My father woke me up on Nov. 8, 2016 with triumphant excitement. Donald Trump had secured the electoral vote against Hillary Clinton and won despite losing the popular vote. I was just as excited as my dad, and we cheered together, happy that our country was finally getting a president who knew how to run things. The country is just a giant business, right? My father drove me to school that day, providing me with talking points to counter any liberal arguments I might hear. I arrived at school to a gloomy atmosphere. I was only in middle school, but the immense sadness in the air was palpable. However, I didn’t care. 

We had won! The tables had turned in the right direction for us conservatives. I was one of the only people who walked into school smiling that day. I witnessed the sorrow on the faces of my friends, my peers and even my teachers, but instead of feeling bad for them, I only wanted to rub it in their faces. I was cruel, and it’s a shame I carry to this day. I saw my friends cry because they knew what this election was about to set in motion. The election results meant people in minority communities were going to start to have their rights slowly stripped from them. Immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, homeless people, Black people, Hispanic and Latino people and even women knew this was the start of something horrible against them.

I was a very ignorant person; I couldn’t see these issues and didn’t really think about how these decisions affected people. I went around calling liberals snowflakes and repeating despicable things to anyone who would listen. I was a malicious, ignorant and deeply unhappy person. 

On Nov. 6, 2024, I woke up from an amazing dream. In my dream, Kamala Harris was elected the 47th president of the United States, becoming not only the first female president but also the first Black female president. It was incredibly vivid, and when I woke up, I almost believed it was real. I opened Google and typed into the search bar, “Who won the 2024 election?” and my heart immediately sank. And I sobbed. I felt a deep and insurmountable sadness that settled heavily throughout my entire body. 

I am ‌a genderqueer lesbian. Republicans will whine about me just being a blue-haired liberal barista. However, I do not have blue hair, I have never been a barista and I am not a liberal. Don’t forget that I started as a Trump supporter. I took the time and effort required to understand my mistakes. I began to see the things glaring at me straight in my face. History was — and is — repeating itself. 

This has happened before: an active genocide and manhunt against minority communities. Our society is becoming very reminiscent of 1920s and ‘30s Germany. I am not being dramatic. During World War II, things still operated relatively normally in the U.S., but there was a mass genocide happening right in front of us. I am pleading with you to read, watch the news, and stop getting your information from biased sources, which include Fox News, CNN, and Facebook. Fascists are walking among us, and they are becoming louder every day.

I understand you may have supported and voted for Trump in the 2016 election; it is somewhat understandable. You wanted a change in leadership, even if that meant a man who proudly talked about grabbing women’s genitalia and had declared bankruptcy six times. At that time, ‌he seemed like a promising candidate for Republicans. However, continuing to support him after the 2016 election is morally despicable. Trump is anti-American, and supporting him is anti-American. He does not stand for American or Christian values as he claims he does. Being a patriot of your country is being able to criticize your politicians and demand reasonable action when injustices occur. 

To be a Christian is to love thy neighbor; Zechariah 7:9-10 states, “Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.” These are ideals I live by, even as someone who doesn’t practice organized religion. 

Our country was founded on the backs of immigrants. We were the original immigrants. We colonized and stole this land from the Native Americans, who had “discovered” the Americas long before Christopher Columbus did. The U.S. is supposed to be a melting pot; we should be proud of everyone who wants to come to “the greatest country in the world” for a better life. Our fundamental, inalienable rights are “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” for everyone in the U.S., and no one should be denied that. Even people living in the U.S. without legal permission have constitutional rights. They deserve the right to live, work and contribute to U.S. society, just as everybody else does.

Immigration reform may just be the thing to solve a lot of the growing issues in the U.S., such as the economy, the age dependency ratio and the declining birthrate. Immigrants help drive the workforce, provide a more manageable transition from old to young working-age individuals, have a positive net fiscal effect and have a higher fertility rate. In 2017, the total fertility rate of U.S.-born individuals was 1.76 children per woman, whereas with immigrants it was 2.18 per woman. It is proven that there are positive demographic gains from immigration and reform to its system, so why do we continue to hate immigrants? It is wrong to kidnap working people from their places of employment or people waiting at the courthouse applying for their citizenship because it was never about them coming here illegally or them not contributing to our economy — it’s just blatant racism.

Being a Trump supporter is one of my biggest shames, but it is also a moment that I am proud to have risen against. I do not lie about my past. I let people know who I used to support, but I also explain that I was young and have taken steps to better educate myself. 

A lot of us hear from our conservative parents, “it’s just a phase” or “you’ll become more conservative with age” or “you’ll change your mind when you have to pay taxes.” Perhaps, if you’re lucky, you have heard all three. Personally, I know I will never support a party that is anti-immigrant, anti-gay rights, anti-trans rights, anti-people with disabilities and anti-women. I will never stand with a group that strips humans of their basic fundamental rights. 

