Many years ago, I was supposed to spend time with this one woman after I got out of work. We had agreed that after she finished her shift, I would wait for her in the parking lot for some dinner and maybe some drinks. She didn’t have a phone at the time, so there was no way to actually communicate. I arrived a little early before her scheduled out time. Half an hour passed. Nothing. An hour passed. Nothing. I asked other co-workers leaving the building if they had seen her, but nobody really had a concrete answer. I should have left, but I’m a person of my word and didn’t want to stand her up. 90 minutes passed. Nearly 2 hours, way after she should have left, a bit after pretty much every co-worker had already gone home, I finally left the parking lot.
Turns out, she had the option to leave earlier and took it. She left about 20 minutes before I had arrived. Fully knowing I would be waiting, she went home. Fully knowing I would be waiting, she didn’t wait for me at the parking lot. It was an ugly moment, and it was an ugly realization about how selfish people can be. Now, the reason for this story is simple: she took the opportunity to improve her evening by leaving the job, but sacrificed me in the process. It was a selfish move. This election is a grandiose version of that night: half the country knew who they would sacrifice when they voted him in, and decided to go through with it anyway.
The bigotry wasn’t rumor, it wasn’t from questionable sources, it was undeniable the things he had proposed and the things he had said. He even said them during the debates. It was undeniable the type of following he was receiving. That being said, half of America decided to go through regardless, leaving Blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, and women in the parking lot, pondering the options throughout the evening. There was even a radio show in which a caller was talking about Election Day. He said his Guatemalan immigrant wife voted for Hillary, while he voted for Trump. So even though Trump has a brutal history with Hispanics in the past several decades and has also stereotyped them into the same category and claims they are the problem, he stuck with Trump.
You would think the husband of a woman whose country of origin went through a staggering 36-year civil war a generation ago (with an American-supported genocide that gets swept under the historical rug) would be more willing to listen to her and heed the warnings of a government that is being run on hate. I'm wondering if he still be okay with his decision after his wife gets harassed at a grocery store for speaking Spanish. There is no other way to describe supporting Trump besides it being a very selfish move. I don’t care if his words and claims appealed to you---there were still walls of racism, sexism, and xenophobia attached.
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Side Note: Americans, I advise you to listen to your Hispanics. Most of us came over to the United States to flee governments that became unruly because of people with characteristics similar to Trump. I suggest checking the history of Colombia, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Cuba, Argentina, Chile, among others. Like I’ve always said, every Hispanic nation has four things in common: beautiful people, beautiful scenery, wonderful food, ridiculous government.
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It hasn’t really felt real yet. It still feels like a bit of a nightmare. But here we are, facing a 2017 with a Donald Trump as our president. Minorities all over are pretty much gearing up for a fight from the White House to the streets. Hate crimes have already gone up exponentially since Trump was declared the next president, and don’t even get me started about the influx of swastikas we are seeing scattered around the nation like shit all over a farm.
All of this seems like hopeless, and I’ve even heard fears we are witnessing a repeat of when Germany rose under Hitler, and it scares the living hell out of the abandoned minorities. Most of us left terrible warfare and conflict founded on hate and separating everyone. This has been the advantage of the United States, despite our political differences for the most part we don’t get leaders that stir hate with a spoon of false statements and ridiculous rhetoric. Obama tried uniting everybody and fought heavily for equality. Bush, despite his poor decisions, was the biggest influence to shining a healthy new light on the military---one that had gotten dimmed after the Vietnam War. But Trump however, his rise to the top was through a different technique: false facts about Blacks and Hispanics and sheer appeal to whites sick of seeing a progress that hasn’t benefited them as much. Unemployment went down 5% during Obama’s run, but the focus was seeing to whom the jobs went to.
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Side-Note: You really think we would be protesting this heavily if the victor had been Bush, or Rubio, or Kirsch? I can guarantee you the victory would have been accepted without much yelling. And do you think Trump fans weren’t going to protest Clinton’s win? You are only fooling yourself. This election is basically an entire country upset that we wound up with two subpar choices from a field of candidates that had better options like Kirsch and especially Bernie Sanders. If you believe this issue is simply liberals vs. conservatives, then you are missing the entire point.
