At around 2:30 AM on Tuesday night, my roommate and I went to bed after watching the electoral votes add up in favor of Donald Trump. The next morning I checked and the Republicans had also taken a majority in the House and the Senate. The world has shifted in a way that it hasn’t for a long time. I’ve been tired since Tuesday night because I don’t know what’s going to happen to this country. This election brought such a divide to our people and as much as I may love politics, I was ready for it to all be over. But then, against all odds, he won. I watched Hillary Clinton’s concession speech in my school’s cafeteria and teared up at her words which, as a woman in this new world, I found to be comforting and necessary. She is not my president and a part of me is relieved by that fact. But the other part of me is scared because I wasn’t prepared for this.
I’m seeing videos of protests and long posts about who hates whom more. I wonder if it could’ve been different, but it’s not. The most uncomfortable thing is that we do not really know where this man and his administration will take us. He’s flip-flopped on his policies throughout his campaign and has hardly even maintained the conservative ideology at times. His 100-day plan is available for all to read and I highly suggest doing so, though it’s important to take it with a grain of salt. 100 days is not a lot of time, especially for such ambitious plans. Yet this will undoubtedly be a presidency unlike any other.
I still struggle to say that I’ve accepted his presidency and I don’t know that I ever will. But nonetheless I am hoping that he finds a way to pull this off. I’m hoping he can surround himself with smart people who understand how this government works. I hope he really does fix the corruption that career politicians have created. Most of all I wish that he does not strip the rights of those who are so worried and so afraid of what he has promised. But there were enough people who believed that for some reason this man is what we need. It is imperative that we realize that this was not for no reason. Though I would never go so far as to say that America needs to be “made great again”, I do understand that people are upset with the state of our nation.
For now, the most important thing is to still have faith and hope in this country. Americans are wonderfully resilient people who have been through the best of times and the worst of times. Ordinary citizens can and will make a difference during these next four years. We were a group of people so heavily involved in this election, each for our own reasons. Do not let that passion die, do not let your voice be quieted. This is your country and one man will not take that away from you. I hope that these next four years will be quicker than they seem, but they are the next four years.