Was I really ever a true Trump supporter? Probably not. I was a puppet who mimicked everything my conservative father — whom I craved validation from — told me. Still, this doesn’t excuse the disgusting views I upheld and the horrible things I said to people when I was young and naive. Unfortunately, this is a common occurrence for children raised by conservative parents. It is hard watching my parents vote against my human rights. I have tried reasoning with them and explaining the severity of their vote. I confided in my mother about my fears of the Trump administration, pleading with her as her queer and genderqueer child to please do her research and think about how this will affect the ones she loves. After the election, when I asked her who she voted for, she claimed she didn’t vote. This was a lie. I had checked her voter registration. The words unsaid spoke loud enough; her lying meant she was trying to spare my feelings. That was all the confirmation I needed. My parents love me, but not enough to put aside their own interests or educate themselves more about the policies Trump was running on. I love my parents with all my heart, but I can never truly forgive them for this.

Denying people healthcare is inhumane, having homeless people but people-less homes is inhumane, and kidnapping people and sticking them in concentration camps is inhumane. Families in America are starving, students are losing their federal aid, disability benefits are being cut, women are losing the right to their body autonomy, children are dying every day in school shootings, Medicare and Medicaid benefits are ending and marriage equality was recently on the chopping block. Republicans, do you think you are going to be immune to these changes? If you are a part of any minority community, including being a woman, basic human rights will slowly be stolen from you. And this is a country we’re supposed to be proud of?

You may still be asking, “What changed for you from 2016 to 2024?” I grew by listening to the experiences of my friends and peers. I read more about the experiences of other people affected by the Trump administration. I became educated and worked toward becoming less ignorant. I got in touch with my humanity. I remember listening to my friend voice her concerns about the new administration and what it meant for her parents, who were here without legal permission. There was a real possibility that they could get deported, and she feared for them and herself. This was my first radicalizing moment.

That being said, it is not the responsibility of Black people to explain racism, queer people to explain homophobia, people with disabilities to explain ableism or people of Muslim faith to explain Islamophobia. White people, especially, need to take the initiative to educate themselves. It is not up to minorities to teach you empathy and compassion for others; you should just be empathetic and compassionate. Learn to sit back, be quiet and listen to other experiences outside of your own. If we had listened in the first place, maybe things could have been different. We warned people repeatedly about what was going to happen if Trump were elected a second time, given the scope of the damage he committed during his first term. You didn’t listen to the canary, and now the coal mine is exploding. 

Yes, I was a Trump supporter. However, I made the effort to better myself and my way of thinking. I educated myself, and Trump himself said, “Smart people don’t like me.” This country is completely divided by the facade of Republican versus Democrat. Understand that it was never about that; it has always been rich versus poor. George Washington, our first president and a founding father, warned us about the dangers of the two-party system in his 1796 Farewell Address. He wrote that political parties are “to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.” He warned the two-party system would create a nation divided and destroy our country. And 229 years later, he was proven right. 

It has been one year since Trump was elected to be the 47th president of the U.S. Look at everything that has been taken from us. Look at the irrevocable damage he is doing to our country, to our history. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law on July 4 by Trump, will have detrimental impacts on our economy, environment, healthcare and immigration systems.

Already, we have seen a rise in unemployment, higher energy costs, increased pollution in our local communities and the erosion of lifesaving programs — including insurance, school-provided meals and federal aid. The U.S. is currently $38 trillion in debt under Trump’s administration. This is after “the fastest accumulation of a trillion dollars in debt outside of the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to PBS News. This growing debt means higher inflation over time, which will destroy the U.S.’s purchasing power. This will impact everyday U.S. citizens with higher interest rates for taking out loans on things like mortgages and cars, higher costs for goods and services and lower wages for employees. Our children and grandchildren are going to be feeling these effects for the rest of their lives. Is this the world you’re proud of? Is this the world you want future generations to inherit?

There is an anti-empathy epidemic in our country right now. People aren’t willing to care about issues that don’t pertain to them. I feel that this is un-American. If there is a war on someone’s rights, there is a war on everyone’s rights. It’s about being understanding of other people’s situations and accessing our own humanity. I love hearing about other people’s experiences, good or bad, because I enjoy understanding people. 

I no longer identify as a Trump supporter and haven’t for a long time. I am proud of my journey and proud to say I am a gay, genderqueer, atheist, leftist with a beautiful disabled girlfriend. I am proud to be a part of a community of queer people, artists, transgender people, and general weirdos. 

I hope this has opened someone’s eyes. The point is that you sit back and listen to an experience other than your own. Even if this story didn’t resonate with you, do you understand my perspective a little more? Take a break from the Sean Hannity talk-radio shows, turn off Fox News and get off Facebook. Research, read and get curious about topics you think you know well and those you are still ignorant of. Look at unbiased sources, fact-check your information, read historical documents, talk to your community and visit your local library. Expand your mind. Take it from me — ignorance is not bliss.

Anonymous