I’ve been feeling slightly uneasy since I found out the results of the presidential election. I truly did not believe that the country could actually elect a man such as Donald Trump to be the president. While it is true that the popular vote was undeniably close, it ultimately elected Clinton. However, the electoral college elected Trump.
Uncovering the base of support for Trump is key in understanding why he was elected. So who is responsible for Trump’s overwhelming support throughout the election? Non-college-educated white men were Trump’s largest allies. 58% of all white voters opted for Trump, of the 250 counties with the largest white population, 249 of those counties voted for Trump. We can group these people into a class of hateful individuals that use Trump as an outlet for their rage against minorities, or we can try and see the situation more clearly. In the last forty years, the wages of this group have dropped about 35%. These individuals have been disenfranchised by our economic system and their rage is due to the fact that nobody seems to be working on solving this problem. Trump has expressed his desire to grow the economy (despite the realistic implications that prove how difficult it is to do so) and this value may be a reason for his massive support from these groups that enabled him to win the election.
Regardless of if this group supports him for their economic rage or for the fact that he verbalizes the hateful thoughts they have already been thinking for years, they still got him through the election.
I am not going to say that all Trump supporters are horrible people - my friends and family make up some of that group. But I can say for certain that I have heard horribly racist, sexist, xenophobic slurs leave the mouths of every Trump supporter that I personally know. I love them anyway because we all love our family regardless of their flaws and the differences they possess, but I think that it is part of the reason Trump’s victory has left me feeling ill.
Whether or not Trump’s hate manifests into actual legislation, which due to the structure of our government is highly unlikely, the rhetoric he has utilized is already dividing our country. I have already received three emails from my college briefing us on “a number of blatant displays of bias and disrespect directed toward members of the campus community” following the results of the election. I have seen too many examples online of young people using Trump’s victory to spread their hateful ideas towards people who are “different” - including but not limited to different races, sexual orientations, and religious affiliations. It’s disheartening. If you voted for Trump, I am not sorry to say that I probably assume you are okay with racism, sexual assault, misogyny, ableism, xenophobia, etc. Those are things I can not tolerate. And I truly believe that if any person also opposed those values, they would not support Trump - a person who embodies all of those things.
Rhetoric matters. It teaches our young people that it is okay to be hateful towards people who differ from them because a powerful man puts on a suit and perpetuates those ideas. No matter what anybody claims - thoughts, words, and ideas can change the world for better or worse. I had hoped that this man would not become the face of this great country because I believe that the American people are better than this pretense. I had hoped this man would not become the next president because I did not want the figurehead of America to make a mockery of our values of freedom.
I can not tell you exactly why Trump supporters decided that his hateful nature is subordinate to his plans for our country. I am sure they have their reasons, reasons I do not agree with, reasons that elected Donald Trump - a bigot - as our president. I am no mind reader, I am only a college freshman with minimal knowledge of how all of this works, but hate will never sit right with me.
