I never thought I’d experience it — calling my mom, a Latinx woman, and hearing her cry over the results of a presidential election.
He did it and America helped. Donald Trump will be the 45th president of the United States come January and to say the least, I am horrified.
As I made my way to the voting polls yesterday afternoon, I was confident Hillary Clinton would win the presidency. Was I “with” her throughout the campaign? Not in the slightest; however, I did predict a landslide win for the Democratic candidate.
For weeks, The New York Times’ Election Forecast had been reporting that Clinton’s chances of losing are “about the same as the probability that an N.F.L. kicker misses a 37-yard field goal” for weeks. For those unaware of how football works — those chances are pretty small.
Furthermore, waking up and seeing Clinton leading in the forecast polls eased my wariness of Trump becoming president. I’ve come to realize that my gut is more trustworthy than the nationwide surveying of Americans.
How could a prejudiced, hate-driven white supremacist successfully make it to the White House? I can answer that — Trump’s victory is a reflection of the white majority’s nostalgic want to create a political and social environment similar to that of the 1950s.
During the 1950s, being conservative, straight and white was predominant and widely-accepted throughout the nation — at a time where the civil rights movement was merely a thought in the minds of marginalized folk, not yet put into action.
I’m convinced the majority of Trump supporters long for the kind of white, suburban world depicted in shows like “I Love Lucy” (minus the Ricky Ricardo).
Throughout his campaign, the businessman-turned-politician spread messages of hate and intimidation to his opponents as well as marginalized people and now he will lead our country into what I predict will be ruins.
Trump made an abundance of far-fetched promises throughout his campaign and now that his position as the leader of the free-world is solidified, it’s necessary to take them into account.
For starters, the candidate has boasted about a giant, concrete wall he plans to build. One he claims will be one foot taller than the Great Wall of China, along the 2,000 mile U.S.-Mexico border. Trump plans to make his signature campaign promise a plan by making the Mexican government pay for the billion-dollar construction.
Will this wall ever be built? The quick answer is no, it will not. As a result of the balance of powers within the U.S. government coupled with Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto’s decision to not fund the building of a wall — it’s a promise that will fall flat on it’s big, discriminatory face.
Although a wall seems unlikely, I do believe that Trump will succeed in making this country “great” again — his definition of great, that is.
By “great,” Trump has always meant something along the lines of, “Make this country’s political and social environment conservative and white.” I say this because of the inflammatory remarks he’s made toward such marginalized groups as Mexicans, Muslims, black people and women.
I believe Trump rallies are proof of the kind of environment Trump aims to create throughout the country — rallies filled with majority white supporters who are eager to fight any and all who publicly oppose Trump’s plan of lowering America to his standards.
Trump has always been surrounded with allegations of being a racist. If the discriminatory comments he made during his campaign weren’t enough to convince you, his record as a real-estate mogul might.
According to an article written by Lydia O’Connor and Daniel Marans titled “Here are 13 examples of Donald Trump being racist” for the Huffington Post, “When Trump was serving as the president of his family’s real estate company, the Trump Management Corporation, in 1973, the Justice Department sued the company for alleged racial discrimination against black people looking to rent apartments in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.”
America elected an intolerant president, this should be more than enough proof that racism is still alive in this country. Although not all Trump supporters are openly racist, I believe they condone racism through their support of Donald Trump’s bigoted ideology.
However, it’s time to look into the kind of America we’ll be living in for the following four years.
Among the many alarming promises Trump has made, like barring Syrian refugees from entering the country, being the “greatest jobs president that God ever created” and ending birthright citizenship, his foreign policy plan is exceedingly startling.
Trump has a secretive plan to defeat the Islamic State in the Middle East, which is to “bomb the shit out of ISIS.” Trump’s discriminatory views of Muslims come from his lack of knowledge of Middle Eastern affairs. Moreover, his undeniable support of the Israeli government forces me to conclude he has no concern for any civilians in the Palestinian territories.
As someone who is passionate about foreign policy, particularly the Middle East, it disappoints me to know that a U.S. president will once again create more turmoil in that region of the world.
The “silent,” aka white, majority made its voice heard in this historic election. Although a Clinton presidency wasn’t exactly something I looked forward to, a Trump administration was something I did not expect to become a reality.
Simply because I assumed American voters weren’t going to elect such a joke of a candidate to be the leader of the free-world.
All I can say is that as university students, our job is to make this world progressive, tolerant and a better place to live in — we can still continue to do that, no matter who is in the white house. Our voices matter and it’s time to unite against nationwide discrimination and bigotry.
Jorge calling someone racist is rich. You’re so racist, Jorge. You’re one of the most anti-white writers I have ever read.
And something else that should speak volumes, I thought I heard that Trump had 29% Latino vote, 29% Asian, 12% African American and clearly he still managed to pull votes from women. In reality he should have had about 0% of any of those groups.
Isn’t this article reverse racism? How about cooling your jets a bit and seeing how things shake out before you continue to rail on the next pres. Sure he said things that had no way of becoming a reality (Wall), all politicians lie and I think we’re onto that game by now.
I don’t know you so I’m making an assumption, you don’t know anything about Rural America. Not every person out there is a dumb hick that says “HOWDY” or makes meth in bathtubs, just like not every one of Hillaries supporters were college educated. You realize that many farmers are (multi)Millionaires with all their assets right? My gut tells me the division in America is not as racial as it’s made out to be, it’s a division between the rural population and city people. America may not be changing the way you want it too but here’s a secret, most people really don’t like to change what’s working.
The end of all end problem, the democratic candidate. There are trust issues there, I lean Dem in life in most things but there was no way I was voting for that woman. If it was another woman that didn’t seem as shady, I would have been in. If it was Bernie I probably would have voted for him. Nope, the Democratic party screwed up in their choice.
Everyone was worried if Trump lost he wouldn’t admit it, meanwhile we have high school kids doing walkouts and a few protests last night after the election. The Democrats sort of look like sore losers.
I thought Trump was not suppose to be like lying politicians/status quo. Sounds like more of the same to me. Dumb, dumb, dumb dumb.