244: Why We Need to Take Trump At His Word (Don't Look Away)

04/23/24 • 38 min

You know that person you know - the one who exaggerates everything?

It’s kind of like that story of the blameless “boy who cried wolf” who lives in fantasy land and never takes responsibility for anything - and this person seemingly has not only the best life anyone could ever imagine, with loads of money, tons of friends, amazing vacations, but also, nothing ever seems to go wrong? (Instagram is a drug, friends).

Now imagine that friend is running (again) for President of the United States.

And that friend is bringing that energy into the race in the most destructive, divisive way possible, in which he’s only out for himself - which his statements prove every.single.day.

Those statements that you would roll your eyes at and dismiss? Now, you no longer can, because those statements tell you who he is, and exactly what he plans to do if he gets re-elected (spoiler alert: it’s going to be hugely destructive to our lives as we know them, and most, if not all, of our freedoms that we take for granted.).

You guessed it - we’re talking about Trump, and why we need to take him at his word. In other words, even though it’s painful - don’t look away.

He’s giving us the blueprint of how a Trump presidency would be, and not only is it worse than last time, it will destroy our democracy and our freedom along with it.

What to listen for?

Why we think the risk of having Trump in a second term is FAR more dangerous than having Biden.
Looking specifically at the harms that will befall our country because of things like his views on:

Immigration and making America a white-supremacist-centered nation,
Ukraine and what that says about his desire to pander to the influence of outside nations,
His hatred of the press and what that indicates about his desire to turn America into an authoritarian state,
Violence, and how a deeper threat of control and violence will eventually impact every American citizen
Abortion, and what this means for every woman, mother, and person capable of bearing a child, including families overall.

Do not look away from the massive threat Trump poses for our country.

Link to Trump’s Authoritarian Playbook 2025: https://www.authoritarianplaybook2025.org/

Resources:

To give us input on what you want from our newsletter, and/or share your Asian immigration stories, reach us via email at [email protected].

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You know that person you know - the one who exaggerates everything?

Now imagine that friend is running (again) for President of the United States.

And that friend is bringing that energy into the race in the most destructive, divisive way possible, in which he’s only out for himself - which his statements prove every.single.day.

You guessed it - we’re talking about Trump, and why we need to take him at his word. In other words, even though it’s painful - don’t look away.

He’s giving us the blueprint of how a Trump presidency would be, and not only is it worse than last time, it will destroy our democracy and our freedom along with it.

What to listen for?

Why we think the risk of having Trump in a second term is FAR more dangerous than having Biden.
Looking specifically at the harms that will befall our country because of things like his views on:

Immigration and making America a white-supremacist-centered nation,
Ukraine and what that says about his desire to pander to the influence of outside nations,
His hatred of the press and what that indicates about his desire to turn America into an authoritarian state,
Violence, and how a deeper threat of control and violence will eventually impact every American citizen
Abortion, and what this means for every woman, mother, and person capable of bearing a child, including families overall.

Do not look away from the massive threat Trump poses for our country.

Link to Trump’s Authoritarian Playbook 2025: https://www.authoritarianplaybook2025.org/

Resources:

To give us input on what you want from our newsletter, and/or share your Asian immigration stories, reach us via email at [email protected].

Follow Dear White Women so you don’t miss these conversations!

Like what you hear? Don’t miss another episode and subscribe!

Catch up on more commentary between episodes by following us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter – and even more opinions and resources if you join our email list.

Previous Episode

243: High Five, Friends - Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going

This week marks the FIVE-YEAR anniversary of the Dear White Women podcast! That means we’ve outlasted almost all the other podcasts out there... like ya knew we would.

From those first few episodes released altogether on April 15, 2019, to now... it’s been quite the ride. This year, in order to kick off year SIX (!!!) of the podcast, we thought we’d devote an entire shorter episode to talking about not only the past five years but what we have in store for the future and that shot of hope for all of us.

What to listen for:

How the podcast has evolved since its start in April 2019, including its history
The stand-out episode from this past year
Our personal whys behind doing this for the past five years and how that may have shifted over time
Where we think the Dear White Women platform goes from here

About Sara & Misasha:

A graduate of Harvard College and Columbia Law School, Misasha Suzuki Graham (she/her) has been a practicing litigator for over 15 years, and is passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion in the legal profession as well as in her communities. She is a facilitator, writer, and speaker regarding issues of racial justice, especially regarding children, the

co-author of Dear White Women: Let’s Get (Un)comfortable Talking About Racism, and the co-host of Dear White Women, a social justice podcast. Misasha, who is biracial (Japanese and white), is married to a Black man and is the proud mom of two very active multiracial young boys. They live in the Bay Area of California with their largely indifferent cat.

Sara Blanchard (she/her) helps build community and connection through conscious conversations, which she does as a facilitator, TEDx speaker, writer, and consultant. After graduating from Harvard and working at Goldman Sachs, Sara pursued the science and techniques of well-being and is a certified life coach, author of two books (Flex Mom and DearWhite Women: Let’s Get (Un)Comfortable Talking About Racism), and co-host of Dear White Women, an award-winning weekly social justice podcast. Sara is biracial (Japanese and white), married to a white Canadian man, and is raising their two white-presenting girls to be compassionate, thoughtful advocates. They live in Denver, Colorado with their incredibly lovable dog.

To give us input on what you want from our newsletter, and/or share your Asian immigration stories, reach us via email at [email protected].

Follow Dear White Women so you don’t miss these conversations!

Like what you hear? Don’t miss another episode and subscribe!

Catch up on more commentary between episodes by following us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter – and even more opinions and resources if you join our email list.

Next Episode

245: Why Trump Is Bad For [Y]OUR Well-being, Part I

In our last episode, we went through reasons - issue by issue (not all of them, but a lot of them) - about why our freedom and democracy are at risk if you vote for Trump and he gets elected for president again in 2024.

In brief, things like his stance on immigration and making America a white-supremacist-centered nation; Ukraine and what that says about his desire to pander to the influence of outside nations; his hatred of the press and what that indicates about his desire to turn America into an authoritarian state; abortion, and what this means for every woman, mother, and person capable of bearing a child, including the freedom of families overall. Notably, all through his own words because he’s been telling us what he’s going to do for years.

In today’s episode, we’re going inside (ourselves) to talk about wellness and thriving, and whether or not we value societies that make it possible for us to feel - and be - well. We’ll do this through the lens of a possible second Trump presidency, because we firmly believe that a second Trump presidency is bad for our well-being - mine and yours, both mentally and physically - and bad for us all, as human beings.

What to listen for?

The eight dimensions of wellness/wellbeing (in today’s episode, we talk about four of them - physical, intellectual, emotional, and social);
Trump’s policies that impact our physical well-being, including ACA and access to abortions;
How Trump’s disbelief in scientific fact and restrictions around schooling harm go directly against building intellectual well-being, especially for our future generations;
The emotional effects that we’re already feeling from a possible second term for Trump; and
How a Trump presidency could result in increased social isolation and divisiveness for our communities.

In case you missed it, here’s the link to our last episode on the risks to our freedom and democracy: https://www.dearwhitewomen.com/episodes/244-why-we-need-to-take-trump-at-his-word-dont-look-away