By Rahmah I. (Senior)
“If you’re going to be thinking anything, you might as well THINK BIG” – Donald John Trump, 2016 Elected President.
As we all know, the presidential elections that have been going on for the past eighteen months, are cause for the highly controversial war of minds we’ve seen all over the media today. Some people have a strong belief for one thing, and they feel the need to blast it all over the internet to sear others with their opposing views. This year’s election has by far been the most hotly debated and contentious, since Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr’s Election of 1800. Yes; that long ago.
Upon a quick glance at the real candidates for the United States Presidency we often disregard all others and balance out our choice between the more popular; Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. With good reason, too, since the other three—Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, and Evan McMullin—aren’t nearly as well-known as they are.
There’s a lot to be desired with this year’s candidates, and plenty more to be ashamed of when it comes to their bickering for the past few campaigns and impassioned “what I will do if I win” speeches. But, on the inside, America is splitting apart at the seams when it comes to views and opinions on who we’re better off with as president.
And more explicitly, from the looks of things, people will be talking about this year’s election till the day they die. Our future generations will likely look at it and wonder, “did that actually happen?” as the stuff that’s going on in these campaigns, the tit-for-tat back and forth that we’re seeing between Donald Trump (Republican GOP nominee AKA Runner-up) and Hillary Clinton (Democrat Nominee). And while, yes, we are living through it and kind of in a shock that what’s happening is even happening: we are also at the edge of our seats and every bit the participant in Donald and Hillary’s circus show. Our simply mentioning a candidate’s name is fuel for their cause. For one, some wonder, “why do we even have a Top Secret email fraud and leaker running for president?” and others, ask just as equally stunned, “an ex-actor/arrogant businessman. With no real basis for even running. What is America coming to?” I hear them, and I wonder the same.
It’s no secret that a businessman of his status ought to have some duplicity about him. But, some take his frank racism and bigoted comments to be the much-needed candidness, our country has lacked for some time now. Maybe even since the Watergate scandal of 1972. Nevertheless, if that’s not a big enough reason to dislike them both, we still have to come to terms with the fact that we need to choose one, and the best one at that. As they teach us in school; the process of elimination can do wonders. But mustn’t we line up all the pros and cons of our answer choices in order to fully grasp the depth to which our decisions will reach? And not to forget that we have to educate ourselves on both the candidates’ qualifications and experience with dealing with our country with skilled hands. And that would mean making ourselves knowledgeable on the lives of Hillary Clinton, 67th U.S. Secretary of State, former First Lady to President Bill Clinton, Former Junior U.S. Senator representing New York, First Lady of Arkansas during Mr. Clinton’s governorship, and mother of one and grandmother to two. As well as Mr. Donald Trump, business mogul, candid-speaker, and father to five. We currently have a democratic president, and a shift in the political party at this contentious moment in our nation, could possibly cause more harm than we need. But that’s another story, for another time.
Honestly, in the presidential debates that we’ve been tuning into, there’s nothing professional about them. In plenty of them, Trump wouldn’t allow Clinton to get a word in, and succeeded. Why the organizers allow that kind of behavior is beyond me. Is it a conspiracy? And also in the, famously talked about, presidential debate in late September, “The most awaited debate between the US presidential nominees…and there was a lot that viewers [the] world-over learned about both the candidates as they went head on – the most important being that Donald Trump cannot let a person talk for even two minutes without interrupting [them]. He made 51 interruptions while Clinton spoke, and 25 of them [were] in the first 26 minutes of the debate.” Says The Quint News Source.
Not only that, we’ve heard Donald Trump’s hurtful and, to be frank, scary rhetoric. He declares that he’d brand Muslims, he degrades all Hispanics with racial stereotyping, and totally disregards the benefits both parties bring to the table. The American Table. Many things Trump has said and done, has crumbled the façade of American’s beliefs that there are certain things the government—better, yet; the nation—wouldn’t stand for.
Like a presidential candidate screaming racist slurs and slandering religions based off of marginally small radical groups, and branding races based off of his sole experience with them. He does all this, hateful “Freedom of speech” while simultaneously promising to uphold the very constitution that preaches the “Freedom of Religion” he is opposing.
Isn’t America great because we are a melting pot? We have every power from every nation and every weakness as well. Take the recent Olympic Games for example, we had the best of every country representing us because race doesn’t make us an American. Our values and beliefs do. That’s all.
But, because, with the good comes the bad, we also have the very small radical groups of these races/religions among us painting bad names for us at every chance they get. That doesn’t change the fact that we aren’t them and they aren’t us. And that views don’t mirror each other solely because of religion. Especially if the 99% in the U.S., that Trump is targeting are one’s who were born and raised in the very America that has instilled the very same views and values in him and them (us, Muslims). But, in the weakness of our nation, comes the success. It’s clear that the success and strengths from our diversity is the very thing that’s equipped us with a much larger pillar of strength, than any weakness it could have hindered us with.
That’s something to note.
Now, with the knowledge you now have on our two primary candidates for the oval office, the White house, America and for the large-hand in our countries decisions; can you honestly say, you’re proud of our choice as a nation?
