Early Wednesday morning brought an end to the nail biting whirl-wind known as the election. Most everyone, including Donald Trump supporters, believed that Hillary Clinton had the presidency in the bag. The media treated Trump as a joke, making the public think he was only good for air time. He entertained us with his bluntness and his decision to throw political correctness out the window. This only made us laugh for so long though before we realized that he was rising in the polls. People started fearing for our future while others saw hope.
There has been a great emotional turmoil in America since Trump was named our president elect on Wednesday morning. There has been mud-slinging from all sides and a lot of upset people who never wanted to see Trump in the Oval Office. This is understandable, considering the candidates we had to choose from were both incredibly disappointing. For many millennials, this was our first presidential election, and none of us anticipated the cards we were dealt with. To choose one evil or another, or vote third party– what kind of choice was this? Everyone made a decision that they believed was the best for our country with the choices they had. Now, America has decided and we’re left wondering what the next four years will look like.
Trump has stated he will fix our economy and prioritize immigration. Of course, his most controversial issue on his platform has been to “build a wall.” Whether or not he will actually accomplish this is subject to debate, but in order to do so, this kind of action would have to pass through Congress. Now, I understand that people’s first argument to this is that we now have a House and Senate that is Republican, but if you remember, most of them don’t particularly like our new President elect. As such, this applies to him wanting to pass, change, or even remove current laws.
So what does this mean for our country?
Nothing and everything. Once again, we are so caught up in politics that we are forgetting common human decency. People who supported either party are outright attacking (verbally or otherwise) the other party. Just the other day, I was told I was using white privilege just because I asked someone to not comment on a post (that called for peace and unity) at midnight, but to wait until morning. This person commenting was blowing up my phone, and I wasn’t asking them to stop completely, but to wait until morning. The point of this is that we shouldn’t be worried so much about Trump as President, but our own reactions.
We can’t blame our actions on anyone but ourselves. The future of our country seems devoid of respect, democracy and basic human decency, and Trump isn’t to blame for this. I think that this election season revealed the division that we were hiding. One person can’t unify this country. One person can’t fix all of our social issues. One person can’t change the mindset of our people. That is up to us– We the People. Let’s remember that our forefathers intended for the people to run America, not the other way around. If we want a change, if want less hate in this world, we have to change it–not rely on a single person. Fighting hate with hate will not bring back the respect, democracy, and basic human decency that this world so desperately needs.