1. The Economy
The DOW dropped over 600 points on November 8, the most dramatic fall since 9/11. Foreign investors are already wary, and they have reason to be. Trump, someone with no military or government experience, someone who has had multiple businesses fail, will be commander in chief of all our foreign investments. While the Dow then spiked back up, it has continued to fluctuate dramatically. In his first 100 days, he plans to repeal NAFTA and TPP. We’re screwed.
2. Women's Rights
Women’s rights cannot be protected without reproductive rights. Donald Trump plans on cancelling all of President Obama’s executive orders, and has promised to appoint people in his government whose priority is to chip away at Roe v. Wade and essentially put us back into the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant.
I’m already more afraid to walk home alone at night. Women have been reporting men attacking them, literally grabbing them by the crotch, because they think they can now. When the United States elects someone who brags about this, more men think it is fine for them to do it too.
This brings me to the rights and wellbeing survivors of sexual violence. So many women know all too well the intersection of being subject to sexual violence because of your gender. This, however, is bigger than just women’s rights – it represents the control people in power still have over other people’s bodies. People all across the gender spectrum are terrified of a Trump Presidency. This man literally has dozens of sexual assault cases against him, but apparently many people in America don’t give a shit about that.
3. Rights of Survivors of Sexual Violence
Donald Trump has assaulted dozens of women, bragged about touching women without their consent, and is on trial next month for raping a thirteen year old. How is this even the reality we live in that people would choose to elect this person over the most qualified woman in the world?
4. Gay Rights
Mike Pence supports gay conversion therapy, and signed one of the worst “religious liberty” laws in Indiana as governor. Just as a reminder, conversion therapy is based on literally “scaring and beating the gay” out of people – typically children – under the guise of religion. Trump also pledged to sign the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA), which would allow people to discriminate against LGBTQ people.
While Donald Trump calls himself the “best presidential candidate for gay rights” but he couldn’t be farther from the truth. While he himself doesn’t much seem to care, already stating people should use the bathroom “they feel like”, his campaign rhetoric has already put LGBTQ people in danger, and there has been a huge spike in hate-crime related violence.
Moreover, Trump has continuously voiced his plan to stack the Supreme Court with conservative justices that would be dedicated to overruling things like marriage equality and Roe v. Wade. The rights people have fought for for centuries are beginning to fall.
5. Rights of Immigrants
Donald Trump has run on a campaign of xenophobia and the terrorization of immigrants. People are terrified their families will be split up, and Trump’s preposterous wall is still one of his top priorities. Many fear his policies will lead to an increase in arbitrary stopping and searching of Latinos, as well as demanding documentation. Sounds a lot like fascism, right?
6. Rights of People of Color
Since Trump won the presidency (not to even mention the countless instances before that), there have been incidents of racial violence that can only be described as terrifying. The threats that are being made are reminiscent of the 1950s Deep South.
7. The Environment
Trump plans to pull out of the Paris agreements in his first 100 days in office. Many of the people in his cabinet – not to mention his VP – don’t believe in climate change. I feel us sinking into the Atlantic as I type already.
Things are bad right now. There’s no doubt there. We are hurting, and we are scared of what the next four years will bring. But what this also shows is that every single one of is us going to be affected by this, and there is strength in numbers. It’s time to organize.
