It’s not so much that I am angry or that I am sad about the election results--it's that I can't quite shake that particular, queasy, chilling feeling of disappointment. Social progress, as it almost always is in America, is very slow...but I genuinely thought we were making it--but I fear with a Trump presidency all of this will be erased.
Look, I'm not here to say that the election is rigged or that each and every single Trump supporter is a racist--or spout off any other form of sour grapes... because as disappointed as I am, I respect the electoral process and I know that for the most part those who voted for Trump are not how we stereotype them. Besides the point, I don't wish to paint such a large portion of people with such a broad stroke, it's not healthy for a Democracy to have 2 sides automatically have such nasty preconceived notions about each other (that's kind of how we got in this clusterfuck of divisiveness and extremism in the first place). Moreover, it's no use crying over spilt milk and I sincerely hope that Donald Trump does a good job as President. I don't want my worst fears coming true.
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But I'm not going to lie: I have lost a lot of respect for Trump supporters who claim to be the Religious Right, who claim to be "values voters."
Regardless of whatever any citizen may think about Hillary Clinton (and indeed Hillary Clinton is not exactly Mother Teresa), it's very hard to argue that Trump is not a living embodiment of sin and hatred in our country. This is a man who has committed adultery and has been accused of sexual assault by many different women, has openly advocated for violence-- "paying the legal bills" of supporters at his rallies, has allegedly conned $ out of people through Trump University, has STILL not released his tax returns—therefore we know very little about his business dealings, has lied about giving to charity, has openly called for a ban of one religion in Islam, has made a habit of saying things in the most reprehensible way possible "grab 'em by the *****"--the list goes on.
I know that many Trump supporters are willing to look past this, due to Hillary Clinton being the Democratic Nominee—from what I have gathered, this fact combined with the notion that Trump supporters feel as though the issues that Trump has harped on make up for all his scandals and outrageous remarks he has said, justify voting for Trump. In my opinion however, I think that even if he were to align with my views politically I could not in good conscience vote for him—I don’t think that “correct” political views justify continuous abhorrent wrongdoings. One may be quick to call me a hypocrite then for voting for Hillary Clinton with this logic but through my own research, I have come to the conclusion that many of the so-called scandals struck against her—Benghazi, her email scandal, the Clinton Foundation, have been rooted in fallacies and lies (again though, there are legitimate gripes with Hillary Clinton—but I don’t think the concerns would have stretched nearly as far with her—this election in my mind and many others’ minds were truly a lesser of two evils).
I think the reason that so many Americans, such as myself, are upset with Trump winning the Presidency is that it is often thought that being a true President for the people, requires a President with good character—regardless of their political views. Trump’s scandals, bombastic tweets, awful narcissistic temperament, and now his dreadful cabinet picks filled with rich millionaires (after proclaiming to “drain the swamp”) do much to exemplify that he is not truly for the people, that indeed his “act” during the election cycle was not an act but a taste of what a Trump presidency will entail.
I believe it also frankly sickens others that did not vote for Trump because Trump supporters have the audacity to claim that Trump will somehow unite us all after literally running one of the most divisive campaigns in American history.
But I could go on for days ranting.
I think there are a myriad of lessons to be learned here, but perhaps more important than any of the others:
We shouldn't have treated Trump's campaign like such a joke. Yes...I'll admit that I got my kicks from laughing at him so much at first, but the reality is (as is readily apparent now) Trump struck a chord with a lot of Americans with legitimate concerns!...
Term limits for Congress and Senate...taking on the Establishment, trade deals which have screwed us over, worries about immigrants and the premium hikes of ObamaCare? I'll reiterate: those are legitimate concerns from several voters! And instead of addressing those voters head on, Democrats alienated them. Instead of listening to them Democrats laughed at them and got complacent in voting while Trump's "Deplorable" (Dear God...WHY DID HILLARY SAY THIS?) supporters felt motivated to come out and vote against us. We had an opportunity to seriously discuss important issues in peoples' lives and instead we found ways to discuss nothing but fluff and headlines and clash heads with one another.
So there you have it. We have some serious work to do, but we should really reflect on and learn from what happened here to assure that history doesn't repeat itself.
There is plenty of blame to go around—from the media which greatly profited from this election cycle and did not seem to care about the result, to the DNC and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, to the candidate Hillary Clinton herself, to partisan politics and the awful messaging to alienated white working class voters, to the subtle arrogance of many who opposed Trump (I won’t get into this, but I definitely noticed it), to the AWFUL 17 candidate Republican Primary, etc. but in mentioning all these difficulties, it is clear to me that there is not one single issue (or person for that matter), which led to Trump winning.
If Trump’s cabinet picks are any indication—this is going to be a long 4 years. Hold on tight to your sanity.
