It’s over.
Election Day 2016 has come and gone, leaving in its wake a campaign more heartbreaking, more frustrating, more disgraceful than any of us could have predicted. The Republican party won the race, electing into office one of the most openly bigoted nominees in modern American history.
We know that prejudice exists within our government. We know that the racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, and homophobic ideals that Trump embodies are far from unprecedented. In fact, it was not long ago that these ideals remained explicit precedents and laws. And though many people throughout history have fought to reverse that fact, hate that is so deeply ingrained cannot be spontaneously undone, and thus it remains alive in our system today.
But what most of us are accustomed to witnessing amongst anti-progressive politicians today is subtle attempts at hiding prejudice — not blatant labeling of Mexican people as rapists and criminals. Not runningmates who pridefully endorse the horrific practice of conversion therapy for LGBT individuals. Not a slogan asserting that America was great before, when America’s “before” is historically oppressive in more ways than can be counted.
But it was precisely this brazen hatred of marginalized groups that generated so much of Trump’s support. Since the start of his campaign, Trump was speaking the language of the “average citizen” — if “average citizen” means “average bigot.”
And now here we are.
So let’s get blunt: The argument that this is “not that big of a deal” because Trump “won’t be able to do much anyways” is flawed. The latter statement is not factual and the former is untrue regardless because whether or not Trump can accomplish his goals, nothing will change the fact that half of America wants him to. And that is a big deal.
But Donald Trump does have the potential to accomplish more than what many may realize. Assuming the president-elect follows through with the promises he made throughout his campaign, a Trump presidency will put 6.5 million people at risk of swift deportation. It will enforce racial profiling and surveillance of Muslim Americans, and further limit women’s rights over their own bodies. It will cut all funding for climate research, inhibiting development of clean energy sources and preventing us from aiding other nations who are more significantly impacted by climate change.
A Trump presidency will legalize discrimination against LGBT people, prevent transgender youth from being allowed to use the bathroom which aligns with their gender identities, and put a jurist in the Supreme Court who models Antonin Scalia (former justice with a dense record of homophobia).
A Trump presidency will increase “law-and-order” and ignore the issues of police brutality and over-policing faced by people of color, especially African Americans.
The list goes on.
So while Donald Trump may not be able to enact changes exactly as he has planned, he is certainly capable of harming our nation’s marginalized groups and leading us in the entirely wrong direction.
This is why it is so important for us to pay attention. We will achieve nothing by ignoring the issues at hand and acting as though nothing is at stake. But the same is true if we surrender to hopelessness, if we give up because we fear an entity that feels so much bigger than we are. Instead we must stand together in solidarity and continue to support one another.
We must continue to fight until love finally does trump hate.
