The reelection of Donald Trump as president raises numerous fears for me. His cult following and status as a messiah baffle and scare me. I do not share his dystopian vision for American society. Like nearly 50% of Americans, I didn’t vote for Trump. It’s small consolation that I’m not complicit in his reorganization of American society.

I fear the cumulative impact of Trump and his Project 2025 extreme-right proposals heading us toward a more authoritarian government and a society with significantly fewer civil rights and less economic opportunity. I fear that America will not be governed to benefit its people. Millions of Americans share this worry.

Close to home, I fear the U.S. will be a country of government-sanctioned discrimination against friends or children of friends who are gay, transgender, or disabled. Likewise for friends who are not white or Protestant. I fear Maine’s two Chinese-owned paper mills will close. I am afraid that Maine’s veterans’ health care will be severely cut as Elon Musk advocates.

I fear Trump will rule America primarily to benefit Wall Street, private equity firms, and members of the American billionaire aristocracy like Musk, Trump’s other 25 billionaire campaign donors, and of course, himself; not Maine’s working families struggling to afford a home or groceries.

I fear food prices will increase again. I fear how the loss of federal funding for Maine’s poorer, rural school systems will hurt children’s education. I am afraid neighbors will no longer be able to afford health insurance. I fear that violent storms like last winter’s that severely damaged the Maine coast and caused inland flooding will become annual disasters thanks to Trumps taxpayer funded subsidies of the oil industry.

My challenge to Trump and the Republican controlled Congress is to demonstrate that my fears are unfounded.

George Seel

Belgrade