Letter: Is this what you voted for?
Is this what you voted for?
In 2024, while running for office, Donald Trump said he would act immediately to lower food prices. Have you been to the grocery store lately?
He said that he had a plan to reduce health care costs. Have you been to the doctor lately, the hospital, the drug store? Have you lost access to health insurance?
He said that he would rid the country of millions of “dangerous criminals” who were born in other countries and deport them. Instead we have had to watch as an untrained force of storm troopers has arrested many people with no criminal records. These people work hard, pay taxes, take care of their families. Have you been paying attention?
These are the people who work in our restaurants, process our food, take care of our elderly family members. They are caring for our children, working on the farms that feed us, and picking up the trash from our wasteful world. They do many of the jobs that the rest of us don’t want to do because they don’t pay enough for us to live the way we want. Some have irregularities in their immigration status or their documents. Does that stop them from doing their jobs well?
Have you gotten a raise lately to cover the increased cost of everything we buy? Trump’s tariffs have increased the cost of many of the products we want and use. His lies and inconsistencies have created instability and chaos in the financial world that holds our savings. Do you still have faith in the security of your retirement plan?
Have you noticed our worsening air quality, our peculiar weather patterns, the decline of many species from our natural world? Trump has made war on our common environment – handing over the regulations that are there to protect us to the people we need protection from.
He has installed the most incompetent cabinet in American history. Apparently the only credential for a job with Trump is loyalty to him. We watch as people who have no experience in their fields have created chaos and uncertainty in the departments they have been charged with managing.
He promised us a return to law and order while he, a convicted felon, flouts and ignores every law that gets in his way, even defying the Supreme Court. He has kept his people from the consequences of their behavior, even condoning murder and the violation of the U. S. Capitol. He has given us the politics of revenge in which his petty grievances are more important than helping the people he has sworn an oath to serve. He has made a mockery of equal protection under the law. Have you been watching as he has gone after free speech, freedom of assembly, freedom to speak the truth in universities and public places?
Do you trust the information we are being given? The flood of propaganda, tailored messaging, sophisticated brainwashing, artificial intelligence are designed to cover up everything we need to know. He brands the truth as “fake news” so we can no longer distinguish reality. He promised transparency in government, but hides the reality of his dissolution and corruption. He promised that he would cut government spending, but he has funneled billions of dollars into the pockets of his family and his wealthiest friends. This money has not come from reduced government spending but has helped create the largest deficit in history.
He promised us fair elections but he is doing everything possible to ensure that only MAGA gets its votes counted. He has launched a full-blown attack on voting rights and on the integrity of the electoral process.
He has given us an administration which has no understanding of democracy, no respect for the rule of law, no respect for the alliances his predecessors have spent generations building, no respect for the stability they provide. He said he would make America great again, but America has lost the moral high ground as well as the title of the leader of the free world.
In the past few days, we have watched while, in order to divert the country from his bad track record and dismal polling numbers, he has invaded a foreign country, violating their sovereignty and placing the lives of our military at risk. He has done this with the flimsiest of excuses – to eradicate missile sites he told us had been completely obliterated six months ago. He promised he would keep the country out of foreign wars – have you been watching as he is violating international law, promoting regime change, making war without the sanction of Congress or approval of our allies? Is this what you voted for?
Unless we change direction, we are looking at a future in which we no longer have any vestiges of government for and by the people, headed by a dissolute and corrupt tyrant. I encourage you to look behind the headlines, to read the lessons of history, to understand the nature of propaganda, to question authority, to use your common sense to see what is happening here. We still have an opportunity to change direction and pull our country back from the rim of fascist autocracy. Before you vote again make sure you know what you are voting for.
Julie Melchior
Ferdinand
