This is a runner-up in our Teens Against Trump essay contest. Read more essays from the series here.
Less than a year ago, the only words I'd associated with Donald Trump were "toupee," "orange," and "You're fired." Now they're more like "racist," "sexist," and "discriminatory." I may not be old enough to drive, but it doesn't take a license to tell that Trump is a poison America is taking in gulps.
Now if there's one thing that people love, it's hate. And Trump has more than enough to go around. He says gun laws violate constitutional rights, and then turns around to crush freedom of religion in this country, talking about Muslims like they're rabid animals that need to be put down, as if we're fighting against the Quran and not a group of radical extremists.
I remember the day after the first GOP debate of the season, when Trump made his infamous jab at Megyn Kelly. It was then that I discovered his seemingly interminable list of verbal offenses, the way that he sexualizes his own daughter, how he objectifies countless women on television. Is it so wrong that I don't want to be represented by a man who makes me feel uncomfortable in my own body?
He gets away with saying these repulsive things while still remaining popular because voters feel that he's honest. But Trump's "honesty" has no worth when what's on his mind is splitting up the world into even smaller boxes.
When I've expressed my distaste for Trump in the past, many adults have said that I'm too young to know what I'm talking about, that I'm a communist for not supporting his ideals. But the fact that I am against stereotyping human beings based on their sex, race, religion, or socioeconomic class does not make me a communist. It makes me a forward-thinking individual who is more than just a tech-infatuated millennial.
I don't want to watch Donald Trump become the president of the United States and have to wait four whole years to do anything about it. I don't want to see climate change disregarded like some annoying clickbait article or see our own citizens dehumanized by a man who is supposed to be their voice. I don't want to watch that red, velvet rope come down around our borders like a club for V.I.P.s only. And I don't want to live in a Donald Trump America.