Most of my friends and I are terrified of the possibility of a second Trump presidency and the threats it poses to our freedoms. Yet, millions of others surely dread a Harris victory as much. I wrote a piece four years ago called “What I’ll do if Trump wins” to try to gain some perspective on my election jitters. You can find it at medium.com/hope-anyway if you’re interested.
But now that we find ourselves here once again, I’d like to speak not just to my own team but to everyone fearing the outcome of this election.
Don’t be afraid.
Whatever happens in the coming weeks and months, we can handle it. We’re Americans, damn it! This country and its fate have always belonged to the people, not the politicians who seek to divide and conquer us. As long as we remember that, we’ll be all right.
Our country isn’t divided because we have different beliefs and values -- that’s always been the case. It’s divided because we’ve come to see our differences as threats and the people who hold them as enemies. Yet every political foe is just a flawed human, doing their best in a fraught and confusing world. Neither liberals nor conservatives are out to destroy America, and only the nutjobs hope for war. Despite our differences, we’re all in this together.
However this election turns out, it won’t resolve our tensions. All the arguments and struggles will persist. Just as “that other guy” winning doesn’t mean our defeat or the end of struggle, “our guy” winning isn’t going to fix everything. The world isn’t ending. America isn’t ending. And after the election, we’ll still be here having all the same disagreements as we carry on the perennial task of defining what this country is all about.
This election will be consequential, but to pin all our hopes and fears on one contest is lunacy. True democracy begins with the recognition that we the people have the power to shape this nation, and the healthiest political decision we can make is to stop waiting for someone else to save us. Democracy means not relying on politicians. It means taking responsibility for our own lives and communities. And freedom means refusing to be obedient, opposing authority when its directives violate the demands of conscience.
In short, the answers we seek will never rain down from above. Our problems cannot be solved from on high. No president is a superhero. Our solutions depend on us.
So if the person you’re afraid of gets elected, what will you do? I suggest the same things you should do even if your side wins. Stay informed. Get involved in your community. Be politically active. Share your point of view, and make an honest effort to get to know people who see things differently. Let your loyalty be to your values and not to capricious politicos. Quit obsessing over the 24-hour-news cycle and its outrage-for-profit business model, and get back to work improving the real world.
Political contests are always presented as winner-take-all struggles between irreconcilable forces out to destroy one another. It’s an exciting story that makes for an abysmal reality. But I refuse to live in fear of my neighbors and will never seek their harm. We’re all part of the same country, the same planet, the same species, and the only victory worth having is one in which we all participate. Let us seek the common good and give up forever on the idea that a better future can be found in the destruction or subjugation of our enemies.
To turn against each other is to turn each other against ourselves. War is suicide, murder by mutual consent, a game where everyone loses and we quell our fear of death by rendering life unbearable. Even without bullets, that’s where our culture wars have led. So let’s turn our backs on the dehumanization, cynicism, snark and nihilism -- this whole culture of anxiety, struggle and fear -- and remember how to just be humans among humans, unafraid, once more.
Whoever wins, it’s not the end. Life will go on, fear, pain, hope, joy and all. Our country and our people have prevailed over worse than this. As long as we refuse to give in to fear, we can achieve a better future. And we’ll do it together.
Urie is a lifelong Idahoan and graduate of the University of Idaho. He lives in Moscow with his wife and two children. You can find his writing online at Medium (hopeanyway.medium.com) or Substack (hopeanyway.substack.com). Or, you can email him at ryanthomasurie@gmail.com.
