The Anti-American Nominee
Donald Trump, JD Vance and Project 2025 are fundamentally Anti-American.
The Republican Party just nominated a convicted felon and adjudicated rapist who tried to overturn a free and fair election.
They nominated a vice president who wants to ban abortions nationwide, doesn’t believe in exceptions for rape or incest, and believes women should stay in violent marriages.
Donald Trump, JD Vance, and the Republican Party want to:
Ban abortion nationwide
End no-fault divorce
Transfer millions of dollars to the wealthiest Americans through extended tax breaks for billionaires.
Empower local law enforcement to carry out the largest mass deportations in our country’s history.
Fire all civil servants and replace them with a private database of 20,000 far-right loyalists.
Dismantle the Department of Education, Homeland Security, the EPA, and the Department of Justice.
Despite how normal and boring they tried to make it seem (and boy, was Trump low-energy), this is the most anti-American presidential ticket ever. And we can beat it if we communicate to our friends and family our choice in this eleciton.
Below are some thoughts on who to do that.
Define Trump and Republicans as The Anti-American Party
We must define the Trump/Vance ticket as exactly what it is. Anti-American.
Donald Trump and JD Vance are antagonistic to our values of self-governance. They will use the power of the federal government to force women to have babies and prevent non-binary people from accessing life-saving healthcare.
They will eliminate core American values like birthright citizenship and ban people from entering this country based on their race and religion. They will suspend due process to deport millions of non-white people.
Loyalty to Donald Trump, not the Constitution, will be the litmus test for hiring. Elections they win will be legitimate. Elections they lose will be fraudulent.
All of this is fundamentally anti-American. And it’s important to frame it that way.
Antonia Scatton, who writes a great substack called “Reframing America” explained the use of Anti-American language in a post about the Supreme Court:
We can add descriptive terms like “Illegitimate,” “corrupt,” “anti-American,” “anti-Constitution,” and “pro-corporate.” These terms all invite further explanation as to what you mean, creating opportunities for you to elaborate on these themes.
Terms like “right-wing,” “extreme” and “radical” are far less effective, in that they are received by the listener as name calling and judgmental. Their negative connotations depend on where you stand on the political spectrum, and they tend to shut down conversation.
This speech from Vice President Kamala Harris is a great start. If she had replaced “unity” with “American values,” this would have been perfect.
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Define Democrats As Fighting For You
As Vice-President Harris said “this election boils down to who fights for you?”
Here is the bottom line: Voters want our politicians to fight for US.
We WANT our politicians to use the government to benefit us. To make the markets hold up their end of the societal deal we all signed up for (Shout out again to Antonia for this framing, seriously subscribe to her substack).
The deal being that if we work hard, we won’t have to worry about living pay check to pay check, or being one medical issue away from bankruptcy.
And for many Americans that deal is broken. Housing and healthcare costs are too expensive. Wages have not increased at the same rate as cost of living. College education is unattainable without going into massive debt.
Trillions of dollars has concentrated to the top 1% and government and the markets have colluded to destroy the middle class.
Well the good news is, the Biden/Harris administration has been fighting for us.
They passed the Inflation Reduction Act which invests billions of dollars into creating high paying, union wage jobs. This money will be concentrated on communities impacted by racial redlining and de-industrialization. Fighting back against the impacts of racism and NAFTA.
They have lowered healthcare costs resulting in the lowest uninsured rate in American history.
They have forgave massive amounts of student debt.
They have been the most Pro-Union administration in our country’s history. Fighting back against large corporations like Starbucks and Amazon who have amassed huge profits while exploiting workers.
They have taken on corporate monopolies through antitrust lawsuits aimed at Apple and Google.
They are regulating the rental market by capping rent increases at 5% and suing corporate landlords that us AI technology to artificially inflate rental prices.
This is what it looks like to use the power of government to benefit US. We shouldn’t be afraid to lean into this. The Republicans have successfully branded government intervention as bad and still get credit for being the party of “small government”
But the reality is that both parties are in favor of government intervention in our lives.
Trump, Vance and the Republicans want to use the government to institute an anti-American agenda that will take away your rights and enrich their billionaire donors.
President Biden and Vice President Harris want to use the government to lower healthcare costs, make housing affordable, protect your access to healthcare and hold corporations accountable.
The choice is ours. Let’s get to work.
Billionaires like Elon Musk support Trump/Vance because they do not support unions—the power to negotiate better wages, working conditions, and job security.
(All things Billionaires have and deny their employees unless the government steps in).
No one has more power than Billionaires except the collective voice of Americans at the Ballot box.