By Mary Helen Fein, AADC Member
What will I do if Donald Trump is elected President this November? Thanks to the January 6 hearings, this is looking a little bit less likely. But don’t be lulled into a false sense of security. CNN shows both Trump and Biden with 45% of the hypothetical vote. So “yes,” he could win. More than “yes,” more like “most definitely” he could win. This is a bitter pill for me to swallow.
So, what to do? Suicide would be overkill, quite literally, despite the desperate times that would ensue. I’ve heard friends threaten to leave the country if he wins. I could do that, Mexico, near the beach, blue green water, and forget about politics at home.
But what about America? Land that I love. Was that just a song we sang in first grade? What about standing beside her and guiding her, through the night with a light from above? As the song says, we would certainly go through a “night” to remember. If the sun had any sense, it would definitely go out at the moment Trump’s win was announced. But like about half of our country, it doesn’t have that sense.
When Trump won the first time, I will always remember right where I was, just how I felt, and exactly the look on the faces of my friends around me. It’s one of the etched-in-moments. History in the making. You remember the details, the clock on the wall and what time it was on that September 11th. My political science professor starting to cry when the news came in from Dallas. The New Yorker cover of a tear falling from the eye of a British Grenadier soldier when Diana died.
If it happens again, I see what I have to do. I have to stay here, stay on top what they are doing. Take every opportunity to protest, to stand of up for our democracy, do everything I possibly can to save the most enlightened experiment in government since humans started having governments. That trip to Mexico can wait; it will be a great way to celebrate Trump’s ultimate defeat.
“The government you elect is the government you deserve.”
Thomas Jefferson