Say it with me: “Donald Trump is the President-elect of the United States.” I never thought that I would be saying those words and I am still not sure how I feel about it. I really would not tie myself to either “side” of the political spectrum. I prefer to focus on what is being said rather than who from which political party is saying it. However, I would say that in the 2016 Election, it was about the lesser of two evils when it came to choosing between the candidates. I ultimately saw Trump as a risk that America needed to take.
The 2016 Election was the first election that I was old enough to vote in, but I did not exercise that right. While I have my opinions on which direction the country needs to go in, I do not believe that I was informed enough about the agendas of each candidate to make a conscious, educated decision. Say what you want about the numerous allegations against Trump because there are more than the few that the public knows about, but he did offer the potential for economic stability that many people wanted to see. More so, some voters felt that Secretary Hillary Clinton did not offer that same stability.
During the election night broadcast on CNN, a big point made was that many of President Barack Obama’s supporters during the last two elections were voting for Trump and not for Clinton. The experts, if you really want to call them that, credited the crossover to Trump and Obama’s similarities, the most significant being that their campaigns were both built around offering change for the American people.
I want to see change for our country one way or another. I do not condone the allegations of sexual harassment or racist behavior that Trump is accused of doing; I actually find them repulsive. One generalization that I saw a lot throughout this election process was that if you vote for Trump, you are somehow OK with women being manipulated and taken advantage of and you are a racist. Perhaps the person who voted for Trump wished to see a greater America and did not take kindly to the idea that Clinton was under federal investigation.
There was really no “right way” to choose the candidate that you wanted to vote for, which is why I believe that so many people were wrong in their assumptions that Clinton would win in a landslide. Perhaps the public’s perception of the moral compasses of the candidates was not the main concern when deciding who to vote for and I think that is OK.
The public’s perception seemed to be that once someone becomes president, they can do whatever they wish with no repercussions, but that is not the case at all. There are numerous channels that the Commander in Chief needs to go through and if even one law gets changed during the president’s time in office, it is considered a lot. The idea that because Trump won there will be walls everywhere and he will be able to declare war on everyone goes against the democratic process that we have in place in our country.
Whether or not you are happy with the decision made by our country, our fellow countrymen and women made it. Therefore, it is essential that we as American citizens do everything in our power to make the country great because we are the core of our country and we have the power to do it.
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