I went to bed last night hoping to wake up today and realize it had all been a crazy dream. But it wasn’t, Hillary Clinton is not going to be the first female president of the United States - Donald Trump is going to be president.
Donald Trump.
Donald Trump will live in the white house, Donald Trump will be refereed to as “Mr. President”, Donald Trump is going to have the same job that FDR, JFK and Obama did. Donald Trump is going to represent the USA for four years. He is the face of America. We, Hillary supporters, were wrong in thinking that after a black president this country was finally going to break the glass ceiling. We thought we were the face of America. We, who opposed Trumpism. We, who cherish diversity and celebrate differences. We, who believe in bridges over walls, in union over segregation. We thought we were the people. We are the majority and still we lost.
The white uneducated males who think “slavery had its benefits”, who support racial segregation, who don’t really care about gender discrimination, who are the head of their patriarchal households, who cherish submission, who justify homophobia with quotes from the bible, who think that the wrong side won the Civil War, who elected Donald Trump. They are the face of America represented by Donald Trump. They won.
Now, of course there are many millennials who voted for Trump and there also are many uneducated white males who voted for Hillary. But the point here is representation. Obama represented a new era of progress and social empathy, his election was a statement: The most powerful country on earth is leaded by a black person. My generation thought this progressive era would continue with Hillary. We were ready to make the statement, we were ready for the facebook posts, the tweets and the proud. To chose a president is to chose one person to represent everyone, and the US has chosen a racist and sexist white male to represent all of its citizens. Although such decision never pleases all, what does this mean? Are the uneducated white males really “the people”? Are we the minority? Not really.
They won because of electoral votes, but we are bigger than them. We can’t let our cause die. It’s disrespectful that a serious woman capable of true social change lost to a pathetic and ridiculous human being such as Trump. It’s an insult to women, to black people, to latino people, to LGBT people,to muslim people. But as HRC so gracefully said on her speech, giving up is not the right choice here.
Tough times are coming, that's certain, but the politicalization of millennials and the empathy been shared all around tells me that they are not going to break us. It’s not over. But for now, we must go on.
