"If we go to the polls thinking that maybe 'One vote wouldn't make a difference', those 'one votes' can accumulate to create the fate of our country for the next four years." This was the marquee of one of my articles for the Odyssey.
Stupefyingly and surprisingly, those "one votes" (or lack thereof) have decided our fate. It is orange in color and is decorated with misogyny, racism, chauvinism, xenophobia, and yes, it champions grabbing women without consent. It has polarized the nation between reds and blues. It has revealed that the United States of America is, in fact, not united anymore -- it is a nation divided. And this "fate" is the 45th President of the United States, the most powerful man in the world, the commander-in-chief of the army, the diplomatic head of the country, and yes, he will soon be known by the name of Donald Trump.
Before casting his vote this Tuesday, my father said, "He (Trump) is going to win". I brushed off the thought thinking how can he be even remotely right when most polls and forecasts show otherwise. As a matter of fact, the NYTimes pre-election poll showed that there was a 85% chance that Hilary Clinton will be our next President. Hence, I cast my vote, for the first time, in the presidential election and (proudly) donned the "I voted" sticker on my jacket with an almost negligible concern about the outcome of the election. A Trump trump seemed like one of those insignificant and inanimate "what ifs" lurking at the back of my head among impossibilities like "I'm going to the gym" and "The sun will rise from the west". This election, however, the sun did rise from the west..
Looking forward to Hilary Clinton "breaking the glass ceiling", I went on about my day from class to class, and one boring lecture to another. Even when Trump was soaring in electoral votes, the very notion that Donald Trump can win seemed absurd. After obsessing over the whole debacle till 1:00 am, I decided to "sleep it off".
But the next morning was like an extended nightmare that brought with itself a pang of emotions ranging from outright rage to utter disappointment in our country. The tide of red on the electoral map blinded me. Not because it was indicative of a political leaning not my own, but because it was indicative of support for a man who capitalizes on hate. Throughout the day, I buoyed in a lull of sheer disbelief and simultaneous disappointment.
There is no denying that this election year has been, by far, the most sensationalized, polarized, and scandalized one, with FBI investigating a Presidential nominee (twice) for mishandling of confidential information two days before the elections, with one of our presidential nominees dazed at the mention of Aleppo (the city being dubbed as Syria's "necropolis"), and with our Presidential-elect being the epitome of the word "incompetent." But this election year has concurrently been revelatory. It has revealed the increasing distrust among the masses in the establishment. As Frank Bruni wrote in his article "The Democrats screwed up" for the Times, "Donald Trump’s victory and some of the, yes, deplorable chants that accompanied it do not mean that a majority of Americans are irredeemable bigots (though too many indeed are). Plenty of Trump voters chose him, reluctantly, to be an agent of disruption." The election results prove that our political engine needs grave reform. Because if the so-called "We the people" can choose an indubitable bigot over someone from the bureaucracy, the same "We the people" can carry out a coup to seize power.
This Tuesday was reminiscent of the "Black Tuesday" of 1929, the beginning of the Great Depression. Like in 1929, this Tuesday has birthed angst and terminated hope.
