Written in only about 15 minutes at the beginning of class, I wrote this reflection the day after the election. Before writing it, I did not think I had this much to say about the outcome of the election. After looking at my work, I surprised myself with all that I had to say. 

Post-Election Reflection

          As I was writing my first draft for the personal statement of the Grant Proposal project, I had the election coverage on another window, trying to focus on the essay but finding that very difficult. As I watched the electoral votes increase gradually for each candidate, I noticed how surprisingly close the race was, thinking that it would have been a landslide for the Democrats. When Trump finally started to pull away, I felt discouraged, terrified, and when he finally was named president-elect, I felt ashamed. I kept saying “This is unbelievable,” and asking myself how could a man like this be elected into the most powerful position in the free world. That was all I could think. After everything that he has said, all he has done in the past, and everything people have uncovered, I was astounded that we voted this unqualified, inexperienced, uneducated, socially inadequate “man” into the office of the President.

            I heard a few people in the streets yelling “How could she lose?” and “We’re fucked!” I was sure there would be a riot, and possibly no classes the next day (the only possible bright side). I thought to myself about what I have to worry about: possibly a war and some financial suffering? Then I thought that I really do not have that much to worry about. I thought about all the groups he has targeted and persecuted: Muslims, Latinos, African-Americans, LGBTQs, women. Since I am a heterosexual, white male, I have little to worry about compared to other Americans that may lose inalienable rights, as simple as the right to live here or marriage or rights to their own bodies.

            I believe that Trump does not know what checks & balances are. I hope that anything radical and unprecedented that he proposes is stopped by Congress or the Supreme Court, but I cannot know what Congress will do because the majority is Republican and may see eye to eye with the newly elected President.

            I hope that scholars, congress members, or even random nobodies who care about climate-change, and women, and the right to marry whoever a person wants to, come forward and take a stand against Trump’s ideas whether it be lobbying or proposing legislation. Regardless of what happens, I hope that we can come together as Americans, somehow, in one of the most divided times in history. Life still goes on, and we need to focus on helping the US continue as the greatest country in the world, rather than shutting down and moving to Canada, however desirable that may look.