10/01/2020
Alyse Kaminski | Staff Columnist
America is less than 50 days away from the election, which is terrifying. It has obviously been an interesting four years to put it lightly, and I am personally ready to live in an America where Donald Trump is no longer president.
If you think anything like me, you’re probably disappointed that Joe Biden is the Democratic nominee.
So many young people wanted a more progressive candidate, like Sen. Bernie Sanders, to go up against President Trump; but alas, as I read and learned in Dr. Coopie’s Political Parties and Interest Groups course, “The party decides.”
I beg you, if you are on the fence, vote for Joe Biden. Voting for Kanye West or Jo Jorgensen, for example, is a waste of a vote. It is that simple. You might as well either not vote at all, or vote for Trump if you are going to vote for anyone who is not Biden.
You may be thinking, “but I want to vote my conscience.” I totally understand. I respect what it means to have the right to vote how you please.
However, our country has been so polarized by President Trump, that you either need to vote one way or the other. There is no middle-ground right now.
While we are being failed by our government’s bipartisan system, this is not the election to spearhead a third-party movement. There is so much on the line for so many people. Transgender rights, fair housing, the climate and so much more are issues that need to be addressed in the next four years, and Trump cannot be the leader addressing these issues.
He’s had four years to prove himself worthy of being the President of the United States. Instead, we received a pandemic with no end in sight and a culture where being politically incorrect is in vogue.
I am personally seeing a lot of this uncertainty of who to vote for from straight, white males. If you fall into this category, please read this carefully — you are only unsure because Trump has never attacked an aspect of your identity.
As a woman, I am fearful for the next four years because we live in a country run by a man who said he would date his daughter and grab women without their consent.
I am worried that Planned Parenthood will be defunded, as Trump has recently written about doing. I am worried about what another four years of Trump in the Oval Office will do to our strong culture of being scared of powerful women.
And that’s not even the worst of it. I acknowledge my privilege as a white woman. I know that if I were of a different race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or socioeconomic status, I would be much more nervous about this election.
Please let Trump’s response to the recent Black Lives Matter protests remind you of his thoughts and feelings on Black people. He literally said, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts,” and don’t try to twist this. He meant it the same way Police Chief Walter E. Headley meant it during the race riots of 1967.
This election will be written about in history books. Our future children and grandchildren will ask us about this one and say, “Which side were you on?” Do you really want to say that you cast a vote that in the long-run, did not matter?
If you vote for a third-party candidate, you are actively allowing Trump to continue being the president. If you don’t like Trump, you need to settle for Biden — especially if you claim to care about the minority groups and environment around you.
