It seemed practically humorous in the beginning.
The thought of Donald Trump, a money-hungry businessman known for his involvement in Reality Television more than anything else, running for president seemed simply humorous.
It almost sounds like a joke that other countries might make about America. “Oh those American citizens! Their lives are so reigned by greed and fame that they have a reality star running for president.” Fast forward to today and this stereotype-ridden nightmare has become America’s reality.
Donald Trump’s seemingly random bid for presidency, initially thought of as some kind of perverted joke, has officially beaten out Hillary Clinton’s experienced and well thought out campaign. This twisted turn of events has most of the country, at least from where I stand in the blue state of California, wondering “How?”.
(270towin.com)
How could a first lady turned secretary of state, with ample political experience and the support of millennials and minorities lose the election nearly every media outlet thought she had in the bag?
Voter turnout is the argument many have cited as the responsible factor, and while this may be true, it surely goes deeper than that. For starters, by taking a look at the graph below, it becomes clear that voter turnout for Republicans remains largely the same for both the 2012 and the 2016 elections, while voter turnout for Democrats plummeted from 2012 to now.
(politicsusa.com)
So now the question running through many of people’s minds is why? Why did groups like Latinos, African Americans, LGBTQ+ individuals and women fail to show up to the polls, according to CNN, when they needed to most? There may not be an all-encompassing, one size fits all answer, however one distinct mentality during this year’s elections seems to stick out as the culprit.
It started in the primary elections when many GOP supporters, unsure of who to cast their ballot for, took to saying “Anyone but Trump.”
It continued when Hillary Clinton beat out many Millennials candidate of choice, Bernie Sanders, and their support of Hillary Clinton was too weak to say anything but “Anyone but Trump.”
Lastly, this mentality led 3% of the vote go to Third-Party candidate Gary Johnson, 1% to Green Party Candidate Jill Stein, and thousand of other people writing in things like “Mickey Mouse,” “Harambe,” etc, undoubtedly going thinking “Anyone But Trump.”
With so many people seemingly anti-Donald Trump, it seems impossible for a Trump victory to have occurred Tuesday night, however the answer is simple, and lies in the family of unity. While Trump’s supporters were united towards their candidate, many of Hillary’s supporters felt lukewarm toward her campaign which rested mainly on opposing Donald Trump, rather than actual policy.
And this is how America elected Donald Trump.
Racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, greedy, money-hungry, power-hungry, fear-inducing, bigot. One can use all these adjectives to describe president-elect Donald Trump, however we can no longer blame a small, alienated, perverted portion of the population for his victory. The reality is the majority of this country elected Donald Trump because it united against him, and not in support of something bigger. And the only way to solve that is to unify now.
Whether you are rejoicing from a Trump victory, or suffering from a Clinton loss, the only way to move forward now is by uniting in support of what we believe in. And to never forget that love will always trump hate.
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This article is the perspective and opinion of the author and does not reflect the views of Her Campus at Cal Lutheran or Her Campus Media. Thank you!