“Not because they are easy, but because they are hard”

By Vihan Yalamanchili, Men4Choice Fellowship Alumni

On September 12, 1962, President John F. Kennedy made a speech at Rice University in which he spoke of the nation’s intentions to land a man on the moon by the end of the decade. We remember that as the ‘We choose to go to the moon’ address, and there was one particular quote in it that resonated with me. The President said, “We choose to go to the Moon and do the other things, not because they are easy but they are hard.” That would set the theme for the rest of the decade - the 1960s was a decade of great advancement and progress, despite also being a time of upheaval that saw mass protests against the Vietnam War, state crackdowns to defend the injustice of racial segregation, and political violence that saw President Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy assassinated., Despite these setbacks, we saw the passage of the Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act, and Fair Housing Act that would be the foundation to strengthen our democracy, end racial segregation, and fight discrimination. We saw the creation of NPR, PBS, the Peace Corps, Head Start, Medicare, and Medicaid (amongst other programs) as part of a War on Poverty and an effort to build a ‘Great Society’ in President Lyndon B. Johnson’s words, a society that strived to reduce economic inequality and which improved multiple areas of national life such as infrastructure, education, healthcare, and civil rights. As Kennedy promised, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin would be the first humans to land on the moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission by July 1969.

I was not alive during the 1960s, but six decades later, those achievements and the mindset required to make them reality still ring - a nation, that despite all its imperfections and injustices, dared to dream big, aim for the stars, and put in the work to rectify those injustices. Fulfilling those ideas and the policies that came with them were not a walk in the park, but required decades of implementation and tinkering, a well functioning bureaucracy that could expand as needed while being adaptable to changing times, and most importantly a commitment that government can and should work for the public interest. It has become apparent that we do not live in such a nation anymore, but I do not believe that it has to remain this way. 

I watched with shock as the national right to an abortion was taken away as Roe v. Wade was overturned. I remember being an organizer on Election Night 2024, seeing Donald Trump be declared the 47th President and feeling dejected and hopeless. I had worked for the Harris campaign, pouring countless hours into mobilizing and training volunteers, knocking on doors, making phone calls, and studying public policy and electoral data - in the spirit of defending democracy and spreading a message of hope. We had committed volunteers, many of whom showed up to multiple organizing events to put in their blood, sweat, and tears into this effort. Many Democrats, myself included, felt that there was an energy similar to that of President Obama’s historic election victory in 2008. But as November 5 had shown us, there was an element of tunnel vision with that sentiment and the nation had felt differently. People were feeling the very real effects of issues such as inflation, increasing inequality as the concentration of wealth amassed into a few individuals, and a lack of economic opportunity as college unaffordability and the advent of AI injected uncertainty - voters demanded change. Despite the country having made great strides in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, infrastructure modernization, and climate change mitigation, voters showed that they did not feel that continued Democratic governance provided them the hope they needed and reached towards the alternative. “Trump will fix it”, he said during campaign rallies, as he appealed to a wealthier and stronger America, a revival of the industrial base, order and security, and an end to the inflation that had been hard-hitting for people’s wallets across the country - at the expense of demonizing immigrants (whether undocumented or not), LGBTQ+ Americans, religious minorities, scientific experts, and others.

Five months into the Trump presidency, America already feels like a different place. The mood is darker, and we are neither wealthier nor stronger. The military reels from politically motivated purges, and GDP has contracted by 0.5% according to Trump’s own Commerce Department, putting the nation at a higher risk of recession. Inflation has ticked up to 2.7% as the tariff regime adds to the uncertainty and hits consumers harder while contributing to job losses disproportionately in the regions where Trump promised to bring them back. The mass deportation program being carried out tears families and more broadly immigrant communities apart while bringing no economic benefit to struggling Americans, and despite the promise to reduce crime and bring order, the government has only arrested 6% of non-citizen murderers while legal immigrants and US citizens are caught in the deportations as well. Is this what law and order looks like?

Scientists and researchers at the nation’s top universities lose funding from federal grants for political opposition and misconstrued accusations of wokeness as the threat of a brain drain looms. Programs such as those mentioned prior that people depend on to lead lives with opportunity, dignity, and purpose are cut in a chainsaw-like fashion by billionaires who will never have to worry about being personally affected by the resulting harm. Despite Trump’s promise to return the issue of abortion to the states, a flawed policy in and of itself, the provision to defund Planned Parenthood in the administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill threatens to curtail abortion access nationwide while other provisions weaken the Medicaid and Social Security systems that were hard fought under the New Deal and Great Society programs, with 10 million expected to lose health insurance coverage to pay for tax cuts for society’s wealthiest.  I do not need to go into every harmful policy pursued by the administration, but long story short, the situation looks bleak in terms of not just economic prosperity but the ideals that brought the country this far since its founding - freedom, democracy, opportunity, and justice. 

There are many theories on how we got here, but what is more important is how we move forward. While a polarized media ecosystem and social media algorithms that reinforce one’s existing views while excluding alternative or opposite perspectives have led many Americans to opposite poles unable to understand each other, a culture of media literacy and kindness in the public discourse can help overcome it. It is not merely enough for half of the country to hear out the Democratic argument, and Democrats must be unafraid to venture into spaces that can be hostile to their message and unabashedly present an alternative while listening to the concerns of people who engage with those spaces. Folks are increasingly moving to media sources that go beyond traditional news outlets, whether they may be social media, podcasts, or upstart publications - and it's important to engage them and meet people where they’re at. 

I could not emphasize this enough, but it would be worthwhile to recommit to President Kennedy’s ideal and dream of achieving things not because they are easy, but because they are hard. The policy road taken should not be the path of least resistance, but should be something that is inspirational, meaningful, and which provides hope to a citizenry that is increasingly but rightfully believing that the economic political systems are failing them. It is not merely enough to repair the problems that have been caused by and will continue to be caused by this administration, and it is necessary to move beyond the present and into the future - not one driven by fear, but one driven by hope. There are problems and challenges that remain unsolved - opportunity denying inequality, freedoms denied to the most marginalized, an affordability crisis, a universe barely explored, 26 million Americans without health insurance in the richest country in the world, and a planetary climate that threatens humanity’s survival, among others. So let’s once again aim for the stars, dream big, and build the Great Society. Not because it is easy, but because it is hard.