Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.The inalienable rights upon which our nation was founded. When the Founding Fathers wrote these truths, they added no ifs, ands, or buts. Now we have a president who threatens all these.

For the past four years, America has suffered a damaged economy, countless scandals from the executive branch, and innumerable losses of jobs, rights, and even life.

The atrocities that this administration has committed are beyond words. From the separation of families and locking children in cages at our southern border, to the shameless and grotesque handling of the COVID-19 Pandemic, one thing is clear: we would not survive another four years under this administration.

To say that the conduct of this administration is criminal is an understatement, quite literally. Seven Trump associates have been convicted of felonies and one is still waiting for his sentence.Their crimes vary from fraud, to lying under oath, to witness intimidation and obstruction of justice. They have all served time and some of them are still serving time.

This may be the most highly contested election in our nation’s history. The country is more divided than it has been since the days of the Civil War. 

At face value, this election is between President Donald J. Trump and Former Vice President Joe Biden, but the reality of the election goes much, much deeper than that. This election is not just for the White House. There are literally hundreds of other races down the ballot that will be decided on Tuesday: cities and towns; state legislatures; House of Representatives and Senate races as well as Gubernatorial elections.

But even today’s presidential race will have consequences beyond its appearance. When you cast your vote for president, you’re not only voting for the candidate but their platform and the members of their administration. And how do the two compare? On Trump’s side, Senior Advisor Stephen Miller just unveiled a horrific immigration plan that will target asylum seekers, create travel bans, and eliminate work visas. And on the other side, Biden has recruited and welcomed Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro to guide him on issues relating to police reform. Castro is most well-known for his 2020 primary bid for president where he unveiled the most ambitious “people first” plans for policing and immigration of any presidential candidate in history.

True, Miller and Castro only offer one example of what each candidate has to offer in their respective administrations, but the contrast could not be more stark. 

If you want to draw another comparison, just look at the two vice presidential candidates: incumbent Vice President Mike Pence and Biden’s running mate, California Senator Kamala Harris. 

Pence is a strong proponent of conversion therapy, an active anti-choice advocate, and the chair of the Trump Administration’s disastrous White HouseCoronavirus Task Force. Pence led the country into the ongoing pandemic, merrily misleading the American people and causing hundreds of thousands of deaths despite the fact that he knew early-on how dangerous the virus was. In the Vice Presidential Debate, he talked about the sacrifices of the American people, but those were not sacrifices; they were avoidable deaths that could have been prevented if he had just done his job. Pence is a failed vice president, and possibly one of the most dangerous this country has ever seen, and yes, that’s including Aaron Burr who literally murdered another Founding Father while holding the office of vice president.

That brings us to Harris; the former District Attorney and California Attorney General; California Senator; and 2020 presidential primary candidate who was later chosen to run side-by-side with Biden. Yes, Harris has a complicated and controversial prosecutorial record from her time as DA and AG. But she also has one of the most progressive records in the United States Senate, with some claiming her record to be more liberal than Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. And yet, still 15% of the bills she has co-sponsored have been bipartisan. Having not even finished her first term in the Senate, Harris has proven herself to be a competent and truly impressive legislator. And that’s all without mentioning the historic nature of her possibly becoming vice president. Not only would she be the first woman elected to the position, but also the first Black person and the first Asian American.

Of course we cannot ignore the two men at the top of the ticket. How do they measure up? 

While Biden might lack the radiance of his running mate, he still weighs in well above his opponent (and I mean that figuratively because we all know which candidate literally weighs more). Biden has made countless gafs and racist comments over the years, but his tone is one of unity. And it always has been. Biden is not one to encourage bigotry, hatred, or vile acts of terrorism. On the other side of the coin, it seems that encouraging bigotry, hatred, and acts of terrorism is all that Trump does. He’s repeatedly said that Mexicans are rapists and criminals; he defended the gathering of literal murderous neo-Nazis in Charlottesville in 2017; and just earlier this week, he defended a group of terrorists who tried to force his political opponent off the road.

Though it may not seem like it, the country is facing a difficult choice. For centuries, our nation embraced bigotry and hate through policies like slavery, segregation, and redlining, and Trump is merely a continuation of that. For people of color, his policies are all too familiar. It’s hardly a break from the norm; it only feels that way because of Obama’s presidency.

And now, we stand at a crossroads. Not a choice between a Democrat and a Republican; not a choice between Trump or Biden; nor between liberal and conservative. But a choice between the very principles this nation was founded on but has always failed to live up to or yet another complete and utter betrayal of those principles.

The only thing you can do is vote.