President Trump

Nov 8, 2016

I will be the first to admit I never saw this coming. I still believe Trump is a terrible human being and if he runs the country like a business then he will put profits ahead of people. There will be lots of angry people and those people will find out what they have to lose. With that said I have to admire what he has accomplished.

One year ago, no one thought he had a chance. News pundits and comedians alike watched gleefully as he entered the race, ready for zingers and eye catching headlines. They salivated and hung on to every politically incorrect statement made and every lie uttered. They predicted over and over again that his campaign would end. They said it would end after insulting the family of a gold star military member, they were wrong. They said it would end after claiming John McCain was not a hero because he was captured, they were wrong. They were wrong when he demeaned women, the disabled, and minorities. Trump was able to sustain his campaign despite doing what would have been career enders for others.

Trump did not lose out on too many votes from those he insulted. Among Latinos he won 29% of the vote. That meant despite threatening to build a wall, deport millions, and repeated insults, almost a third believed he was a better candidate than Clinton. Clinton took the lead on black and women voters but those margins were less than predicted. The same was true of young voters. Trump did extremely well with whites and those without a college degree, far exceeding what was predicted. He even converted historically blue states, the complete opposite of what the pundits had thought. In the end he solidified far more voters than he scared away.

At this point the Democratic party will have to reassess their position on the country. They had the most qualified candidate on the ballot, the support of a popular sitting president, more unity within the party, celebrity endorsements, more campaign money, and an opponent who was terrible on paper and the Democrats still lost. Democrats had squandered every advantage and had taken their electorate for granted. There were too many empty promises, too little accomplished, to put more Democrats in power. Working class whites, men and women were for a Trump. The margin of difference was huge.

Not only did Trump win the presidency, republicans also won the house, senate, and soon the supreme court. This is a glowing sign that the American public disapproves of everything they see happening. Trump has attacked a number of sitting politicians and it will be interesting to see how he runs his administration.

Trump is either the hypocrite in chief or a master tactician. Every insult he hurled at his opponent can be said about him. He attacks Clinton's charity despite using his own charity to enrich himself. He talks about Bill Clinton's affairs despite being married 4 times, numerous sexual assault cases, and bragging about groping women. He complains about the system being rigged and potentially not conceding so that his opponent could not make such a claim when he won. It was as if he had put his opponents in the defensive so much that they could not attack him on those same flaws, his flaws arguably were much more severe.

We are in unprecedented times ahead. The stock market has crashed, news organizations and many people are struggling to come to terms with the results, and xenophobia is likely going to spike. As a minority there is a chance that I will suffer or witness hostility yet to come. But I am not leaving, not running away to Canada. This is my country, my home, and I will define what it is to be American.

Trump is a terrible human being. He has accomplished a great deal but his message of anger and hostility is frightening. The times ahead will be uncertain.