It’s only the beginning of January and things are looking pretty good for the new year. Except for the most harrowing countdown in American history. Two weeks from today, President-elect Trump will become the 45th president of the United States.
All personal politics aside, no one can deny that this election hosted the two most disliked presidential candidates in American history. To paraphrase Trevor Noah, Trump came in 3rd. Hillary was the 2nd place candidate for the popular vote, and the 1st place candidate was nobody. That’s how many people didn’t vote. And now this manifestation of white supremacy and rural disdain for progressive politics has been elected, not by his so-called “silent majority” but by a system that keeps the vote out of the hands of the public.
The electoral college (the post-12th Amendment version currently in place) exists because of slavery. Because the South was more of a rural area, with a majority of the population being slaves that couldn’t vote, the North would have won any direct election. The electoral college incorporated the three-fifths compromise, that gave the South more of a presence, rather than freeing the slaves and giving them all those pesky rights we’re always talking about.
It’s entirely fitting that in this case, the champion of America’s all-too-outspoken white supremacists and plain racists would benefit from a system set up to advantage the states that profited from the enslavement of African-Americans.
We are now facing the system where two-thirds of the branches of government are of a Republican majority, the last third will most likely end up that way as well. The entirety of President-elect Trump’s cabinet is made up of his allies, his family and CEOs of major corporations with monetary gains to be made based on their decisions. We have a party in control that doesn’t care about the public, actively denies global climate change, a Vice President-elect that advocates for conversion therapy and a President-elect who made statements during his campaign about having punishments for women who get abortions and repealing the Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage.
Now we take action. 2016 was “the year of realizing stuff”, wherein we realized our country is in shambles, divided by the antiquated idea that someone with dark skin is inferior. Those of us that understand the stupidity of that way of thinking need to stick together. It’s a time for activism, to show this new government that we won’t let them get away with taking away any of our liberties. We won’t let them get away with blatant racism, destroying the environment, banning anyone from the country or taking away anyone’s marriage rights. 2017 is the year of action. T-minus fourteen days.
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