To be honest, I didn't really want to write anything about the election. But after Trump won and I saw the reaction and the hurt it has already caused, I feel that any possible voice I have is one that I should use.
I have been saddened by this election to a point I never expected. As a woman, I am concerned. As a white person, I am disappointed that my race makes up the majority of Trump's supporters and that we failed to acknowledge the privilege we have. Racism has been validated, rape culture and sexism have been perpetuated and homophobia and white supremacy are normalized by this election.
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I have tried to understand how any rational member of our society can justify voting for and supporting Donald Trump in a presidential election, and I just can't. I've been racking my brain, trying to look at this from different perspectives. The only way a Trump presidency makes sense to me is as if I was a successful, white businessman.
As a liberal Christian from Seattle, I can't really understand why anyone who knows Jesus would vote for Trump. The main reasons I have heard are to ban abortion and gay marriage. This frustrates me in many ways, but both of these issues have already been settled by the Supreme Court. We know what direction our country is (or was) going. There's nothing Trump himself can do that would change that. The Supreme Court does not reverse decisions lightly. Despite Trump's election, this country is making progress.
The biggest thing though, for me, is that I have spent my entire life hearing about God's unrelenting and unconditional love. How Jesus cared about those on the margins of society: women, sinners, people of different races and religions. How can you know this about Jesus and still support a man that has mocked the disabled, proposed banning an entire religion, treated women like objects, and wants to turn away and deport immigrants and separate families? He perpetuates division and discrimination, the opposite of Jesus's message of love.
I am by no means saying that you are not a "good" Christian if you voted for Trump, everyone has their reasons and priorities, and I am not in any place whatsoever to judge your relationship with God. This is just how my experience as a Christian has influenced my views on politics. There are good people who just don't understand how hurtful this is to people that are different from them.
But this election is more than just a new leader. Every single racist, bigot, sexist and homophobe in this country has now been validated. People now think that it is OK to explicitly and publicly harm people of color, the LGBTQ community, Muslims and women, and that is the real damage of Trump being elected. The fact that the KKK is celebrating this election should be an immediate, enormous red flag.
Maybe you voted for Trump and you don't think you support any of these negative things that he stands for, that you're only voting for his policies. That's fine, but your vote has clearly sent a conflicting message to the women, LGBTQ community and people of color in this country, saying that you don't care about their safety or rights.
A vote for Trump tells me that you have privilege and you're OK with leaving those who don't in the dust. It tells me that a woman (who I admit has made some mistakes) can work her whole life for something and be the most qualified candidate, and still she can lose to a severely under-qualified man.
I guess I just thought we had come further than this. The community I surrounded myself with in Seattle was accepting and loving, and I mistakenly assumed that it was a representation of our nation's progress. But the fact that over half the country supports a man who ran a campaign that's platform was oppression has shaken me.
To everyone who's been saying he won the election and we need to just accept it, I don't think we do. In fact, I refuse to. I don't think we should accept a president who only cares about straight, white men. I don't want to go back to the 1950's. Trump may still be president, and we can't change that, but we don't have to be happy about it.
We can give him a chance to prove us wrong but we still have to oppose what he stood for on the campaign trail and what he's represented for his entire career as a businessman and public figure.
This election can spur an outpouring of support for the marginalized and we can fight this hate that has erupted from the conservative right. Protests have already begun in New York, Chicago, Portland, Washington DC and Seattle. Our generation is going to be one of change.
Maybe Trump won't be as bad as we expect and fear; And maybe he'll be worse. Either way, the support he's received signals a bigger problem in this country. I am still trying to figure out where God is in all of this, and to be honest I feel helpless. I don't know what to do to reconcile this, but I will continue to try to figure it out and stand by the people who are afraid of what this election will bring.
