Post #18: The Platform Comparison ⚖

Why this election matters to me as a disabled American.

Hello, Friends!

I hope this message finds you well as can be. Lately I've been feeling the perma-stress of the impending election brewing (I also just discovered a new Cat Cafe in my neighborhood, so my caffeine levels have admittedly been elevated).

Only eleven days to go.

I have rarely mentioned politics on this Substack or on social media. That's because I think there is already so much out there, I'm not a policy expert, and there's a good chance you've already made up your mind.

But I can't shake the nagging feeling that complete silence on my part is irresponsible. I want you to know that disability is on the ballot.

So I figured I would take a few minutes to:

1) Urge you to vote (and vote your honest, really for real conscience!)

and

2) Tell you why I believe electing Donald Trump will be harmful to disabled people

FIRST OF ALL: Please go vote on November 5th.

Even if you're feeling unmotivated or hate politics or don't like your choices, voting is literally the one thing your citizenship asks of you. It's not that hard. Even if you got overwhelmed and "checked out" of politics and stopped reading the news three months ago, it's still your civic duty to vote. Please take an hour and research the main candidates in your area on the candidates websites (look at both parties, don't just stop at one party). After that, go meditate or pray or journal and THEN please go vote your conscience. It's that important.

Literally we can't complain about the issues and then stay home on the one day it really matters. Just vote. In some ways, it will always feel like "the lesser of two evils" because we have a two party system. It doesn't matter, vote anyway. In 2020, American voter turnout was (only) 66%, and that was a record high year. This year, we can do so much better. There's a lot at stake and you cannot waste your democratic right to vote. People in many generations fought and even died to secure this right for you. Please use it. Not sure where to start? Find your polling place here.

SECONDLY: I want you to know that this election is really important — critical — to the future of disabled Americans like me and so many others.

Every election, Paul drives me to the polls and I proudly roll myself up to the ADA voting booth, the one made accessible for people with disabilities that reads the choices aloud and marks the ballot for you after you select them. I don't actually need to use this machine but I use it every year because 1) I like to make sure my polling place is keeping them in working order and the polling place workers know how to use them and 2) the presence of these machines symbolizes to me that disabled people have the right to vote, to be represented in government, to lead, to have their Civil Rights and human dignity respected. I vote on that machine because I am a disabled citizen and I deserve to be here.

As a disabled person, the possibility of another Trump presidency truly scares me. How can I expect him to protect funding for programs like Medicaid or SSI when he has made it clear through his words and actions that he doesn't see disabled people as valuable? Trump doesn't want to be seen with disabled veterans because "it doesn't look good", he doesn't provide ASL at his rallies, and, perhaps most telling, he said — of his own disabled relative — “The shape they’re in, all the expenses, maybe those kinds of people should just die.”

My concern is that Trump views disabled people as actually, inherently less valuable than nondisabled people. I believe democracy (and Jesus, BTW) would disagree with him. All people are equally valuable (sacred, even). We are all deserving of safety, food, water, shelter, dignity, as well as the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. If that's not Trump's baseline — the ideal he would strive to meet in office — then how can he truly value Democracy?

Perhaps you could dismiss his scary language about disability as misconstrued or overblown in the past (if you really wanted to do some mental gymnastics). But the most recent interview with retired General John Kelly, his own former Chief of Staff, paints him as a dictator-in-waiting, someone who meets the criteria of a fascist. If you look up the definition of fascism you'll see all sorts of lovely phrases like "far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist, dictatorial leader, autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy." There's no way disabled people (and let's be real, LBGTQ+ folks, immigrants, women and people of color) will fare well in this environment, one so hostile to diversity. In case you weren't aware, during World War II, Hitler used disabled people as his "guinea pigs" in his earliest mass euthanization (mass murder) programs. Fascism is an absolutely terrifying prospect.

Trump himself has expressed a desire for this kind of dictatorial power, and even threatened to bring in the National Guard to deal with "The Enemy Within" — his political opponents. And he's suggested that unleashing police violence and brutality is the path to ending crime. His vision of how to lead America is not for me.

However, I am well aware that we all live in echo chambers now thanks to social media and cable news. Either you're nodding your head along with me, or you're saying "That's not true! He never said that!" (or you've stopped reading altogether).

I was trying to think of a more objective way to prove my point that electing Trump (and members of this current iteration of the Republican Party more generally) would be harmful to disabled people, and I think I've found it.

This afternoon, I downloaded both the 2024 Republican Party Platform and the 2024 Democratic Party Platform. I made myself read the Republican Platform, and of course I disagreed with many of its points. But I was more intrigued by what I didn't see... The mention of disability policy or disabled Americans. Like, anywhere.

Out of curiosity, I did a few searches within both documents:

Disability: 0 mentions in the Republican Party Platform, 7 mentions in the Democratic Party Platform

Disabled: 0 mentions in the Republican Party Platform, 2 mentions in the Democratic Party Platform

Disabilities: 0 mentions in the Republican Party Platform, 37 whopping mentions in the Democratic Party Platform

Medicaid (which is the healthcare program many disabled people, including me, rely on to remain out of nursing homes): 0 mentions in the Republican Party Platform, 26 mentions in the Democratic Party Platform

Disabled Americans simply are a non-issue to the Republican Party. My guess is we are not mentioned a single time in their platform because their idea of "reigning in wasteful spending" includes cutting or gutting the very programs that make it possible for us to live in our communities, to contribute to our local economies, to get married, to live dignified lives where we can shape our own destinies.

Without healthcare (my particular form of Medicaid is called MA-EPD — Medical Assistance for Employed People with Disabilities), I would not be able to get the care I need to tour. I would not be able to afford my wheelchair.

But this issue far, far bigger than me. Disabled people like Alice Wong, Tabi Haly, and millions of other disabled people are really only able to live their best lives because of the government-funded support programs that make it possible. We literally rely on these programs to survive, and electing Trump again will jeopardize their funding.

Disability has been completely, utterly erased from the Republican Party Platform. I do not think this is a benign omission. I think it’s a very dangerous sign of what would await millions of disabled Americans were Trump to be elected president again.

So please, vote on November 5th. Vote your conscience. I sincerely hope your conscience tells you that every American is equally valuable, including disabled Americans. I hope you're conscience tells you that we're all so much better off living in a Democracy than under a dictatorship. I hope you vote responsibly. Just vote.

Sincerely,
Gaelynn Lea