The 2016 U.S. presidential election has finally come to a close and we have chosen our next president. A presidential candidate needs 270 electoral votes in order to get the presidency; Donald Trump won 290 electoral votes and Hillary Clinton received 228. Although Clinton won the popular vote, the system has elected Mr. Trump and he will be the next president of the United States. It’s Gore and Bush all over again – but with bigger consequences this time.
Congratulations, America. We have officially proven to the rest of the world that we are a nation full of halfwits. I understand that social issues mean little to nothing to many Trump supporters and that he received their vote based entirely upon his plans for the economy, but I refuse to accept that as an excuse to elect a bigot. Instead of electing our first female president, we chose a man who is publicly endorsed by Vladimir Putin. Our first black president will be handing the presidency over to someone who is supported by the leader of the KKK. We elected a celebrity-- a man with absolutely zero political background—into the oval office. Moving forward, I hope that we all understand what’s at stake.
Donald Trump will not make America great again because America wasn’t that great in the first place. If anything, the 2016 election has proved that. Half of our country supports a man who is publicly racist, sexist, and fascist. We have not moved forward as a people or as a country.
Trump wants to deport the foundation of our country. Illegal immigrants make up a huge percentage of people working the jobs that are fundamental in making America tick. They are embedded in and participating in our economy. Undocumented workers are working the low-skill, low-paying jobs that Americans don’t want and don’t think about, like crop picking and other farm labor, animal slaughter, housekeeping, and taxi driving. If all of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants were to leave the U.S., the economy would be in shambles and we’d have more jobs than we’d know what to do with. Immigrants are taking American jobs, but only the ones that Americans don’t want.
Of course, all of this talk of deportation stems not from his concern for the economy, but rather his deeply racist motives. In 2011, Trump spearheaded a campaign to prove that President Obama was not born in the United States. Doing this allowed Trump to connect with the percentage of the electorate that was not exactly comfortable with having their first black president. In 2011, he discovered a niche of racism that he wedged himself into; he familiarized himself with the people who voted for him in the 2016 election because of his promises of a wall and to take down ISIS. Trump has called Latinx immigrants criminals, rapists, and killers, has announced that all people who practice Islam are members of ISIS, that Obama is an ISIS leader (with the assistance of Hillary Clinton), and has said that black people are lazy and thieves. Aside from all this, he also treats racial groups as monoliths—“the Hispanics,” “the Muslims,” “the blacks”—as if every member of these groups is the same and interchangeable.
An upsetting statistic from the election tells us that 76% of female voters voted for Trump. This is a man who has multiple rape and sexual assault allegations, a man who has issued a public apology for using disgusting, objectifying language to describe women, and a man who continues to shame women for their sexuality and blame shortcomings on their gender. Is this really the man you think would be best fit for your sons to look up to for the next four years? Is this really the kind of treatment that you want your daughters to expect from men? It is never acceptable for men to speak about women the way that Donald Trump does. He doesn’t believe in the wage gap and he has said that Hillary Clinton would be a bad fit for president just because she’s a woman. His supporters say things like “what if she’s on her period and starts a war?” Disgusting, crude, and unacceptable.
His VP, Mike Pence, may be even worse. Pence supports gay conversion therapy, a form of treatment that has a high suicide rate and uses religion as a path to heterosexuality. It is absolute torture and frankly brainwashing. Pence has also implored Trump to reverse all of the steps that we’ve taken toward trans bathroom equality, and has said things (that Trump endorses) such as “we don’t want grown men sharing bathrooms with little girls.”
We are just a few days into what Americans are calling “Trump’s America.” Already, people have taken to social media and bigotry has reared its ugly head. Students are wearing blackface and posing in front of confederate flags, cars are being vandalized with racial slurs, young students are calling their classmates “cotton pickers,” and Muslim women are terrified of wearing a hijab in public. Is this the America we want to live in? Where minorities make up over 30% of our country and are terrified to be themselves and live in their own skin?
To all of my friends out there reading this who are not white, heterosexual, or male, I’m sorry that this is the new America that we expect to live in. I will work hard every day in order to protect you in every way I can and to create an environment where you feel safe. Donald Trump is not my president, and he will not make America great.
