Everything felt different this morning. The reflections of morning light didn’t bring me a sense of hope, and I could barely bring myself to look up on my walk to work aside from checking to make sure that crossing the street was safe. Getting out of bed was a chore not because I was tired, but because the words, “What’s the point,” echoed in my mind.
But isn’t this what he wants? To silence those who oppose him, to empower those who support him, to exercise control the way he damn well pleases on a day given his ever-swinging mood.
As the results menacingly ticked in last night, I was trying to make sense of this nightmare through reading posts from and speaking with the capable, intelligent, and charismatic humans I’ve been so lucky to be surrounded by throughout all stages of my life. And here’s how we see it.
Democrats need to look at this and realize that people of every class in this country don’t see the Democratic system working in their favor for reasons including but not limited to the rising cost of education (from what I hear, though fact is hard to discern at the moment, Trump won something like 80% of counties where less than 10% of people had Bachelors degrees), the rising of capital towards the 1%, the rising strength of labor unions. The United States of America was founded on the general principles of for the people, by the people, and whether you were with her, felt the Bern, supportive of a third-party candidate from the beginning, thought America needed to be made great again, chose to remain silent, or felt like you were too busy to vote, this election has shown that the exposure of corruptness and selfishness from the government tipped the greater American population in favor of a misogynistic bigot as the leader of our country. The actions of the Democratic National Committee and Debbie Wasserman Schultz come to mind. Democracy wasn’t delivering, so people wanted an alternative.
You may be joking about moving out of the country or marrying an international citizen to get out of this mess, but if you face the facts, there comes the harrowing acceptance: on January 20, 2017, Donald Trump will be the President and Commander and Chief of the United States of America. Your conscience may not be okay with this and you may be refusing to believe it, but it is now a fact. Trump successfully spoke to every rooted racist and homophobe, and though he has zero political experience, that’s exactly the reason why many selected the Trump-Pence option on their ballots. Not only is he white and a familiar representation of privilege, but he’s not a politician. So those who feel safe enough to not feel targeted or threatened by everything he stands for turned a blind eye to the dangerous and unacceptable garbage that came out of his mouth and his actions and chose him.
That’s a damn shame.
“Everything is going to be okay” is not the answer or the case here. Instead, it’s “it’s possible to make things better than they seem right now if…” We become agents of change in the face of adversity that America has not faced of this caliber in our lifetimes by engaging. We need to remember how important this feels in this moment and work to not forget in a matter of weeks, months, years - even a few days. We need to be there for and supportive of all of the different groups of people Trump has labeled as the “others” in this election: Muslims, Hispanics, Blacks, the LGBTQ community, women, the list goes on. In our daily lives, we need to make sure love continues to trump hate. We need to work to advance progressive goals for the environment (no matter how much some may refuse to believe this, climate change is happening and something major needs to be done) and for the people, like Planned Parenthood and ACLU. We need to vote in every single election, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant to our own lives, and to do that, we need to make getting involved in local politics the norm.
We need to talk, and we need to do something. Do not forget the way the 2016 Presidential Election results made you feel. We can accept or we can fight, and now is the time to engage, come what may.