Dear Mr. Trump,
I did not vote for you, but I expect you to be my president.
I didn't vote for you because I believe in what our founding fathers wrote when they boldly declared their hopes for this nation: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
But Mr. Trump, aside from your classic conservative view on abortion, it appears that you don’t view all people as equal. Throughout your campaign, you continuously mocked, ridiculed, and devalued those who are different than you. We all know you have no respect for Hillary Clinton — we saw that in your interruptions during debates and your tweets and your ‘crooked Hillary’ ads. We also know that your disrespect for others is not confined to the political sphere. I was babysitting a little boy with Down syndrome when a clip of you mocking a disabled reporter was playing on the TV. You have disrespected Muslims, Mexican-Americans, Black Americans, immigrants, women, the LGBT community, and war heroes — just to name a few. And you have refused to apologize for your failure to recognize them as people with unalienable rights.
Luckily, some of us caught you red-handed. We saw through your refusal to recognize others’ rights and extend human dignity to them. I didn’t love Hillary when I began to entertain the idea of voting for her, but in the end, she couldn’t have made me prouder when she twisted her loss into a message to the communities that she fought for (when you failed to recognize their human rights). “Nothing has made me prouder than to be your champion,” she said with grace on Wednesday morning.
Mr. Trump, I didn’t vote for you, but many people did. A lot could be said about the racial slurs and divisive victory chants that many have so freely shouted since your election. Here's what day one in Donald Trump's America looked like thanks to extreme racists who made sure that they are safe -- and that anyone different than them is in danger.
The majority of America voted for you. (Disclaimer: the majority of your voters are not bigoted racists, but your words and behavior have given those few white elitists permission to continue behavior that is directly opposite our inclusive values as Americans.) Nonetheless, the majority made you President. That title provides you with the power you’ve been craving. To be powerful is to be unparalleled in authority. For a man who loves to have the last word, who makes others small in order for himself to feel big, and who interrupts his competition just to prove that his voice is louder… this new power seems like a big win for you.
Mr. Trump, I’d like to give you a different perspective on your new office.
Your job now is to represent every single person in America — not just those who voted for you. Your job is no longer to win the approval of the majority. Your job now is to represent the minorities, too.
We will hold you to that responsibility.
The job of the executive branch is threefold: commander in chief, chief executive, and head of state. Mr. Trump, you are now our Queen Elizabeth as much as you are our Napoleon.
I have a feeling that you will love your job as commander-in-chief, ordering the military to blow the guts out of people you don’t like. I think you’ll like being chief executive, too; you will enjoy holding all the power in the world in your expensive fountain pen. I’d like to challenge you to work on the third part. You have a long journey ahead of you if you wish to be respected in history like we respect Washington and Lincoln and Kennedy and Johnson. Yes, a lot of your appeal was the fact that you’re an outsider to politics. You’re unrefined and unafraid to offend people. A lot of voters liked that about you. But you’re president now. Act like it.
If these hate crimes prove anything except that racism is still very much alive and thriving, they prove that what you say as head of state matters. People are listening to you. Children are imitating you. Your angry, hateful campaign has become the song of the majority.
Mr. Trump, you are responsible for creating this dynamic. Because of you, children on the bus feel that their new president has granted them permission to pull knives on classmates. Because of you, people on the streets feel that their new president has granted them permission to yell racist slurs at passersby. America is full of hate today because you stood in the spotlight and told the majority that the minorities don't matter. What you say -- and what you have said in the past -- matters.
In addition to establishing all men’s (and now, women’s) equal rights in America, the Declaration of Independence also states that the government is established by “deriving its just powers from the consent of the governed.” We, the citizens of this already-great country, are the reason you have any power at all.
We, the American people, are counting on you. You promised to “make America great again,” but your vision of America disregards a hell of a lot of people. We are scared. Children of immigrants are worried that their parents will be deported and they will be left orphans in their own homes. The LGBT community is worried that you will diminish their humanity and destroy their rights as American citizens. Women are worried that you will continue to set the precedent that treating women with the highest level of disrespect does not disqualify someone from a powerful and honored position. Muslims are worried that you will continue to discriminate against them based on little knowledge of their religion and culture. The disabled are worried that you will continue not to regard them as people. War heroes are worried that you will continue to publicly disparage their service to our country.
Your vision to “make America great again” may make it great for you and the other wealthy white men of America. But there are other people who live here, too. You are just as much our president as you are the president of those who voted for you. You are now the president of poor white men and wealthy black women and LGBT youth and Muslim families and the dignified immigrants who contribute to our society. Mr. Trump, you are the president of all of us. Every single American. The majority and the minorities. We expect you to respect us.
I don't necessarily agree with these "not my president" chants. I don't think Hillary Clinton would condone my classmates storming the quad on Friday afternoon to protest your election. In fact, she told us that "we owe [you] an open mind and a chance to lead." (I do think, however, based on your behavior over the past 18 months, that you would condone the "get out of this country" or "go back where you came from" chants that followed young children on the school bus the morning after your election.) Protesters' rejection of you does not at all prove their support of anything else, so I think these protests are petty and ignorant. You will be president. We cannot change that. But there is something we can change. Embedded deeply in these protests is a plea for something that only you, the future President of the United States, can give us. We, women, children, immigrants, Black Americans, war veterans, disabled people, Democrats, poverty-stricken communities... we are asking for respect in all its forms, but especially from our chief legislator and head of state.
The office of president is a huge job. You asked for this job. We expect you to fill it. Not only for the majority, but also for all the minorities who need your help — to make America great for them, too.
Sincerely,
A female college student with no money and no fame
