Not My President

 

 

Photo provided by: New York Times
Photo provided by: New York Times
Anna Holland
Contributor

I usually don’t endorse political candidates. I don’t do work for campaigns. Normally, I am willing to stand behind whatever candidate comes my way, but I cannot support Donald Trump as the President-Elect for the United States after his election this fall.

Do we need to presume Trump as innocent, allowing him a kind of grace period? Does he deserve a grace period? I will not consider everything he said as unsaid. He said that you should use nuclear weapons, if you have them. He said that Mexicans are rapists and drug dealers. You know, the list could go on and on.

Bernie Sanders said about Trump’s divisive language, “What somebody like Trump is trying to do is to divide us up. A few months ago, we were supposed to hate Mexicans and he thinks they’re all criminals or rapists. Now we’re supposed to hate Muslims. That kind of crap isn’t going to work in the United States of America. Donald Trump is not right. A Mexican worker making eight bucks an hour is not the reason why the middle class is disappearing.”

I will not just pretend all these things didn’t come up at all, and say he might be a proper good fellow. Why? You can’t unsay what has been said. We can’t ignore that he operates outside of our democratic traditions, promoting racism, condoning violence and making paranoia mainstream… all to garner the shock-value attention of Americans.

Obama himself said in the meeting with Trump, “We have to work on Trump feeling welcome. And, if Trump is successful, the whole country is successful.” Really? If Trump is successful with what he announced during his campaign, it’s the end of the line.

Trump winning the campaign has proved to be a victory for the Dakota Access pipeline, which would displace hundreds of people from their homes in North Dakota’s Standing Rock Indian Reservation. This project also disturbs sacred lands and burial grounds and would likely contaminate the Missouri River, which provides drinking water for multiple tribes as well as cities along the river.

Donald Trump is a threat to national security for many reasons. His display of near-total ignorance of international policy, military affairs, as well as America’s counterterrorism policy puts us all at risk. Although ignorance in a politician isn’t as abnormal as we would all like, Trump’s ignorance is of a particularly aggressive variety. He has done more to undo our past president’s consistent protests that the United States is at war with Islam.

I wish that Trump’s faults stopped at narcissism and ignorance; I really do. Unfortunately, there is a lot more about him that makes it impossible to support him as my president. During his campaign, one of Donald Trump’s most enthusiastic supporters was David Duke, current Louisiana State Representative and former Klu Klux Klan wizard… in addition to the current Klu Klux Klan establishment hinchman. Things like this, (the hate speech, the blatant racism and disregard for our country, retweeting quotes from Mussolini) they bring out Trump’s true colors.

And, that’s what makes me angrier. America chose him over Hillary Clinton. Voters chose a man who can’t even say a sentence correctly, who’s sexist, racist and homophobic opinions put thousands of Americans in danger of hate crimes, over a woman who dedicates her entire life helping people. Seriously? That is horrifying. That’s exactly why we can’t lose hope, especially now.

As Clinton said, “Never stop believing that fighting for what’s right is worth it, because it is. We must do everything we can to stop this, if it’s by protesting or signing a petition or by using social media. Now, it’s our time to use our voices and be heard, because at the end of the day, love always trumps hate.”

Trump may be the present, sadly, but he is not the future. We are the future. Our strength is a million times more powerful than his. We will acknowledge this result, but we will not accept it. We will overcome it, and we will defeat it.

aeholland@lc.edu

 

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