I remember when President George W. Bush was booed at President Barack Obama’s inauguration, and even though I was not a President Bush supporter, I still believed that booing him was wrong. President Bush led our nation for 8 years, and even though I disagreed with some of his actions, he was still our president. I told my 11-year-old self, that no matter who our president was, I would always respect him. But now I’m 18 years old, and our president is a man that I fear.
How can I respect a man that referred to immigrants, like my father, as criminals in his presidential announcement? How can I accept that the man who will lead our great nation has exhibited blatant misogyny? How can I call a man like Donald Trump president? How can I give him the honor of that title? And how can I possibly call him my president when he has made it clear that he does not respect or value my basic human rights?
This is where many of us Hilary supporters found ourselves after the results of the election had poured in. Confused. Disappointed. And surrounded by hashtags saying #NotMyPresident and #ImStillWithHer. So do we proceed with a dignity and grace that some would say Trump does not deserve, or do we refuse to accept what is a fact? Simple. We do what Hilary did, and what other politicians and world leaders have been doing; we graciously accept that we lost this battle, but the war for what we believe is right and just will never be over.
Donald Trump is not America, we are America. We are the republicans that voted for Hilary, the members of voter protection teams that vowed to protect all voters, the college students that voted for the first time. We make America great.
So where do we go from here?
1) We marvel at how great America is
I live in a country where I have the freedom of speech, and I am able to write articles like this without worrying about my safety. I got to vote for a woman for president and my friends got to vote for a man that now has the honor of leading our great nation. And we both got to vote based off of our own free will without fear that our political opinion could make us a target of violence.2) We remind ourselves that the power of America lies in our hands
“This government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth,” that’s what Lincoln said in the Gettysburg address, and though centuries have passed, the validity of his words remains. We can protest, we can lobby, we can create non-profits organizations to services areas of need- we have the power. And we are better together.
3) Love, listen, and learn
Because, for better or worse, we’re all in this together. So cheers to the next four years, it’s up to us to make the best of them.
