This is the article that will probably make me lose respect from peers, friends from Facebook, and receive radically unfounded insults about my character. Oh, well.
I am not trying to undermine or belittle anyone's fear, anger, or disgust in the election results. Yes, you have a right to your feelings. Yes, you have a right to voice those feelings.
You can catastrophize, think the world is coming to an end, and try to leave the country--but please do not riot in the streets. Please do not act violently. Please refrain from filling social media with more hate and division than there was pre-election. Now is not the time to be a divided people.
I understand we have the right to protest laws and systems and status quos that we want uprooted in this country, believe me I am all for protesting for a good cause as long as it is a peaceful protest. Protesting against a president that we chose for ourselves, however, doesn't make sense to me.
You may be saying "Well I didn't vote for him! So protest I will!". Well yeah, maybe you didn't, but that's how elections work, not everyone wins.
Saying "NotMyPresident" seems ridiculous to me because, no matter how much you might hate Donald Trump, he WILL be your president. He WILL hold that title. This is your REALITY whether you like it or not, and unless you move to another country, saying he is not your president is a silly thing to be in denial about.
Yes, Hillary won the popular vote. However, there have been elections in the past where the winner of the election had lost the popular vote. Demanding to reject the electoral vote system when it does not work in your favor is not fair, because I guarantee that if the tables were turned, people would be just fine with our electoral vote system. You can't demand the rules of the game to change just because you lost.
Look, Trump is not my favorite person. Hillary is not my favorite person. I just think that a democracy is a democracy is a democracy.
If you only agree with democracy ONLY when it agrees with you then I think you are missing the point. There is no "i" in democracy, we make decisions as a team and the majority of that team wants to see what Trump could be as president.
I understand that this is not any regular republican winning, more is at stake, the social movements we have made in the past 10 years are in danger right? Maybe. Maybe not. Let's find out.
We have a check and balances system that's very function is to prevent laws from being passed that would be outlandish. If you trusted in this system for every other president you didn't like, please try to trust in that system now. I'm not asking you to believe in Trump, I'm asking you to believe that our entire government system--made up of tons of politicians from different backgrounds and educations--are not all a mass of Trump clones.
Trump's presidency might look different than the Trump campaign. It will be more productive and beneficial to work WITH Trump and everyone else in Washinton D.C. to better our country instead of saying "wake me up when four years are over". You do not have to like him personally, you do not have to call him your "homie" like so many did with Obama. Presidents are meant to be leaders, not our best friends. We should not be so bitter as to stunt him from actual positive progress for the country just because we are scared of the worst case scenarios. Let's cross that bridge IF and WHEN we get to it. THEN we can protest. THEN we can say "the law you are trying to pass does not represent the people, your job is to represent the people". Then and only then should we stand up and fight, but right now people are standing up to fight a democracy in action. Let's pick our battles.
Until then, let's "bind the wounds of division" like Trump stated, and work together to get the kind of country we want. You can hold your breath and wait for him to screw up, or you can hope for the best, prepare for the worst, and not react too quickly.
The election is over. Let's find a way to move our country forward, "as one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all" .
