There are the next four years, and then there is the lifetime that comes after.
There is the road leading to now, paved with the generations of advocacy that came before us, and then there is the sharp turn backwards. We know we have reached this point – the sinking feeling of watching the news on Tuesday, November 5 2024 all but confirms it.
It comes with no surprise when we consider the rhetoric that Donald Trump, America’s 47th president, has relayed without fail. The years leading up to 2016, his first term, the aftermath, and now today – 2024. What he has clearly outlined and deemed as “self-governance” and “defending the nation” is not just in fine print, but bolded red-marked letters:
Overnight, womens’ reproductive freedoms have become staggeringly more fragile; the illusions of tax-cuts and tariffs blanket the reality that these policies will only benefit the top 1%; the fight against climate change will be dealt more setbacks that it simply cannot afford; undocumented students’ futures have been cast into doubt; and our community will face even more retribution for speaking up against police brutality and genocide.
The President’s bully pulpit will be weaponized in targeted campaigns against the same groups he’s unwaveringly criticized in the past, whether they’re queer people, transgender students, immigrants, or workers. The state’s oppression of people of color and indigenous communities will accelerate at the hands of a remorseless federal government. The rights we all took for granted are no longer safe — whether you voted for Trump, Harris, third party, or nobody at all. When these attacks enter our campus, our fight must transcend the traditional confines of electoral politics.
When Trump is inaugurated as President in January, millions of Americans will be thrust into new, cruel states of precarity – this is a plain and simple truth. We like to think that we’re immune from Trump’s shock politics, insulated by true-blue Los Angeles, but that is not the case. Here at UCLA, as with the rest of America and the world, the next four years will be critical for resisting and reshaping the path ahead.
Now more than ever, we must coalesce around our community.
We must stand in solidarity with those most vulnerable to Trump’s cruelties. We must resist his attempts to erase our identities and use our voices to speak up for those who cannot. We must escalate our tactics, because when our government refuses to hear our voices, we cannot give them that choice. And we must unite in struggle, collectively organizing for a society that thrives on the principles of freedom and justice, not darkness and oppression. Trump and his allies want us to hide; they want us to stay in the shadows. So speak up and be loud. Because when they try to bury us, existence itself is protest.
Trump’s election is not an anomaly. Nor does it mean that our electorate is irreparably damaged. His appeals only thrive when we allow ourselves to be divided along artificial lines designed to break solidarities. For decades, we have faced concerted efforts to stoke conflicts based on racialized, gendered divisions, while the mainstream opposition has largely acquiesced to these attacks. They have deliberately drawn and strengthened these divides to control us — because they know that when we stand together, we win.
Ultimately, our struggle does not end at the ballot box, and our collective voice has to transcend these lines. We are well aware that America is no stranger to division, but that is not to say this must be the norm. After all, change cannot be accomplished when half of our community is fighting against the other. It is now our job to unite the collective, to hold each other accountable in our fight against the abuse of power – the fight towards true liberty and justice for all.
We stand here today, facing the difficult reality: America has chosen. Now more than ever, we cannot afford to sit in complacency. In 1963, activist Betty Friedan immortalized a truth that still stands today, one that serves as a reminder for the fight ahead:
“Rights have a dull sound to people who have grown up after they have been won.”
And so – we must speak loudly, act proudly, and join the fight together.
