Before I begin, I want to let you all know that I will keep this article as factual as I possibly can. By now, you are all probably sick and tired of reading everyone's ill-informed opinion on politics, no matter who they are. I want to use this article to discuss the election results and what they mean for our country by making a few important points that we ALL need to consider. Regardless of your political affiliations or favored candidates, the points I'm going to make here apply to each and every one of us and need to be heeded.
First things first.
Ladies and gentlemen, in a historic upset, Donald Trump, the reality TV star, is now our president elect. Millions of people are absolutely ecstatic, while an equal number are terribly upset. Regardless of how you feel, our democratic system has elected Trump to be our next leader. This system, which has been working for over 200 years, is what our founding fathers believed would be the safest and fairest way to elect our leaders. There have been a few discrepancies in the past, yes, but it is one of the fairest ways to select our leaders democratically. This brings me to my first main point:
As American citizens, we must respect the system and accept the fact that Donald Trump was elected to be our next president.
Regardless of your opinion on the man, the point is he won fair and square. It's also important to note that he's not even in office yet. The worries about Trump are over what he may do. The man hasn't even had his first day on the job and already people are calling for impeachment. We need to give him a chance to lead before we can go an attack him for being a poor leader.
That being said, those who did vote for him must understand why so many are protesting his victory. Throughout his campaign, Donald Trump has said some extremely hateful, racist, and sexist things about other human beings. He blamed multiple groups of people for the poor state of America and suggested to get rid of them in order to "Make America Great Again." For those of you who might not be as knowledgeable about history as others, there was a pretty famous guy in Germany in the 1930's who lead the country with the same idea. People are fearful of Donald Trump because, amongst plenty of other things, he has propagated the idea that certain groups of people are somehow below others. If you believe someone to be a lesser person than you because of their race, gender, or religion, you share a similar belief system to the Nazi party. This is why people are afraid. In addition, those protesting have EVERY RIGHT TO DO SO. The literal First Amendment to the Constitution gives people the right to protest when they feel something is wrong. You cannot attack these people and call them crazy for exercising their First Amendment rights. They're allowed to protest and there's nothing you can say about it.
This now brings me to my next point: The days after the election. In a recent interview with the Today show this week, Trump has come out in support of transgender individuals using whatever bathroom they wish to use. This was a huge revelation as many believed him to be incredibly anti-LGBT. Additionally, his proposal to ban all Muslims from the U.S. has been completely removed from his official website, suggesting that he no longer plans on doing so. Right after he was elected, he stated in his acceptance speech he plans on being a president for all Americans. Due to these recent developments, many are starting the believe in a conspiracy theory that Donald Trump is not at all the man he claimed to be through his campaign. More and more evidence is coming out that shows Donald Trump is significantly more tolerable of others than he came off as.
There's a strong possibility that Donald Trump is not really a racist, hateful bigot that he portrayed himself as. It's quite possible he put on such an extreme persona in order to exploit Americans into choosing an overly aggressive candidate.
Obviously, this is nothing more than an idea right now, as he has yet to take office and actually initiate a plan of any kind. However, it's an idea that's gaining evidence and support. If that's truly the case, than it would seem that Trump is not actually as dangerous as he appeared to be. This would be the best case scenario and would make his transition into the White House much less terrifying for this country.
This now leads me into my final point. Regardless of who Trump really is, the man he portrayed was a very hateful individual. He called Mexicans rapists, said all Muslims were dangerous, and has been quoted saying "“Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day” and "Laziness is a trait in blacks" in a book written by a former president of the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino. He's also been recorded saying incredibly derogatory and degrading things to and about women, including his now famous "Grab them by the p***y" line. The bottom line is that Donald Trump was a candidate that stood for racism, bigotry, sexism, and xenophobia.
And people voted for that.
They didn't vote for the man he might be, they voted for the man he was. If Trump is truly decent person and not at all how he portrayed himself as, then we don't have to fear him.
We may not have to fear our leader, but we do have to fear our neighbor.
Trump supporters voted for a man with these ideals and thought it best that he run this country. There's an important distinction I'd like to make right here, though.
Voting for Donald Trump DOES NOT mean you are a racist, bigot, sexist, or xenophobe, it just means you are perfectly fine with having all that in your country.
If you really didn't want to have any of that in your country, then why would you cast your vote for a president who embodies all those ideals? Why would you consciously pick someone to lead you who consistently degrades and dehumanizes other human beings?
Many claim that voting in this election was like voting for the lesser of two evils. If you supported Trump because he was a lesser evil, you are saying that sexism, bigotry, racism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia are better than a possible email scandal that was never proven.
And for those of you who voted for Trump because you simply didn't want to pay more taxes under Clinton, then please feel free to explain to your fellow Muslim citizens why you chose money over their safety.
You can try and argue this all you want, but there's no getting around the fact that by voting for Trump, you voted for hatred toward your fellow man. That's what he stood for and that's what you voted for. If he truly is the Donald Trump we've seen, then there are some truly terrifying times ahead of us.
I hope and pray that Trump is actually a better man than he's been presenting himself as. But as I mentioned before, we won't know for sure until January. Until then, it's important that we all give him a chance to prove himself a worthy leader. The Republican Party has a majority rule in both the House and Senate, so implementing his plans should be relatively easy for him to do. He has the opportunity to lead this country in whichever way he'd like too. All we can do is give him the chance to do so.
In closing, to throw in my opinion here at the end, I think we all should respect our newly elected president. He won fairly in a system that has worked for over 200 years. I want nothing more than to see Trump turn into a wonderful leader and help this country succeed. But I also think we should keep a very close watch on everything he does. To sum everything up, we should all be respectful and hopeful of our new president, but also very cautious of him and our neighbors.
Regardless of what kind of president Trump will be, it's clear that hatred of one another is alive and well in our country.
