With the 2024 election looming ever closer, fear of another four years under the Trump regime is beginning to swell as former president Donald Trump widens his lead among the candidates vying for the Republican nomination for president. 

That being said, if you are fearful, you are not alone. 

If you’re not fearful, here are some reasons why you might want to be. 

Trump has made many promises about what he will do with his second term should he be elected, and this fact is not something that should be ignored.

Trump has proven that when he states he wants to do something or make a legislative change in the United States, he is not joking, and for the sake of our democracy, we cannot afford to brush him off as “the funny guy” as we have in the past.

Let’s start with one of his main talking points, which is immigration and what he has titled, “Joe Biden’s border crisis.”

Trump claimed he would not be a dictator, “except for day one,” on which he will order the construction of a wall on the southern border and secure our border by means of militarization. Trump has stated that he will move thousands of active duty troops from overseas to the southern border in order to stop “the invasion of our southern border.”

As if the U.S. Customs and Border Protection aren’t receiving enough federal funding (nearly $25 billion that President Biden requested to Congress in the fiscal year 2024 budget), Trump not only wants to relocate active duty military troops to the border, but he wants to relocate federal agents at the DEA and FBI to the border. 

Similarly, he has promised mass deportations of undocumented immigrants who, in the majority of cases, have fled violence to provide a better life for their families. To put it simply, this is un-American. 

Trump has continued his tirade about “the corrupt bureaucrats who have weaponized our justice system,” or as level-headed people prefer, accountability. Seemingly the only reason Trump is upset about the Department of Justice is because he is being held accountable for his actions. 

Moving swiftly along to another aspect of Trump’s domestic policy, he has stated that he will ask Congress to pass legislation stating that legally in the U.S., there are two genders.

As if this is not bad enough for the transgender community, Trump declared he would go after all healthcare providers who perform gender-affirming care that do not meet federal health and safety standards and that all gender-affirming care for minors will be made unlawful. 

Why, might you ask, are Trump and the Republican Party declaring war on the transgender community? Your guess is as good as mine. We as the American people must come together and come to our senses to stop these tyrants from overreaching their respective boundaries. 

If the Republican Party is supposed to be the party of small government, why doesn’t it ever actually follow that? 

Trump’s public safety policy is just as regressive as the rest of his platform, having stated that he will deploy the National Guard to cities like Chicago that struggle with high levels of violence. 

Now, if this sounds familiar as a student at Kent State, then you are absolutely right. 

We cannot allow history to repeat itself. We cannot allow Trump to utilize military forces against American citizens whenever he feels like it. This is outright un-American. 

Similarly, Trump stated that local police should feel empowered to shoot suspected shoplifters in the act, effectively turning the U.S. into more of a police state than it already is. Trump has always been a proponent of the death penalty; however, outright saying that police officers should have the authority to be the judge, jury and executioner is outrageous. 

To put it simply, American democracy is at stake this election cycle. This is an undeniable fact at this point. This nation cannot afford a repeat of 2016 when countless Americans stayed home and chose not to vote simply because they did not like either candidate enough. 

I have only just scratched the surface of the danger that Trump poses to our country, as I have only just mentioned his domestic policy threats. I implore you as the reader to read further into the fascist platform of Trump to see the whole picture. 

If you aren’t scared of a second Trump presidency by now, then you aren’t paying close enough attention. 

Vote like our democracy depends on it – because it does.

Jackson Small is an opinion editor. Contact him at [email protected].