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But guess what America, we do have silver linings in the midst of the chaos that has emerged. Hillary Clinton still technically won the popular vote, which makes her the more popular candidate that lost in a rather flawed political system. So my Hispanics and Muslims don’t feel like the entire nation or even the majority of the nation is after you, it’s just about half. Yes half is still bad but that is the difference between Civil War and Holocaust. And it improves chances of 2020 shifting back into the right place.
If the election consisted of millennials and youngsters, then Trump would have only won a couple states, making the map overwhelmingly blue. Nearly half the country didn’t vote, and I assure you if people had indeed come out like they should, then we would have seen Hillary Clinton winning by a landslide. Not saying she is the best candidate out there, but she was definitely much more qualified than Trump. The youngsters for the most part are not drifting towards a hateful rhetoric.
You know who else didn’t vote for hate? Hispanics (I personally am positive the turnout of Hispanic Trump supporters is a lot smaller than what the results claim), Asians, Blacks, Muslims, Jewish, and the educated. The only group Clinton couldn’t win was the white male vote, which was extremely skewered towards Trump---whether it be the elderly, the religious (makes you question our true relationship with Jesus, doesn’t it?), the non-collegegoers (uneducated has a negative taint, I'm technically on that list for not finishing college) or the lower/middle class. So the silver lining here is that the entire nation hasn’t turned on itself, it’s just a couple groups which make up the majority that shifted towards Trump. Perhaps some education into the reign of Rafael Trujillo is needed…
Next silver lining is that most of the larger cities that have become the backbone of America remained away from the hate and stuck with Clinton. So guess what, if you aren’t feeling too safe in your rural turf, there’s always Miami, Orlando, Tampa, New York City, Boston (wait..), Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego, and hey let’s not forget Hawaii. And they all have one thing in common: they are successful progressive cities. Miami, New York, and San Francisco however, I would recommend saving a ton of money first…
The biggest silver lining is the protesting we are witnessing. Yes they are misguided, yes some have pushed a bit too far, but the protest is basically America’s way of telling the world that not all of us are on board with the new presidency. And this is important because tourism is essential to the economy, as is the relationships we have with other countries and the image we portray. For those claiming the protests won’t do anything, that’s because they want to see America united towards an unqualified candidate as opposed to seeing what has become a separated nation. Personally, I’d rather take the half/half outlook as opposed to everyone giving up and joining in on the KKK party (which….still is happening….and still hasn’t been dismissed as bad for the nation). So protest away, just don’t become lower than the hate we’ve been combating for the last year.
Sorting through all the nonsense you can find promise for the future. The election has awakened the Hispanic population, so if you think we will be walked on, well, have fun. Between the always-neglected Puerto Ricans, the tough-as-nails Mexicans, the crafty Dominicans, and the hard-working Central Americans you are dealing with an entire population of individuals with a strong culture, strong values, and enough chest-bumping energy to battle back against any nonsense.
The election has awakened the millennial crowd, as arguably the most polarizing candidate between youngsters and oldsters put up a huge fight under a very controversial platform that 10, 15, 20 years ago would have been dead and buried from the very beginning. Bernie Sanders back in 2015 jump-started a political revolution that stagnated after he lost the primaries, but has restarted upon rumors of a 2020 run and upon him publicly vowing to take over the shattered Democratic Party or at the very least declaring political war against Trump. Even though he has some ground to make up for siding with Hillary as opposed to a risky third-party run (and should probably speak out to his supporters about following the revolution the correct way), Sanders has the ability to gain the love back and continue a push towards a very different America and a very different political system. I’m sure he wants those super delegates to be eradicated from the face of this Earth.
The outlook seems quite gloomy, especially if you are a minority. We might be facing the most divided America since Vietnam. We might be facing the worst president since Nixon. We might be seeing the most hate crimes since the 1960s. But at the same time the opposition, our revolutionary numbers are stronger, and the backlash towards anything even remotely unappealing or potentially racist will be excruciatingly strong. Expect Post-Republican America (Mostly White) to be forced to defend themselves and defend the leader that they elected loudly and proudly. Expect White America to have to respond to Trump not exactly draining the swamp with his selection of a White Nationalist becoming his chief policy advisor…
The wall of bigotry is about to go up against a hurricane of opposition. And this storm will last from 2017 to 2020.
Category 5.
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