Voting matters because the people who hold power make decisions about our rights, our schools, our livelihoods, and our ability to build a future. Those decisions do not affect everyone equally.

An honest conversation about this country must include what is on the line for Black and Brown people, women, students, and families struggling to afford everyday life. Calling these concerns “politics” does not make their consequences any less real.

The accompanying video of Kamala Harris criticizing Donald Trump opens a conversation that deserves more than a passing comment. We need to examine what this administration is doing, who bears the consequences, and how voters can demand accountability.

Civil Rights and Opportunity Are on the Line

In January 2025, Trump revoked Executive Order 11246, the longstanding order requiring federal contractors to take affirmative action and prohibiting employment discrimination. His order also directed federal agencies to dismantle specified DEI requirements and pursue programs the administration considers unlawful. Other federal antidiscrimination laws remain in place, but that does not make this rollback insignificant. Read the executive order.

The administration describes its approach as restoring merit. My concern is that removing measures intended to address exclusion does not remove exclusion itself.

For Black and Brown communities, the question is concrete: What happens to access to employment and advancement when government retreats from tools designed to address unequal opportunity? Who will identify discriminatory practices, enforce protections, and make sure qualified people get a fair chance?

Equal opportunity requires more than saying everyone is equal. It requires confronting the barriers that prevent equality in practice.

Women’s Rights Are Not Guaranteed

The overturning of Roe v. Wade eliminated the federal constitutional protection for abortion, leaving access dependent on state policies and ongoing legal battles. KFF tracks those restrictions and protections.

Reproductive freedom concerns bodily autonomy, medical decisions, and whether someone can obtain needed care where they live. A person with money to travel has options that someone without transportation, paid leave, or childcare may not have.

Elections shape the lawmakers who write these laws and the officials who appoint judges. Rights that people once assumed were secure can change. That is a consequence of political power.

Our Children’s Education Deserves Protection

In March 2025, the Trump administration’s Education Department announced a workforce reduction of nearly 50 percent. The department said it would continue its legally required programs, including student aid and support for students with disabilities. Read the department’s announcement.

That promise deserves scrutiny. How will a drastically smaller workforce administer those responsibilities, respond to families, and protect students?

Public education should give children access to opportunity regardless of their ZIP code, family income, race, or disability. Families deserve answers about the capacity to deliver that promise. Students should not have to absorb the consequences of political experiments.

The Economy Is a Kitchen-Table Issue

People do not need a campaign slogan to tell them what their budgets feel like. They need affordable groceries, enough gas to get to work, manageable rent, and a realistic path to homeownership.

The August 2026 Consumer Price Index reported grocery prices 2.2 percent above a year earlier, gasoline prices 27.4 percent higher, and shelter costs 3 percent higher. These national figures do not describe every household, but they document continuing pressure on necessities. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics.

When rent consumes the money someone hoped to save for a down payment, homeownership can feel out of reach. Buying a home requires more than determination; the price, financing, insurance, and other expenses must fit the buyer’s income.

An economy should be evaluated by whether ordinary people can live with stability and build a future not simply by whether leaders call it successful.

Voting Access Is a Question of Power

Trump’s March 2025 elections executive order sought documentary proof of citizenship for the federal voter registration form. That describes what the order attempted to require, rather than establishing the voting rules currently applicable in every state. Read the order.

Election security and access both deserve protection. Any new requirement should face a basic test: Does it address a demonstrated problem without unnecessarily blocking eligible citizens?

If our vote doesn’t matter, why are there such determined efforts to control who can cast it and under what conditions?

That question does not establish every politician’s motive. It does expose the weakness in the claim that voting is pointless. The rules governing participation matter because participation helps determine who holds power.

Voting cannot repair every injustice by itself. It works alongside organizing, public scrutiny, legal challenges, and sustained civic involvement. But surrendering a voice in choosing leaders leaves consequential decisions in other people’s hands.

Examine the records. Ask what candidates will do to protect rights, support education, and make daily life more affordable. Research the entire ballot and use official election resources to make a voting plan.

Our rights, our children’s opportunities, and our ability to afford a future deserve a place on the ballot—and in every demand we make of those who seek our votes.