New York City has so much opportunity, culture and diversity. But at the same time, a lot of the politics are very liberal and one-sided. And because I was stuck in that bubble growing up, I thought that was the only way to think. I was extremely influenced by what was around me. And so I adopted the politics and policies there as if they were my own.
When Donald Trump first got elected in 2016, I was part of that group that was angry, I thought he was racist and sexist. I was also in the streets, protesting and chanting ‘not my president’. One day during that time, I stopped and looked at the people around me and I saw how genuinely angry they were.
And I started to wonder, why am I so angry?
What is the big deal about this? I always had a positive feeling about America. My parents are immigrants and they came here with nothing from communist China. They worked multiple jobs, just to make a life for themselves, to put food on the table for their family and to get us through school.
Ada is a 26-year-old living in New York City. Source: Dateline
And they taught me the ethics of hard work and to strive for what you believe in. I never really appreciated that until I looked around me and saw all these people that were angry. And I thought, well, if my parents can make a life for themselves in America, with nothing at all, it must not be too bad. You know, like, if America was truly racist, and sexist, why are my parents successful in their own way?
And so from there, that's when I started to really question what I was being told by society and the media. Through research, I started seeing that most of the American mainstream is controlled by a few people who I believe are biased and want to push their own agenda. I felt the stories published that didn't fit the narrative were misconstrued or taken out of context with the purpose of impacting our own free opinions.
Around this time, I moved to San Francisco to participate in community work. Even though this is a very liberal city, my politics continued to move in the other direction. I worked with people in need, homeless people, individuals with mental health issues and those struggling with addiction. Unfortunately, I saw a significant dependency on welfare, which I found kept people down, rather than helping them get back on their feet. San Francisco is the most expensive city in the country and California has the highest amount of taxes in the US. The welfare and social programs in place incentivise bad choices and behaviour which keep people poor for generations, and further increase the city's economic disparities. The cycle of poverty is perpetuated by a taxpayer-funded victim mentality and over-reliance on the government. We can't keep throwing money at the problem, instead, we need opportunity zones for investments, lower taxes, and more jobs for true economic freedom for every American regardless of where they start in life.
The last major influence on my politics was my decision to make God the biggest part of my life and reclaim my relationship with Jesus Christ. I was pro-choice, but I am now pro-life. That has been one of the biggest reasons why I moved away from the more liberal viewpoint, because I began to see how wrong abortion was, in terms of my own religious beliefs.
The largest thing for me is that I learned about my faith, and how important it is to see people as individuals. I believe the Democrat Party are pushing a narrative that we are all victims. I disagree, Jesus died for us to be free. We are free to live our own lives to make our own choices.
I will be voting for Trump this election. What I see from the American people in the majority of the country outside major metropolitan areas is that Trump is the choice for 2020. I see this election as the choice between American values and socialism, liberty or government control, freedoms or oppression. I stand by a President who will lower taxes for economic prosperity for all Americans, will stand by law and order, will take on the establishment of Washington, and rejects identity politics.
I want to be able to continue to speak my truth. And no matter where life takes me, I just want to be true and genuine to myself.
