SUMMER INTERN ALYANA Santillana
is a Middlebury
College student who
was born in The
Philippines and grew
up in California.

Summer intern Alyana Santillana is a Middlebury College student who was born in The Philippines and grew up in California.

For the better part of the past eight years, different aspects of my identity have been used as weapons in the tug-of-war between the two major factions of American politics.

On one hand, I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, in an upper middle-class suburb just minutes away from Vice President Kamala Harris. I hail from Filipino immigrants, who are celebrated for being healthcare workers and branded as the “good” immigrants coming into the country. I am educated, and I’ve long prided myself for using research and theory as a basis for my political opinions.

By most measures, every aspect of my upbringing would classify me and those around me as the so-called “Coastal Elite.”

On the other hand, parts of my identity also mirror the identities of those who have fallen for Trumpism. My family and I have been devout Christians for as long as I can remember, and I like to believe that my religious convictions have influenced my moral beliefs on politics and the world. The nature of Asian immigration to the United States made it so many of my fellow Asian immigrants subscribe to the idea of “pulling yourself up from your bootstraps” and the notion that hard work, and that alone, dictated one’s success in this country.

My life after 2016 was marked by numerous crises of identity, allegiance and morality.

“Does forming an opinion from the perspective of one aspect of identity undermine the other?’ I wondered.

Yes, politics, by nature, is complex. But today’s politics are an abomination.

Donald Trump and his rhetoric have forced the American people to choose between common sense and an extreme, far right ideology that is not what Conservatism used to be. No longer is the Republican Party the party of traditional family values, economic freedom and patriotism that those close to me had once subscribed to.

No, in its ruins, the contemporary Republican Party is one that idolizes a self-serving billionaire that brands himself as the Messiah to his working-class followers.

What I regret most about contemporary politics is the growing resentment between Americans and the absence of empathy and mutual understanding. I am not a “Coastal Elite,” nor am I a heathen who supports killing traditional values, nor am I a classist who wishes to see working class families suffer under capitalism.

I am a student who remembers being an eight-year-old kid practicing barricading the door to my third-grade classroom in preparation for a school shooting. I am a young woman who’s watched her college friends from Texas weep about their bodily autonomy be at the mercy of a corrupt Supreme Court. I am a Christian, who’s watched people weaponizing my faith in a loving Lord to stand in a street corner bearing a sign that says, “God Hates Gays.” I am a child of immigrants, who sees little difference between my family’s pursuit of the American Dream and those being detained at the border.

As for my affinity with the “other side,” Democratic Vice Presidential pick Tim Walz said it best, “They are not the enemy. They are my family. They are good people who feel like they’ve been left behind.”

I’ve long grappled with the fact that many of those I’ve grown up with are, in fact, Trump supporters. Not because they support his abysmal policies or because they’re racist, xenophobic or anything of the sort. It is because they’re working class, uneducated, vulnerable people who have long felt alienated by the rhetoric of the Democratic Party, which on the surface can be condescending and exude elements of classism.

In short, this is what the election means to me: In Kamala Harris I see a woman of color who has long been a champion for women and the middle class. Before she was Vice President Harris, she served as my U.S. Senator, my Attorney General and my District Attorney. She was the one who won thousands of dollars for homeowners in my region and forced accountability for law enforcement.

On a personal level, she is a fellow Bay Area Asian who takes pride in being from the birthplace of the Black Panther Party and the Disability Rights Movement and the hub for Student Activism. She is the daughter of immigrants who was taught the value of education and service from an early age.

In Tim Walz I see a former educator who’s dedicated his life to influencing the youth. Like many members of my family, he is a veteran and has made it a point in his political career to make life better for veterans. He is a Christian family man, who embodies Christian family values of community and compassion.

In Donald Trump and JD Vance I see two men who have weaponized the struggles of decent, everyday Americans who have traditionally turned to the Republican Party to be their advocates, now being coerced into supporting fascism.

In this election, I see an opportunity for this country to come back to itself, a country that celebrates diversity and opportunity. This is not a battle between liberals and conservatives or the elites and the working class. This is a battle for decency. This is our chance to again become a nation whose political divide is of policy, not identity and empathy. This is our chance to make America great again.