) recently reported “a wide range of harm occurring among pregnant people in states with abortion bans, including increased morbidity, and complications that could result in serious impairment and risk of death.”
The report notes that longer-term effects could include loss of fertility, chronic pelvic pain due to infection or surgery, or heart attack and stroke related to uncontrolled hypertension, as well as effects on mental health. This has impacted both patients and providers and has deepened the existing inequities in the health care system for people of color.”
It’s truly a nightmare scenario. And we are living in it. If Trump is elected a nationwide abortion ban is a certainty, no matter how he or J.D. Vance try to weasel their way out of giving a straight answer.
Would electing Harris solve all of these problems? No. But she would not seek to intentionally make them worse. We’ve already seen how Trump handles foreign policy. He’s very clearly demonstrated that he isn’t fit to be the Commander in Chief. He will, as always, make decisions based on what’s best for him. Democrats aren’t perfect, but they are the only party with policies that would help the majority of Americans.
Harris wants to help make housing affordable by giving $25K to new home buyers. Trump wants to address the housing crisis with mass deportations. Harris wants to cut tax for middle class families. Trump wants to cut taxes for Elon Musk. Harris wants to make healthcare and prescription drugs more affordable. Trump has a “concept of a plan” for healthcare. And then there’s the fact that a national abortion ban would not happen under Harris. That alone is reason enough to vote for her.
Sadly, we live in a very sexist and racist country. How much have we changed since 2016? I don’t know. We’ll find out in only a couple of weeks.
Love,
The Guerrilla Politic