‘What we’re scared about is not the same’: Woman eloquently explains the key differences between what Democrats and Republicans fear

In the wake of the 2024 presidential election, there are many reasonable justifications for Americans to feel afraid of what’s coming. While a Trump administration will bring more harm to certain groups and communities than others, the consequences will undoubtedly sweep through the nation, leaving only a select few unscathed or benefiting from the changes.

On the morning of Nov. 6, when many U.S. citizens had to come to grips with the reality of a convicted felon and adjudicated sexual abuser being (once again) handed the reins of the nation, this TikToker, Lacey Lee, posted a video unpacking the reasons why people have legitimate reasons to be fearful.

Nowadays, due to our severely polarized environment, it can be incredibly hard for people on opposite sides of the political spectrum to listen to one another without the words going in one ear and straight out the other.

So, unsurprisingly, even with Lacey’s well-articulated and well-founded 1-minute tirade on the reasons why some people are understandably terrified in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s victory, a few Republicans felt inclined to push back. The pushback then prompted Lacey to make a subsequent video response that’s even better and more incisively formulated.

Right on the money

Responding to someone claiming they had felt scared for the entirety of Joe Biden’s presidency, Lacey filmed a longer 3-minute video letting them know at which points the fears of Harris voters and Trump voters overlap – especially when it comes to not being able to afford groceries and the struggle of living paycheck to paycheck – and where the Left and the Right’s fears take completely different forms.

Lacey picks apart how most Republicans’ fears lie with things – or rather, other human beings – that they have been repeatedly told they should blame for all their concerns and misgivings. For instance, undocumented immigrants, who are the ever-constant scapegoat – and, as Lacey points out, largely include good people doing their best to reside and work in the country legally. “What you are scared of,” Lacey says, “isn’t actually happening.” After listing a list of recurrent fears for Right-wing individuals, she states what these essentially amount to: “fearmongering.”

Writing for The Atlantic, David Frum, a center-right individual who used to be George W. Bush’s speechwriter, reveals how he made the “mistake” of believing that the Trump campaign’s “lying might work up to a point. I believed that the point would be found just on the right side of the line between election and defeat—and not, as happened instead, on the other side.”

Unfortunately, it seems that for certain people the realization of their choice’s gravity may only come once the rippling fallout starts being felt across the country like toppling dominoes of consequences. Some, as this commenter Lacey addresses in a follow-up video, are too stuck in their prejudices and misconceptions to take off the blindfold.

Thankfully, the majority of people in Lacey’s comments can see she’s talking sense. Although it might be tempting to become apathetic and jaded, losing hope is not the way forward. TikTokers like Lacey use their platform to its full meaningful potential by seeking to combat bigotry and nonobjectivity and doing their utmost to advocate for some much-needed factual perspective that one is unable to reach when deep in “Trump is going to save us all” delusion.