We did it. We elected Donald Trump as President of the United States.
We let a misogynist and a bigot win on a platform fueled by racism and hate.
We jeopardized our environment, our economy and most importantly our basic human rights, and we did so by failing to cover the issues that truly matter most. We failed to hold ourselves accountable as we watched all of the events leading up to today unfold.
We let the media make a mockery of the election while we made a mockery of Donald Trump. And as his campaign continued to grow, so did our collective hate. As the coverage of Donald Trump’s intolerance increased, so did our intolerance for his views and his voters.
We divided ourselves and became the hatemongers we had grew to despise. We let the comic relief of Trump’s candidacy hide the fact that we were becoming what we feared most by abusing and insulting Trump and everyone who supported him. We talk a lot about the abuse that Hillary Clinton received during this election but we completely ignore what we did to Trump.
Now, I want to make it clear that I do not support Donald Trump. I do not condone any of his views or prejudice statements towards the LGBT community, those with disabilities, PoCs, Muslims, Mexicans, or any one else he has offended during his presidential campaign, especially women. (This is when you all make the argument that he shouldn’t dish it out if he can’t take it, and then I tell you to look in a mirror because you sound like Trump and then you sulk because perspective.)
But I also can not ignore the fact that the man has been harassed, berated and condemned by the public nearly every day for the last eighteen months.
A mural of Donald Trump and Putin depicted outside a restaurant in Lithuania.
With every article and meme we posted, in every tweet or headline we published; we humiliated him. We sprayed graffiti tags of him making out with Vladimir Putin, we hoisted up naked statues of him across the country. We attacked his kids & wife and then we marginalized his entire fanbase, millions of American citizens, labeling them as ignorant, uneducated and deplorable. And when these people got tired of being called racists, bigots and homophobes they went out and voted. We created an oppressed minority out of the ‘silent majority’ and then we turned Donald into their martyr.
Then, as if completely trashing the republican party wasn’t enough, we did the same thing to our fellow democrats. We caused the same rift among liberals that Donald Trump had initially caused among conservatives, only after we helped reunite the right.
We chastised anyone who entertained the thought of third party, we attacked the Bernie-or-Bust folks after blatantly ignoring the rigging of the DNC primaries and Hillary’s nomination and we tried incredibly hard to force everyone to believe that Hillary Clinton was their only choice. Then on Tuesday, when it came time to vote many of them voted for anyone but her; Donald Trump, Jill Stein, Gary Johnson, Bernie Sanders Harambe, etc.
And after all of the rhetoric about getting out to vote and the importance of making our voices heard we have the nerve to blame each other and lash out in more anger.
But the truth is we all share the blame and as much as we want to run away or hit the undo button, it’s time we all take responsibility for this mess.
This statue and several others like it were left in major US cities depicting a naked Donald Trump with no testicles and a very small penis. the project, titled “the Emperor Has No Balls” was commissioned by anarchist art collective, INDECLINE.
Donald Trump will be my president. I have accepted that fact and I’m not going anywhere. To quote Senator Bernie Sanders in his Statement on Trump:
“To the degree that Mr. Trump is serious about pursuing policies that improve the lives of working families in this country, I and other progressives are prepared to work with him. To the degree that he pursues racist, sexist, xenophobic and anti-environment policies, we will vigorously oppose him.”
I will respect the office of the President now, just like I demanded republicans to do the same with the Obama administration.
In 2008, when Barack Obama was announced as the President there were over sixty million people in this country who felt the same heartbreak and fear that we feel today. These were people who swore that they would never call him their president. People who very legitimately thought that the world would end because he had won and now eight years later we’re here in that same position.
I don’t mean to compare the two but I merely wish to point out that this isn’t the end. The world is not ending with Donald Trump as president.
Hate has not won over love. At least, not as long as we choose not to let it.
Nothing can stop our potential for love. Now is not the time to lose faith in humanity, this is the moment to embrace it. Regardless of what happens, you still have the choice to love.
Don’t let this outcome change you or how you treat other people. You can’t claim to go high when they go low and then go low when they get high.
You’ll get nowhere fighting hate with hate. Only love dispels hate. I love you.