Twenty first century America: what an insanely tense time and place to be alive. With the rapping up of the United States elections coming to a conclusion, and Donald Trump coming out on top, it has left half our country in disbelief. For months now media around the world had been pumping the idea of Hillary Clinton becoming our next president of the United States into mass news circulation. Pre-polling would suggest that she was to sweep the floor with Donald Trump in this years election. However, as the circus came to town, it was clear from the start that Donald Trump was stealing the show.
At the end of the night, Trump had taken home the victory with a staggering 290 electoral votes as opposed to Clinton's 233 electoral votes. Statistics have shown that between the male and female gender who voiced their opinion by voting, polls were split 48% male and 52% female. The split shows a correlation which could suggest that women in our country cared slightly more about this election than males. Another gender statistic shows that out of those 48% of male voters, 53% of the votes were cast towards Trump while only 41% were given to Clinton. Out of the 52% of female votes, 54% of votes were cast towards Clinton and 42% were cast towards Trump. This correlation probably does not surprise anyone, as everyone generally expected Hillary to be most popular among female voters. Do these decisions prove that both candidates got their votes because they were male or female? Perhaps, and perhaps not but the evidence is there for one to make up their own opinion of the matter.
Another interesting statistic comes when looking at the age of all voters regardless of gender. For voters between 18-44 years of age, the count was above 50% in favor of Clinton. For voters 45+ years of age, the count was over 50% in favor of Trump. These interesting figures beg the conclusion that this election was a battle between our older generations and the younger ones.
As the weeks have progressed, turmoil among the citizens in our country have reached an all time high. With half of the country expecting and hoping for Clinton to become the next president, it is no surprise that many people have had there hearts crushed as the Democratic party did not come out on top. Thousands of citizens have taken to the streets, choosing to protest and express their freedom of speech. Protest signs read, “Love Trump’s hate” and chanting such as “I reject, the president elect” can be heard among the crowd. These citizens have all the right in the world to voice their opinion, to express freely the disgust they feel towards Trump, and to try and boost moral among the Democratic party. However, when the act of protesting interferes with the rest of the world, a line must be drawn.
Videos have surfaced of protesters gathering along highways, walking in front of traffic and trying to get people who are passing by’s attention. A woman was struck by a car traveling 60 mph on the free way in the dark. For this I have no sympathy.
Yes, people can and should protest. Protesting is the exercising of our first amendment, however no one in this situation seemed to realize that by blocking major ways of transportation, they might actually be putting peoples lives in danger. What if someone had been rushing to the hospital for a medical emergency? What if a major crisis had arisen of life or death matter, and innocent bystanders couldn't get passed because of protesters ? Stick to protesting on the sidewalks in front of buildings.
In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I Have A Dream” speech as thousands of African Americans marched to end racism. They had a cause to protest, they had rights which were violated and stomped on; no one can argue this was not a just cause to protest.
Present day, the Democratic party lost the election and although everyone has the right to protest, is it really worth protesting about? Life is about winning and losing. No one can be a winner all the time. People lose jobs, family and their lives all the time. That's just how things go sometimes. What happens when real life gets hard, shit hits the fan and one is forced into a corner? Is one able to sit and pout about the circumstances? Yes, but that isn’t gonna change the situation in any way. Protesting against a man who is the next president of the United States has become nothing more than a nuisance. These protesters are like annoying gnats in our society, which make the public want to swat them away.
To make a real change one must not sit and complain, wish for change or act like they are helpless. Become the next president, become the next Gandhi, just be a decent human being because one man does not define an entire country. We have issues larger in our nation and world than who is the president, and the change doesn't start with an idolized public figure, it starts from the ground up. It starts with the little people, and the little choices and actions each little person makes everyday. We can change the direction of our country, we can brighten our future, but it will take all of us to come together.
Protesting only brings one side of the nation together. This is the problem with every election because power sways between parties and then they tend to dominate one another. This is the United States of America, we should be UNITED AS ONE. Drop the labels of which political party you affiliate with because in all rationality, political parties are nothing more than an idea.
All that one can be certain of is that we are here, we are needed, and it is our responsibility to clean up the mess we have created. Its time to stop playing the blame game, time to stop pointing fingers and buying time. Lets make a real difference in everyone's lives, lets simply be genuinely good people to one another. We have the power, we just need to realize it. One person does not define a nation. Let's grow up, move on and fix our problems together.
