By Nolan Higgins
In Motion Staff Writer
Donald Trump is in line to be the next President of the United States.
For millions of Americans the dream is finally realized. For millions more, the nightmare has just begun.
With nearly every poll showing Hillary Clinton to be in the lead prior to Election Day, the Trump “win” came as even more of a surprise, like some sort of larger-than-life, Hollywood-made underdog story.
Trump told his supporters the polls were wrong, yet no one bought it. Except his supporters.
Coming out in droves in key swing states like Florida, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio, Trump’s followers made their voices heard. His rampage continued into long-time Democratic states such as Michigan and Wisconsin, the latter having not been won by a Republican since Ronald Reagan in 1984. The two-punch combo of winning swing states and breaking through the so-called “blue wall” had Clinton KO’d before all the states had submitted results. That was just the night of Nov. 8.
The weeks following the election have been as chaotic and hectic as they have been informative on what the future would look like under a Trump presidency. Trump has filled his transition team with the lobbyists he claimed to hate on the campaign trail, even placing a climate change-denier in the driver’s seat of the Environmental Protection Agency. Steve Bannon, a man with serious ties to groups that all share anti-immigrant, anti-Islamic, and racist sentiments, is now Trump’s chief strategist. Trump’s intentions, however, are still largely unknown.
His choices for his transition team may seem completely unsurprising to some, but Trump has also rolled back on many points of the platform he ran on. For example, having once claimed to be pro-life, Trump has since removed this from his website. Though this should still be taken with a grain of salt, since Trump recently stated in an interview with “60 Minutes” that he would select a Supreme Court justice that would overturn Roe v. Wade, the case that prevents states from making abortions illegal.
With this constant back and forth, and the giant variable that is our current President-Elect, it comes as zero surprise that tens of millions of Americans, consisting largely of minorities, have begun attacking Trump with a similar vigor to the Republicans attacking Obama in 2008. Taking to the streets, social media, anywhere to get their opinions out and their voices heard, these activists have been attempting to challenge Trump’s presidential bid, due to the fact that he lost the popular vote by 1.5 million votes, a number that continues to grow.
Acting out of fear, hatred and anger, these activists, while maybe having the right moral intentions, are simply an example of the constant hypocrisy being dealt with in American politics. Many Democrats claim that all those who voted or supported Trump are of the same racist and misogynistic brood that Trump’s campaign was fueled by, but then in the same breath criticize Trump supporters for believing all Muslims are involved in a plot to destroy America. This issue affects both sides of the aisle though. Millions of Trump supporters criticize and hate on immigrants, legal or not, yet treat Melania Trump, a Slovenian-born immigrant, as the next Jacqueline Kennedy.
The future looks bleak as this divide between parties continues to widen and grow with the fear and hatred it is fueled by. Some White Nationalist groups that had backed Trump during his campaign have begun acting out against minorities, believing Trump’s election to have legitimatized their irrational hatred of all things that aren’t a white, heterosexual Christian. Incidents such as KKK victory parades, harassment and beatings of Muslim women, and the constant chant by some of “go back home,” have spiked drastically in recent weeks.
Whether these incidents are merely aftershocks of the election or a glimpse into the future of the United States is anyone’s guess, but as a country, it must be understood that violence is the quickest path to despair. While some opinions are more drastic or extreme than others, who someone voted for does not automatically mean they are a certain way, just like who someone prays to or the color of someone’s skin. Hatred from either side will get this country nowhere, and while some on the right have been raised and buried in that hatred for generations, it is time for change.
It is time for these United States to become united once again.