By Michael DeRenzo, Guest Columnist
Back in 2016, I was an avid supporter of then-presidential candidate Donald J. Trump. His personality was bold and brash; with my then-limited impression of him, I was led to believe that anything and everything he stood up for, he represented the vast majority of us. Ideas that were once considered crazy and lunatic, such as wanting Mexico to pay for a future border wall that would deter illegal immigration, or, in his own words, wanting to “Make America Great Again” made me feel proud to be an American. Besides, who would want to vote for Hillary Clinton? In my mind, she may as well have represented the antichrist.
Maybe you’re not into religion and perhaps you don’t look in between the lines like I do. At the time, my family and I firmly believed that Trump was inevitably chosen by a deity — a higher power — to lead perhaps the greatest country in the world.
Four years later, and the nation enters the 2020 election cycle. I was 17 at this time, still not an adult, but at the very least wiser than my 2016 self. With the advent of the pandemic, my eyes began opening up. I stopped listening to what I used to want to hear; for the first time ever, I finally embraced the fact that perhaps it was a mistake to elect Trump as president. His handling of COVID was downright horrific, and while I personally was not affected, I knew at the time that there were heaps of misinformation often perpetrated by our then-President.
From downplaying the sudden rise in COVID cases to not taking protocols immediately that would have combated the upward trend in cases, Trump embarrassed our nation on the international stage. Countries such as New Zealand and Vietnam easily outshined the United States in stopping the spread. As the wealthiest and most influential country in the world, the U.S should have been equipped and ready to handle an international crisis like the pandemic.
The Trump Administration’s handling of the pandemic was only a start of things to change in my opinions. The 2020 election came around, and, once again, both my family and I fully supported Trump again. We all believed that he would win and continue to serve as president. But soon, we learned that Joe Biden had won and that Trump’s time in office was coming to its end.
While disappointed, my family and I accepted the results and moved on. But Trump was not done. Not even close. This would be the start of his madness being on full display to myself. He would come to challenge these results, even going as far as to launch more than 50 lawsuits, and even committing overtly corrupt acts such as asking Georgia’s secretary of state to “find 11,780 votes” that he would have needed to beat Biden and win Georgia’s electoral votes.
All the lawsuits were shot down, and rightly so, as they were legally baseless. The insurrection on Jan. 6 then rocked the nation and advertised Trump’s delusion and lack of care for his country to the entire nation. He attempted to stage a coup against a democratically-held process and his supporters obliged to stir violence, even going as far as to call for the execution of his own vice president, Mike Pence.
While not a perfect democracy, The U.S. has shown itself to be a stable leader of democracy worldwide. . And yet, for the first time, doubts started to rise about the stability of the U.S. and its ability to maintain its democratic institutions. If anybody could believe Trump’s false claims of a stolen election and go as far as storm the Capitol, then any atrocity could be made in the name of Donald Trump. And if anybody could start an uprising, the foundational institutions of the U.S. could be at threat.
Now, Americans once again will see Donald Trump’s name on our ballots. After being impeached twice, after having his reputation further tarnished through sex scandals and his personal affiliations with monsters like Russian president Vladimir Putin and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, it seems that at this point, a lot of Americans have come to accept how our election process is occurring. The same man that has attempted an insurrection against a democratic process is now running for President again. And, once again, he affirms that he will only accept the election results if it is “fair” to everyone else, this essentially means that he only wants to accept the results if he wins.
I have seen how the MAGA cult has devolved. I do not like Joe Biden. I don’t even like Kamala Harris. And, for what it’s worth, I don’t believe Joe Biden is fit to run for president again. However, I see this as a tale of finding a “lesser of two evils.” Would you go for somebody like Harris, who will doubtfully live up to all of her promises, or would you vote for somebody who is openly a threat to U.S. democracy — to America’s very own roots and foundational values?
To anyone reading, I urge you: trust your senses. Look at what is happening in our country. Constant accusations toward the so-called “radical left” through baseless claims, affiliations with ultra-conservative organizations like the Heritage Foundation who authored Project 2025, a vow to harm the lives and freedom of minorities including the LGBTQ+ community and women and false and downright racist hoaxes such as Haitian immigrants eating pets, are all now realities that have been normalized by Trump’s rhetoric.
We can no longer laugh at a candidate like Mitt Romney and make fun of him for his mistakes. The fun days are over. We now have to worry — with all the alarming comments Trump and his associates have made — if our very lives are in danger.
I say this to everyone: as somebody who used to support Trump, come to your senses. Accept that the future of this country can remain bleak for those who do not align with the motives of Donald Trump. Who once appeared as a joke to many people in 2016 now can single-handedly tear down the virtues of what it means to be an American. Being an American entails accepting everyone of their political, religious, and miscellaneous beliefs. It does not mean setting up pro-Trump loyalists to run our country, thus rendering the two-party system possibly obsolete, in favor of what could become a country headed towards totalitarianism. It does not mean having Project 2025 in full effect, thus going as far as labeling any non-straight individual as a sex offender or pedophile. It does not mean name calling and scapegoating people, entities, and groups, all for the sake of the “Big Lie”. It does not mean having a party where your very own members support and admire dictators like Putin, or make comments supporting Nazism, or creating policy that only advantages the 1%, while making it more difficult for everyone else to climb the social ladder.
Besides what is happening domestically, further consider that Donald Trump does not care about your moral values. He doesn’t care if Ukrainian men, women and children are murdered in Russia’s invasion. The last thing on his mind regarding the Israel-Hamas War is the lives of civilians, especially those of Gazans. Trump would rather side with ruthless monsters such as Vladimir Putin instead of with Americans and with our NATO allies. Simply put, he no longer believes in fulfilling the American dream; he would rather turn our country into, at the very worst, a Christo-fascist state that has the American flag wrapped around it.
He may tout patriotism, but I warn everybody that his actions speak louder than words. After all, many of my fellow Christians are supporting him, and yet he goes against exactly what our religion calls for. He is not humble nor a man of God, but a false idol who can very-well threaten how the United States functions.
Please hear what I am saying. I do not have to be known myself, but I wish for my voice to be heard. This is no longer a fight about left or right, but rather a bleak vision for the United States or, at the very least, an above-mediocre Democratic candidate. Do not trust any political candidate, but do not trust those who openly spout hatred and wrap it around an American flag.
This article originally appeared on page 20 and 21 of the No. 2 October 2024 edition of The Gettysburgian’s magazine.
