Opinion: Not My President

Donald Trump is not my president, but he is what we have. Trump is not my president, but he is our president. Trump is the man that the electoral college will elect, and that is a fact that I am learning to accept.

For the next four years, Donald Trump will be called the President of the United States after his inauguration in January. However, I will never call that man my president.

I will not call him my president because Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. More people wanted Clinton in office, but she did not win swing states like Florida, Wisconsin, or Pennsylvania. Most Americans following the election knew that as soon as Trump took Florida, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, he had won the electoral votes necessary to take the presidency.

The people chose Hillary Clinton. The system chose Donald Trump. Donald Trump is not my president.

Every poll and every forecast pointed to Clinton. The majority of the country pointed to Clinton. But here we are with the least qualified President-elect I’ve ever seen.

Yes, I’m mad. I’m mad because I am the one who’s going to suffer the fallout of this election –not the older, white men who continue to support him. These supporters will not have to deal with the fear of getting pregnant and being unable to get an abortion. These supporters will not be scared to wear their hijab in public out of fear of being called a terrorist. These supporters will not be left to deal with the strained relationships with foreign countries that we, the millennials, the future of our country, will be expected to fix.

If it had been up to millennials, almost every single state would have been a blue state. We see the direction we want our country to go in and we are trying to push it there, but we can only do so much. President Obama showed us that we can improve our country: that there is hope. We’ve just had eight years with our first African-American president, but now the electoral college has put an unqualified, sexist, racist, offensive man in his place.

One possible conclusion to this shift is that over the past eight years, the same old, white men that support Donald Trump have felt left out. They’ve felt left out because for once everything that the president does is not solely to benefit their particular demographic, but to benefit the people as a whole.

Another could be the culture of silence among voters. People believe that their vote doesn’t matter. People take democracy for granted. People don’t vote for a candidate; they vote against a candidate.

Voters can vote for Trump, they can vote for Clinton, but they simply can’t vote against Trump or vote against Clinton. What will that do for our country? The idea of only electing a president to keep someone out of office is not a way for a leader to be selected. The people that voted for Trump to keep Clinton out of office in swing states like Florida or Pennsylvania are the reason that Trump will be living in the White House for the next four years. The culture of “voting against” is something that I want to see changed in the next election, and it’s something that I intend to take initiative to end myself.

However, I believe that no matter how scary this election is or has been, I think there might be some silver lining for our country hidden in this tragedy.

The American people need to see that our country cannot function with people on polar sides of the political spectrum. Extremes will not bring our country together, extremes will not get anything accomplished.

A Democrat won’t get much done with a Congress dominated by Republicans. However, a Republican won’t get much done with a Congress dominated by Democrats. This point has been demonstrated well enough throughout President Obama’s two presidential terms, with Republicans in the Senate fighting tooth and nail over every little thing that Obama wanted to get accomplished.

Most notably, the Senate never backed down from attempting to repeal Obamacare (AKA the Affordable Care Act). Now, with a Republican in office, the Senate will most likely be able to pass a repeal for the ACA — should Trump keep this promise to his voters.

Perhaps Trump is the president the people needed to elect. They need to see what it will turn our country into. They need to see that Trump cannot “make America great again” with the culture that this election has instilled in the American people. Our country is divided more than I have ever seen it.

I did not elect Donald Trump. I did not elect anyone, yet I am one of many who will be left to deal with a man that I did not elect.

Donald Trump is not my president.

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