Election day is rapidly approaching, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t stressed about it. To me, the choice of who to vote for is obvious. Putting the fact that I’m a very liberal Democrat aside, I already know how terrible Trump is as president (and even when he’s not president, but I won’t get into that). He not only completely disregards issues relating to women, people of color, and those in the LGBTQ+ community, but actively proposes policies that work against them. This is a man who wants to destroy our democracy, and I won’t listen to anyone who says otherwise. The January 6th attack on the Capitol in 2021 was enough evidence for me.
I’ll admit, I wasn’t super fond of the idea of Biden running for president again, primarily due to his age. In the first debate against Trump for this election, Biden showed signs of a potential neurological disorder. He lost focus often, stopped in the middle of his sentences, and showed a lack of facial expression. This was very concerning to me. I was putting all my hope of beating Trump into a man who could potentially not be medically well enough to be president.
When Biden stepped down and Kamala stepped up, I felt the first glimmer of hope. But that hope quickly dissipated when I remembered that our country has never picked a woman as a president before, and I’m not confident this will change with the upcoming election.
It was a hard pill for me to swallow back in 2016 when Hillary Clinton lost to Trump, despite her being more professional and fit to be president. We had a woman who had a vision for our country and a plan. Hillary Clinton wanted to make a fairer tax system where the wealthy pay up, she wanted to combat climate change by using more renewable energy, and she hoped to end gun violence, to name a few of her policies. Trump, on the other end, wanted to build a wall.
I want to be hopeful that things will be different this time. With a woman as president, there would be a better chance of women’s issues being addressed. My wish is for Roe v Wade to be reestablished and for all women to have equal access to abortion. In addition to this, ensuring that women have free access to birth control is also very important to me.
I’m sure most people are aware of Trump’s dislike of the Affordable Care Act, which ensures that women have affordable access to birth control, maternity care, and more. Another four years with him as president would risk removing the Affordable Care Act and would mean the establishment of Project 2025 — a project that would urge the government to reject abortion and remove coverage of birth control. This would mean that women who are raped will be forced to give birth. In addition to this, birth control would no longer be available to those who want to prevent unwanted pregnancy.. And women who take it for menstrual pain and conditions such as endometriosis will no longer be able to access these treatments.
Other issues at the forefront of my mind are student loan forgiveness and increasing equity within the tax system. Whereas Trump cares about ensuring big corporations stay rich, the Biden-Harris administration has been working to forgive billions for student loans. And whereas Trump makes it so that rich corporations pay little taxes, Harris wants the corporations to pay up. She wants to increase the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%, in hopes of providing some tax relief to the lower and middle classes. As a student and someone who comes from a middle class family, I want a president like Kamala Harris who will care for people and families like mine, not just the wealthy one percent.
With all of this in mind, it’s probably already obvious that I’m voting for Kamala Harris come Nov. 5. I want someone who fights for the people to be president, not someone who predominantly fights for the white, heterosexual, male upper class. I really hope that everyone — especially Gen Z — exercise their right to vote. I’ve seen quite a few people say that they don’t want to vote because they don’t like either option. Please don’t have this mindset. We have to vote for the better option, and it couldn’t be more clear to me that the better option is Kamala Harris.
