Tuesday, November 8, 2016 will forever stand
out in my mind (and not for any good reasons).
During the 2016 presidential election cycle, I naively brushed off the
notion that Trump might win. I ran down
a laundry list of reasons why he would not win: (1) he is not qualified; (2) he
is racist, sexist, and misogynistic (I’m sure I left off a few other
descriptors); (3) Republicans won’t support him because they too see that he is
not a worthy candidate; (4) he was a reality star—doesn’t that exclude you from
running?; and (5) “the hair.” I was sure
of my position; I knew I was right.
The week leading
to the election, I started feeling differently.
I had the same feeling in the pit of my stomach when I knew the principal
called my dad to tell him about my behavior at school. I knew an ass whooping of epic proportions
was soon to come. Either way, I listened
to political pundits, I watched interviews of the candidates, and I read
articles written about both candidates. All
of these acts made me feel worse. I
distinctly remember one interview that made me realize that Trump might win. In this interview, the interviewer discussed
a phenomenon called “lean in.” Lean in
is all about the voters who were not proclaiming to the heavens that they would
vote for Trump. These were the closet
supporters of Trump. If you asked them whom they were planning to vote for,
they would say something like: “I don’t know; both candidates are bad.” Or, they might lean close to you (yeah, in
your personal space) to say: I’m voting for Trump. This phenomenon has forever changed the face
of American Politics and the world as we know it.
Trump is a
narcissist. He is arrogant. He is overtly racist. And sexist.
His campaign centered on these hateful concepts. Trump ran his campaign as the Anti-Obama
candidate. In every interview, Trump
distanced himself from President Obama, and his administration. He was resolute to prove that he is not a politician
and that he will “Make America Great Again.”
He insulted women, Muslims, African Americans, disabled folks, President
Obama and Hispanics. He talked about
grabbing women by their vaginas. He
spewed rhetoric about Muslims being terrorists.
He repeatedly stated that African Americans live in the “inner
city.” He blatantly mocked disabled
citizens. He refused to acknowledge that
President Obama was born in the United States of America. He talked about building a wall to keep
Hispanics out of this country. Sadly, this type of rhetoric enabled him to
accomplish his goal. This is an
Trump focused on
only one segment of the population: White men.
He did not even make a half-hearted effort to appeal to minorities
because he knew he did not need their vote in order to win. He knew that if he could get the bulk of the
white male population, which represents 31% of the U.S. population, he would
have enough to win. He knew that if he
could get this group to support him, they would be able to have some influence
over their wives, sisters, and other women in their lives. It was truly a white wash strategy, which
happened to also be a winning strategy.
It showed that Trump does not intend to unite this country along party
lines, racial lines, or any other line.
To use an analogy: Trump went through 200 million packs of Starburst and
only ate the pink ones. He did not even
open or taste the yellows, or the reds. You know why? Because he did not have to.
So how bad can
Trump really be? I believe he can be
historically bad. He will have the power to pen Executive
Orders. He will be able to veto bills. As the Commander-in-Chief, he will have
passcodes to our nuclear warheads. He
can roll back the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare (ironically, he
is already backing off of this position).
Because his party control Congress, it should be much easier for him to
assert his influence and power. That
said, I still do not believe that republicans will go for any and everything
that he might propose. One of the
biggest concerns many people have is that he will be able to appoint at least
one justice to the U.S. Supreme Court. This appointment of a conservative justice has
the potential to change issues that impact minorities such as: voting rights,
abortion and affirmative action. Because
justices are appointed for life, Trump's appointment(s) could be the gift that
keeps on giving (Heavy sarcasm). Stay
tuned.
Despite the many
political fires Trump’s presidency could ignite, many people are more concerned
about social issues. Because Trump ran
his campaign as the Anti-Obama candidate, many of the most hateful, racist and
evil people have rallied around him.
These people are emboldened and feel that they are taking the country
back from the hands of its first African American president. Since Trump won the election, I have seen many
examples of overt racist acts. These
acts have been perpetrated against the very groups Trump criticized and
disregarded during his presidential election.
To generalize, I guess these people feel that
if the president elect can make racist, sexist, homophobic and otherwise
discriminatory comments, why can’t they?
One thing this group of people better realize is that this is not 1865,
nor 1945. People in this country have
been enslaved, raped, brutalized, beaten, wrongfully imprisoned and murdered
for the right to be treated with respect and dignity. It would be a huge mistake for these people
to think that folks will be terrorized.
These folks better remember that the U.S. Constitution’s Second
Amendment acts as a shield and a sword for all citizens. In laymen’s terms: they better get some Act Right about themselves
because we are never going back to the Jim Crow Era, and we are certainly not
going back to slavery.
Peace
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