"I'm not angry at you... I'm just disappointed."
I remember when my mother would say this to me as a child for the times I would make a severe mistake where she couldn't even punish me. My mother would just let me sit and brew in my own guilt and embarrassment.
That is how I felt the morning after the Presidential election.
I felt like a parent who watched his child make a decision that was against everything you had taught him.
I felt disappointed.
Everyone can agree that this election cycle was a circus of ridiculousness and oddity. Everything we had come to expect with the American people was thrown out the window.
Like most people, I remember when Donald Trump announced his candidacy. It was such a strange sight to see the orange business mogul decide to 'fix' what he saw that was wrong with America.
Suddenly the election became... different.
The soon to be president began becoming hard to predict, with his speeches and debates being rowdy and erratic. Interrupting candidates, and giving almost incredibly outrageous platforms while being as vague as possible.
From here we heard it all.
“An ‘extremely credible source’ has called my office and told me that Barack Obama’s birth certificate is a fraud”
“Ariana Huffington is unattractive, both inside and out. I fully understand why her former husband left her for a man – he made a good decision.”
“You know, it really doesn’t matter what the media write as long as you’ve got a young, and beautiful, piece of ass.”
“I’ve said if Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.”
“I will build a great wall – and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me – and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.”
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending the best. They’re not sending you, they’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bring crime. They’re rapists… And some, I assume, are good people.”
“The beauty of me is that I’m very rich.”
“My fingers are long and beautiful, as, it has been well documented, are various other parts of my body.”
Wow.
Then there were his rallies. The then presidential candidate was also infamous for his rallies and sponsored events, where there were usually reports of violence, as protesters often times were uprooted and sometimes downright punched in the face. It was not usual for Trump to encourage violence against insurgence, resulting in this divide between those who supported the outrageous candidate and those who did not. For the most part, Trump relied on this outrageousness to keep in the middle of controversy. Being in the thick of it all allowed him to control how his messages were received.
Whether or not you agree with his 'policies' you cannot ignore the sheer craziness of his rise to power. This was an unprecedented and unforeseen election cycle that most dreaded the end of.
And for some, they were like my mother. Disappointed. To many, Trump's promises and platform intimidated their freedoms and rights. He was, after all, endorsed by the KKK, Putin, and Kim Jong-Un; the three greatest ideological enemies of the United States.
I, myself am disappointed in the United States. Not because of Trump himself, but because we as a people decided that the man with no political experience and decency become the representative of who we ourselves are to the world. Remember when the leaders of England met together to ban his entry into the country for speech of hate? Is this who we are as a people?
I guess it is.
