I think a lot of us can admit that the day Donald Trump lost the election was one of the best and most memorable days of our lives. The skies were blue, “Party in the USA” was blasting. People were dancing in the streets. All of the pain that we felt in the past four years relating to that man was washed over with temporary relief. The sun shone brighter that day. The air felt lighter. We felt like we could finally breathe again. That horrible feeling in the pit of our stomach left us alone for a single day.
It was one of the happiest days that we have had since this pandemic started. However, a lot of people need to realize that just because Trump is being kicked out of office next month, it does not mean that all of our worries are gone. One of the main reasons for this is the fact that this one man single-handedly caused a lot of damage that has drained love and ignited the flames of hatred in people’s hearts. Although he has done that by himself, the repugnance in his own heart has spread to millions of people that support him. In fact, these people not only support him, they idolize him; they see him as some sort of God. However, no God would have that much of an abhorrent and soulless existence.
Trump’s supporters blindly follow everything he does or says. His hatred of people of color, women and the LGBT community has increased so much racism, misogyny, and discrimination in this country, but let’s not act like racism and misogyny, and homophobia did not exist before his presidency. That is not the case at all. For years and years, people of color, women, and the LGBT community have dealt with constant inequality and had to fight for their rights, and this fight is far from over.
In the past few years, we have had the opportunity to learn a lot about President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris. The duo has a few good progressive plans that include increasing COVID testing, building on the Affordable Care Act and distributing vaccines for the pandemic. They plan to add more jobs and raise the minimum wage.
Although they have some positive policies that are quite different from the Trump administration, they also have some other policies that are just not as strong as they could have the potential to be. For example, Biden and Harris do not support defunding the police. They actually support spending even more money on them. They do not support eliminating the corrupt electoral college. They do not support banning fracking. Their stance on gun control is also not as strict as it could be. Especially with Kamala Harris’ background in law, it is hard to believe that the two of them will do as much as they can to hold cops accountable for their actions.
Kamala’s past says a lot about her. Under her leadership, she could have easily let a man out of prison after he served a decade from who they thought was throwing a knife during a fight, which turned out false. He had shown strong evidence of innocence, and yet she did more work to keep him locked up for a crime he did not commit. She also supported aggressive arrests of people who used marijuana while joking she used to smoke marijuana in college. Her hypocrisy has been the main point of criticism for many people.
Joe Biden has also experienced criticism for hypocrisy after originally not supporting abortion. He used to also be against same-sex marriage. On top of that, he also has had sexual assault allegations tied to him. Many can argue that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are stating differing beliefs from their past all for wanting more likability from voters. Many people are scared that the duo’s election beliefs were only temporarily stated to win the presidency. We should continue being scared of that possibility. We already know that most of their beliefs have the ability to be stricter and stronger. The end of Trump’s presidency does not and should not mean the end of activism. We need to keep that in mind in order to avoid performative activism. After everything we have been through this year, we know that we, as people of this country, can do anything when we come together and make a collective noise. Let’s stay together and continue fighting for the equality and justice that we all deserve.