Our country decided last night that it was tired of the status quo. It decided that it was time for drastic changes. That it was no longer going to tolerate jobs being sent overseas, or a struggling working class that is slaving away at longer hours and less pay. A working class that is struggling to live day to day, not to mention failing to be able to adequately save for a rainy day, or their children’s college educations. Our country decided that it was time to make changes that they believed would help with these issues. That would allow us to grow, and prosper and, hopefully, get back to a point where the American Dream means something. Many, more than many, felt that the only way to achieve this was to elect Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States. Regardless of how you may feel about him, what is done is done and it is time to start facing what is our new reality.
Personally, I spent the evening watching election coverage in shock and awe. I wondered what I was going to say to our children when they asked in the morning. I had no idea how I was going to explain the situation, or how I was going to put a positive spin on the matter. I am not a political person by nature. In fact, I typically avoid any political conversation like the plague. I have had experience with people turning quite ugly when it comes to politics, and I don’t have time in my life for that. However, like the rest of the nation, this election had my attention from moment one. I do not declare myself Republican or Democrat. I have always listened to the candidates in the election, and voted based on who I felt would make the best leader. That sometimes didn’t mean that I thought that person was the best for the job, but was the lesser of two evils. I am not ashamed to admit that I went to bed angry last night. I was angry, saddened, and scared. This man who promised to build a wall along our Southern border, promised to ban Muslim immigrants from entering our country, ban and deport any Syrian refugees from our country, spoke about women like they are property and pieces of ass, and let’s not forget the way he spoke of any other race and the LGBT communities, was going to be our new leader. I was saddened that we, as a country, had decided that our best option was a man who thinks it’s ok to sexually assault women, and who laughs about it when confronted with questions. I am not ashamed of these feelings, because the one thing that we are supposed to have in this country is the right to our opinions. Not everyone, obviously, is going to agree with my opinions, and that’s fine too, but my opinions deserve to be respected, as I would respect yours.
This morning came, like they always do, and the reality started to settle in. I woke up to a shitstorm of things on my Facebook feed, and some of them were downright ugly. It didn’t really matter which side it was, the one’s who felt we lost as a country or the one’s who felt we had won, both were being equally ugly to each other. I think that might have made me more sad than the election did.
I went back to thinking about what I will tell our children when they ask, because at some point they will. I decided that I will tell them that we can hope that he will hold to his promises to better the education system, to improve the availability and affordability of healthcare, that he indeed does bring jobs to our country, and in those we will do our part to support him as our President. That we will find the silver lining in something that we are unable to change. We will hope and believe that he will indeed do what is best for this country, that he will work to Make America Great Again. We will band together for our friends, neighbors, loved ones who are living in fear right now. We will fight against any attempts to take away any person’s civil rights and liberties. We will do our part, no matter how small it might feel, to stop the hate and the ugliness. We will do what we can to fight for, and support, our country; because love or hate the results of the election last night, this is our home and these are our lives.