Early last Wednesday morning, the United States entered a new era under President-elect Donald Trump. Across campus, one population cheered and celebrated, while another mourned and wept. Across the nation, people rallied and rioted. Amid all the opinions thrown around in the last few days, only one thing is absolutely certain: the nation has never been more divided. On both sides, emotions have eclipsed reason, and empathy has become altogether absent. Tearful reactions and rallying shouts of #NotMyPresident and #P—yGrabsBack from those against Trump have been met with scorn and ridicule from Trump supporters, and, conversely, Trump supporters celebrating their candidate’s victory have been met with equivalent vitriol from his opponents. Somewhere along the line of political discourse, we have forgotten a fundamental principle: everyone is a product of his or her experience, and we are all right in our own minds. If we are to move past this election, we must have a better understanding of the origins and causes of American’s stark polarization, and establish a dialogue that allows us to unite and save this 240-year-old experiment in republicanism from internal collapse. To best do so, it is important that we contextualize the motivations for each side’s reaction and begin to understand them.
The anti-Trump reaction can be distilled into a simple hashtag: #NotMyPresident. Across the entire nation, this hashtag has become a powerful symbol for Trump opponents, a holistic repudiation of the President-elect’s rhetoric of discrimination and plain hatred. This movement’s validity can be decided by one nuanced question whose answer varies on the individual being asked: what is meant by ‘My President’? If by saying #NotMyPresident, you argue that Trump does not represent your interests or the interests of those close to you, then regardless of what you may hear from the other side, you are warranted in your statements. Donald Trump is not your President because he does not fight for your interests. Conversely, if you mean #NotMyPresident to mean that Trump is not actually the President-elect, or has not fairly won the presidency, you have altogether missed the point of this election. The foundation of democracy is the paramount value of the will of the people, and to reject the results of an election outright is to reject democracy altogether.
If your opinions on the Electoral College or the fairness of our democracy would have changed were Hillary Clinton elected, then you inherently forsake your own credibility. With Republican control of all three branches of government, grassroots Democratic involvement in the system is needed more than ever before. Realistic change cannot be effected without engaging the existing avenues of power, and sitting in groups to belittle your pro-Trump peers only exacerbates the environment that led to Trump’s election.
Most of Trump’s 100-Day Plan policies are initial positions to be haggled down to something passable, and it is our duty to go out there and do so. Denial of reality is an immature and useless reaction, and it is a dangerous one, too. Though it pains many to admit it, even if Clinton ultimately wins the popular vote by some two million votes (which seems likely), by the rules that have governed this nation from its establishment, Trump has claimed victory. Sitting around disputing the incontrovertible results of a fair election wastes valuable time and resources that could be used to build interparty dialogue, increase political awareness, and develop organized opposition — all the necessary steps to minimize the damage of four years of a Trump presidency, and the only way to retake the legislature in 2018.
Across the aisle, the reaction of Trump’s supporters was split twofold. Trump’s victory represented to some a return to small government, a reduction in establishment corruption, and the return of the American worker, but to others, the support given to a candidate who openly expressed unequivocally misogynistic, xenophobic, and often racist viewpoints evolved metaphorically into a vindication of their own most hateful and bigoted opinions. For the first group of Trump supporters, a Trump victory is something worth celebrating: after eight years of policies benefitting groups that were not their own, they now have the chance to “drain the swamp” and make Washington remember their own issues and goals. However, even if they personally constitute the former of the two groupings, it is inarguably ignorant and shortsighted to pretend as though the latter does not exist as well.
Since last Wednesday, reports of hate crimes have increased exponentially: gay men being violently assaulted in public, the black male portion of the freshman class at the University of Pennsylvania being invited to a Facebook group called “N—r Lynchings” and a GroupMe called “MudMen,” students of color at Wellesley College being told “Go back to Africa!” by young white men in a vehicle screaming “Make America great again!” — the list goes on. Fearful for their safety, Muslim mothers who have never shown their hair in public are telling their daughters to stop wearing their hijabs. As Hakeem Angulu ’16 wrote on Facebook, in regards to the killing of an American Saudi student, “We are not crying ‘liberal tears.’ We are mourning the loss of people like Hussain, and assaults of countless others in just three days.”
Regardless of the reasons for tears, policing the emotions of your peers — of whom certain rights are often in real, tangible danger under a Trump-Pence executive branch — is hypocritical and simply disrespectful. When Trump’s team offered Ohio Governor John Kasich the position of Vice President on the Republican ticket, it reportedly told him he would be in charge of domestic, foreign, and economic policy while Trump would be out “making America great again.” Given the likelihood of a similar proposition to Mike Pence, a candidate known for his support of electroshock homosexual conversion therapy, his unrelenting stance against abortion and birth control providers, and his opposition to same-sex marriage, the fears espoused by many peers gain a lot of credibility. Even placing that aspect aside, if fans of a sport team can mourn, cry, and riot for days after the loss of a championship game without facing dehumanization and ridicule, why is that privilege not extended to those with whom we disagree on politics?
In addition, to the argument that the election is over and that “we accepted Obama without protest, now you accept Trump,” we overlook the reality that, throughout Obama’s presidency, he was assaulted by a constant barrage of dehumanizing and often fictitious protests from the right. Death threats, birther conspiracies, and racist characterizations followed Obama throughout his presidency. If #NotMyPresident bothers you, but #GoBackToKenya does not, you either have conflicting principles or none at all. Though we all have a right to celebrate our candidate’s victory, there remains an expectation of mutual respect. Even if that respect is broken by some on the opposite side, that does not give us the right to deride our fellow citizens and classmates. “Political correctness,” for all the bad press it receives, is no more than a rephrasing of the values of mutual kindness, care, and respect. Choosing to pick fights for the sole purpose of eschewing “PC Culture” is not only immature but rude, in any context.
So now, to those of you who spent last Wednesday ridiculing and rebuking your peers for crying in the wake of this election’s results: learn from this. Learn that invalidating the uncontrollable, visceral reactions people have when the most basic rights of the people they love are put in danger is deplorable. Learn that ignoring your privilege and refusing to care for your vulnerable brothers and sisters is shameful. And learn that it is not alright to let your politics eclipse your human ability to empathize.
And to those who screamed and threatened their peers with violence because of their candidate’s victory: learn from this, too. Learn that dehumanizing your fellow students for their beliefs is hypocritical. Learn that your actions constitute sinking to the same level you so criticized before last Tuesday night. And, most importantly, learn that it takes much more than belittling your peers to prove that love trumps hate.
With an increasingly polarized electorate, it’s on our generation to return the tenets of unity, progress, and mutual respect to our nation. That duty requires strength, wisdom, and maturity, and with the constant bickering and gossiping that has taken hold of this campus, we cannot pretend to espouse even one of those virtues. For everyone on this campus calling themselves “woke,” it’s time to finally wake up.
