What happened last week made me want to stop being an American.
I am embarrassed of our country’s government and wish it were vastly different. It’s one bad move after another under the Trump administration, and things need to change. Not only does the President need to stop being quite so ignorant, but also, our system as a whole is corrupt and does not match the standards of today. Just because our government worked for our founding fathers in the way they chose when they founded our country in 1776 does not mean it works the same way now.
Kavanaugh was nominated by President Trump, who lost the popular vote in the 2016 election by more than 3 million votes. The reason the founding fathers put the electoral college in place was because deep down, they did not trust the popular vote. Trump has done more harm than good for the country and he isn’t who the majority of the United States people even wanted.
Furthermore, the 48 Senators who voted against Kavanaugh represent 181.8 million Americans. The 50 Senators who voted for him represent 143.2 million Americans. Now the highest court in the country is conservatively dominated, and the last appointed one, Kavanaugh, has sexual assault allegations against him. Again, the system we have for our government is meant to represent the American people, but what these votes are doing is quite the opposite. Our government is not doing a good job of attending to what the U.S. wants as a majority.
Americans are speaking out, using the #MeToo movement and #WhyIDidntReport, but nothing is happening or changing within our Government. President Trump is proud of his “victory” of Kavanaugh winning and being sworn in, but he’s probably just happy to know Kavanaugh can get away with sexual assault accusations – just as Trump did.
In my own speculation, a win for Kavanaugh makes Trump feel better about his own sexual assault allegations. This speculation comes from the knowledge that Trump has a huge ego and is easily offended by what the media and people think about him. He wants to look good to the public even when he is making really wrong and poorly informed decisions.
We need to start believing victims of sexual assault and trust that these sexual assaults happen without physical proof. It’s almost impossible to start a video going, take photos or audio while one is being sexually assaulted, so proof is nearly unattainable. Only 0.005 percent of all rape allegations are false, according to Joanne Belknap, a sociologist, criminologist, and professor at the University of Colorado Boulder. The argument that women only go after powerful men to take away their status is irrelevant with this data.
The Nov. 6 midterm elections are only a month away, so now is the time to act. Now we can finally make some changes. Democrats have a chance to take control of one or more chambers of Congress and start a blue wave.