When I first heard Donald Trump was running for President, I thought it was a joke. I pushed it back in my mind, like I did when Kanye West announced that he would run in 2020, as a funny concept that would never actually happen. I thought to myself: "Americans are better than that." I knew for a fact that we, as a country, would not elect someone who was so underqualified and rude. That’s all I knew about Donald Trump. Besides that his catchphrase was “You’re fired!” I just thought that he was rude. Boy, was I in for a wild ride.

Then, he started showing his true colors. When he first started saying racist comments about Mexicans, I thought “Oh, finally people will stop supporting him. There’s no way someone who’s blatantly racist can continue in the presidential race.” In reality, that was only the beginning. People did not stop supporting him. Every time I heard Trump talk about how Mexicans are all illegal immigrants that are stealing our jobs or Muslims are all dangerous terrorists, I started to realize that the people who were supporting him believed these things too. He was getting such massive support that I realized I had this false hope of most Americans--- people who were kind, smart and didn’t generalize races, which wasn’t the reality. Seeing the large amounts of people keep supporting Trump and buying into his fear mongering made it clear that a lot of Americans agreed with his hateful statements. The scariest part, for me, was when I was hit with the harsh reality that I knew people in “real life” that supported this man. I was, to put it lightly, shocked.

Now, this is not to say that everyone who supports Trump is a bad person. This is not true, as I know many great people who are on board with his campaign. But, this meant that his terrible comments about certain groups of people didn’t bother them enough to stop supporting him and that they were buying into his scapegoating of these groups. I couldn’t believe it.

Fast forward through the campaign, to today, where Donald Trump is the official Republican nominee. Throughout his campaign, Trump has insulted Mexicans, Muslims, Prisoners of War, African-Americans, people with disabilities, and more. Yet, he’s still going strong. Politicians have endorsed him, large amounts of people go to his rallies, and I am genuinely afraid he could become the President of the United States.

Recently, a tape of Donald Trump saying horrible things about women on an Access Hollywood bus in 2005 emerged. His comments in a conversation with Billy Bush included Trump saying that he could do anything he wanted to women because of his fame. It was, all around, disturbing. Shortly after, Trump posted an apology video on his Facebook. Yet, at the debate a couple days later, he dismissed this kind of horrific conversation as “locker-room talk”. He also implied that, since he said it over ten years ago, he shouldn’t be judged. This angered me for many different reasons. If Donald Trump were around twenty years old and he had said something hateful and ignorant over ten years ago, I could see his point. When you’re young, you don’t realize the affect of your words and you’re not fully educated yet. But, when Trump said these comments, he was a grown man in his late fifties. At this age, men should know without a doubt to respect women and their bodies. Also, dismissing these comments as something men say in locker rooms and don’t really mean is exactly why men actually do sexually assault women. By brushing off this kind of talk, it normalizes these kinds of actions and influences men to not take rape seriously.

After this tape came out, many politicians who endorsed Donald Trump changed their minds and publicly pulled their support. It’s been the most talked about mistake Trump has made and many people have decided it’s time to stop supporting this man. His own running mate, Mike Pence, said he could not defend the presidential candidate. My question for these people is, why now? After every offensive thing Trump has said throughout his campaign, now you decide he’s not fit to be president? Why? Is it because you have a sister, mother, or daughter who you couldn’t imagine someone talking that way about? Well, besides being those things, women are also people. So are Mexicans, Muslims, and the other groups of people Trump has offended immensely. We, as a country, need to become more loving and accepting of people no matter how different they are from ourselves. Just because someone is a different religion, gender, race, sexuality than you doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be concerned about them being treated horribly. Donald Trump’s campaign has showed me that America is brutally divided. All I can hope is that Americans will stop defining others by their differences and come together to support any kind of person, just because they’re people. Oh, and also that Donald Trump is not the next President of the United States.