What the Election Results Mean for the United States
After an endless, divisive, polarizing election season, the suspense and nervousness is finally over. After a long night of waiting for the election results, they are finally out: Donald Trump is the new President-Elect of the United States.
America has never been a perfect country. While it has been, and still is, one of the most appealing countries to live in, there have been dark periods of time in its history. Slavery. Segregation. The Trail of Tears. The Indian Removal Act. The Internment of the Japanese. However, we have always gone through it and come out stronger.
At the beginning of the election, there were many people who said they were going to move to Canada if Donald Trump wins, and consequentially, so many people accessed the site, trying to apply for immigration to Canada, that the site crashed.
As many people who have been following the election trail know, Donald Trump has run a political campaign that took political correctness and tossed it away. He has insulted Mexicans, women, Muslims, and just about every other minority, using derogatory terms and phrases. He has called Mexicans “rapists” and “killers;” proposed a ban on Muslims entering the United States as well as identification tags for them; and called women a barrage of insults, including calling Alicia Machado “Miss Piggy,” “Miss Housekeeper,” calling Hillary Clinton a “nasty woman” during a debate, and calling other women “fat pigs,” “dogs,” “slobs,” as well as making shockingly disturbing remarks about women in a tape that was released about a month ago. In addition, he has made other negative remarks about women’s physical appearances.
Looking back, I never would have expected Donald Trump to win the election. I thought all the people I saw on the street who smiled at me, all the people who were so nice to me would never betray me by voting for Mr. Trump. It means that underneath the false camaraderie we all shared, there were people who silently held racist views. As a part of a visible minority myself, I am shocked that enough Americans voted for Mr. Trump, yet I am hopeful that we can work together to fix it. America needs neighborhoods to work together and be a harmonious society, and although I consider this a step back, I am hopeful that we can all work together to reverse the step back we took when Mr. Trump became President-Elect.
I am urging my fellow Americans to refrain from mocking anyone who was on opposite sides of the election. Now, more than ever, we need to put our differences aside and work together to unite instead of dividing. And, as President Obama said in his heartfelt post-election speech, “Sometimes you lose an argument, sometimes you lose an election. But the path this country has taken has never been a straight line. We zig and zag.” He urged Americans to keep that in mind and to have good faith in their fellow citizens. And true to his word, we must keep fighting for our values and for what we believe is right – and one day, we shall look back at our hard work and be satisfied with the results that came out of it.
Works Cited
Burns, Alexander. "Donald Trump Won. Now What?" The New York Times. The New York Times, 09 Nov. 2016. Web. 09 Nov. 2016.
Griffin, Andrew. "How to Move to Canada: Immigration Website Crashes as Donald Trump Romps Home to Election Victory." The Independent. Independent Digital News and Media, 9 Nov. 2016. Web. 09 Nov. 2016.
Lee, Jasmine C., and Kevin Quealy. "The 282 People, Places and Things Donald Trump Has Insulted on Twitter: A Complete List." The New York Times. The New York Times, 23 Oct. 2016. Web. 09 Nov. 2016.
