As I rested my eyes on election night, uncertain but somehow aware of the final results the presidential race would yield, Taylor Swift’s “Exile” lyrics rustled through my mind.
“I think I’ve seen this film before, and I didn’t like the ending”
Swift, Taylor. “Folklore”. Exile, Republic Records, 2020.
In 2016 when Hillary Clinton lost the election to Donald Trump I was twelve years old. I remember feeling utter disappointment and discouragement that America was not yet ready for a female president. That they would rather elect a criminal than a woman as President.
On Tuesday, November 5th, 2024, overwhelmed with emotions, I couldn’t help but think, is the world just as disapproving of women now as they were when I was in the Seventh Grade?
I remember middle school boys, parading around with integrity and air telling us, their peers, to make them sandwiches. That we belong in the kitchen, that women are property.
I can’t say I’ve spoken to any of these young men from my small Connecticut town as of late, but I can offer a pretty solid guess as to where they cast their vote this election season, if they voted at all.
The irony of all of this is that I genuinely believed things would be different by now. I figured that by 20-odd years old and half a bachelor’s degree underway that men would finally stop with their taunting, like the election is some kind of football game to gamble over. I thought that this time was different; I thought they knew what was at stake.
Instead I am greeted with fireworks as I struggle to sleep on election night. The next morning as I reached for my phone, already fairly certain that Donald Trump had won the presidency, a text from my family group chat confirms and washes away any last ounce of hope I had left.
I want to be fully transparent in my acknowledgement of my privilege. My rights, my freedoms, will likely remain widely untouched in the face of this transition of power. This should not be misinterpreted to mean that people will not suffer as a result of this election. Citizens will suffer, the economy will suffer, democracy will suffer, and blood will be on your hands, America.
Donald Trump has a reputation as a womanizer, a sexual abuser and a misogynist. Evident through both his past presidential actions and appointments, including his 2018 nomination of Current Justice Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court and his 2024 nomination of Matt Gaetz as Attorney General.
I am fearful for the young boys that will grow up in a nation that is led by Donald Trump. I am terrified for the young girls that will suffer at the expense of the rhetoric, the action that is encouraged by Trump.
This presidential election is proof that people need to get involved. Lobby, volunteer, protest, march. Use your anger, let it transform into passion.
As I write this still mourning the loss of what could have been, I remind myself that I will live to see the first female president, and I for one, cannot wait for this day to come.