It’s now been over a week since the Presidential election, and as elections go, you expect jubilation on one end and disappointment on the other. That’s the process, and in the days and months that follow, the nation unites behind the President-elect. But this election was different; as some relished the numbers coming in from one state after another, others were feeling the floor fall from beneath them. There has been a lot of disbelief and confusion about how this election went, disbelief and confusion for those on the losing side, and almost a sense of vindication for those on the winning side. For months, polls and pundits said Trump could not succeed; the Hillary juggernaut was unstoppable, the Trump machine laughable, but here we are living the prophecy of a Simpsons episode.
So what happened? Why so much shock at these results? Why were more Democrats not prepared for a loss? And why were so many Republicans so certain of a win? The world today is about tweeting your opinion, updating your status, blogging your beliefs and following people on social media based on your likes, dislikes and beliefs.
We create a world which reflects who we are and shut out anything that does not support our views of this world. In doing so, we convince ourselves that other opinions do not matter; other opinions are irrelevant or even obsolete. As a society, we all have opinions to share, but do not want to hear opinions that disagree with ours. So on Wednesday of last week, some of us woke up stunned, disappointed, and confused because we could not believe that enough of the country could disagree with how we view the world to elect Donald Trump.
As much as it may not have made sense to some of you, did you really listen to what mattered to Trump supporters this election? Beyond the rhetoric of isolationism, fear, and hate that caused so many of us to tune out the rest of the message on issues such as taxes, gun rights, reproductive rights, same-sex marriage, and the anti-establishment stance. The reality is that there are people in this country who are against everything that Hillary Clinton and a Democratic administration represented, and all that other stuff imputed to Donald Trump, the man, just did not matter. We do not have to agree with them, but it is important to understand their reality of America.
At the same time, there is no doubt in my mind that amongst those who voted for Trump, there were those who did so simply because he verbalized the isms that they’ve been told for so long no longer belonged in our society, and that is where this election is not like the others.
When the Center for Diversity and Inclusion opened up a space for students to process the results of these elections, it was not about reflecting on the loss of Hillary Clinton; it was about fear, the fear of what it means for many of them to walk around Wooster, and ultimately, America in the coming days, months and years, the fear my wife has every time I make a run to Walmart, or walk down the street. I can accept that you disagree with me about foreign policy, immigration policy and reproductive rights; in fact I will defend your right to do so anytime. What I can’t accept is what occurred on Beall Avenue in the hours and days that followed the election results. Hate was legitimized in this election, and regardless of why someone may have voted for Trump, they now have to accept responsibility for that hate.
Yorgun Marcel, Assistant Dean of Students, can be reached for comment at YMarcel@wooster.edu.