Whether this year’s election and subsequent votes accurately represent the mindset of our country, is and probably will remain an unknown. Because not every American votes. Most just pray that everyone else will do it for them; make the “right decision” on their behalf. The tragedy of common thinking but to a whole new level. Nonetheless, it’s safe to say that isn’t the only reason people aren’t voting. For one, the ballot voting frauds and problems, serve as a barrier to most would-be voters. According to the Huffington post, “Election officials in Louisiana seized a voting machine on Wednesday that was reserved for “VIP” voters who could skip voting lines.” Most likely prioritizing the wealthy upper-class voters, and disregarding those lower class voters whose votes count just as much. It’s an issue and while I’m not saying that the next presidency will be one gained over fraud, I am saying that it most certainly shouldn’t be growing at the rate it is, with these concerning practices still happening. “Voter fraud has been incorrectly viewed as a non-issue” says, Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz, and, if not for this presidential election day; the next, the voting should be watched and manned more routinely and safely.
With our two equally flawed candidates, it’s safe to say that the implications for the one chosen will be a flighty basis for our nation to continue to prosper on. Our options seem to be an armor full of chinks, either way, or a gun with no ammunitions. From this knowledge: I am worried for our country, and you should be too.
We were hoping that from the beginning Trump would deliver a Sherman-esque statement to his nomination: “I will not accept if nominated and I will not serve if elected”. But he hasn’t ever really worked that way when it came to public attention, has he?
There’s a reason he was said to be anti-Muslim, Anti-Latino, disapproved of many minority groups, and that he was endorsed by the KKK (Klu Klux Klan), although that last one has been unsubstantiated. He still openly disbands them from the rope of Americans, and from the boiling pot that we are. But, there’s a lot of bang to his words that we see already dying down in terms of whether he’s willing to follow through with them…. not to jinx it. Trump can—in fact, anyone can—say whatever they want during the primary, can say whatever they want during the general elections, to amp-up their foundation, but to govern those who didn’t vote for you, those who you marked as enemies but who were harmless citizens of America, that’s where Trumps true colors will come to show. We see orange, but we need to see clear. We need clarity on his intentions and plans of action. What will he decide on our current issues at the fore? Issues like Drug policy, Education policy, Environmental issues, Gun Control Laws, Health care, social security, tax reform and many others.
Following the CBS News, it would appear that Clinton voters knew toward the Post-Midnight hours of the early morning, that she only had about one way to the presidency as the states ballots closed and the states solidly colored in. Once the major states with the most electoral votes started closing doors, she saw her end, but maintained a hopeful mien. Clinton hoped that, after fighting for a shot at presidency for the decades that she has, maybe 2016 was her year. Hoped that once Americans decided to get up and voted, it would be an obvious win. A clear setting in stone for her as the first female president and practically the calling-hand in the major decisions of our future.
On Wednesday, at 2:55 AM, Donald J. Trump was elected the presidency for 2016.
We are officially going to be transitioning from a democratic nation to a republic. And, I personally think Trump won’t fully walk the walk of all his reckless and harmful rhetoric, although I fully embrace the fact that it just may come back to bite me, and prove me wrong. But, here’s what I think: I’ve heard all that Trump has had to say pre-campaign, during his campaigns, and in the Media; and it isn’t pretty. Not an ounce of it, can come out to boast him up to a respectable pedestal that all our previous presidents have undoubtedly upheld. He’s upended our view that, “The logical choice will no-doubt win”, he’s upended the myth that, “A republican cannot win, since our last republican president was George H. W. Bush. In other words, since our last was ages ago,” and all of this havoc he’s created in our country has showed that the power of opinion can either make or break us. Donald Trump really has used that “Silent Vote” threat he’s been bragging about since the beginning of these tumultuous eighteen months. And he’s showed us that to only prioritize the minority groups he’s slandered, while ignoring the large groups who, usually stay—like he says— “silent” during elections, and whom he’s chosen to target: largely white males, who were unhappy with Obama’s term; was the ‘dumber’ of the two choices. But, if there’s one thing Trumps victory (if one could even call it that) has taught us, it’s the veracity of our system. The truth in the American system’s, “the consent of the governed” assertions still stand, to date. If the majority of Americans in the high-count electoral states say they want him, they speak for “all of Americans” and, therefore, we get him.
I mean, look at the guy, even after all that he’s said and done, even though all the public conservative intellectuals openly disprove of him, even though his whole party apparatus is against him, pointing to him as a highly unlikely and illogical candidate; he managed to, first get nominated, second win the presidency against all odds. It’s a mind-bending fact, but it’s one that we could have all seen coming if we actually paid attention to his tactics: state something controversial, and hateful that was bound to get him on headlines, back-peddle, apologize and keep up the ruse.
Where that’s all said and done; he’s still managed to make history. He’s not only the first president to have gained the presidency without any previous experience in politics, but he also has no military background, and is honestly just a big-name business mogul.
It’s important to remember, that all our problems weren’t going to end if Hillary Clinton was elected. America was founded on a sort-of coming together, a consensus to get things done. And I’d like to think that no matter the president at our head, we’ll all still be able to uphold our roots and rights.
Whether hearing about his being elected as our president for 2016 and beyond (or at least for the next four years…possibly eight.) is good news to you, or if it’s devastating news—It is still, without question, going to be a fight for us, as an entire nation, to become unified over this election and the results. Families are caught up in the political cross-fire, and states are at each other’s neck, but I hope, as an American Muslim, that Trump’s true passion and fire can get directed to where it belongs, outside our home, our nation and towards an actual enemy, while smothering any fires that may arise from within our own walls (nothing literal…yet).
What we are hearing from President Elect Donald Trump, after his election; in fact, during his victory speech, is that he will aim for, “partnership not conflict” and that “now it’s time for America to Bind the wounds of division, we have to get together…. I say, it is time for us, to come together as one united people. I pledge to every citizen of our land, that I will be president to all Americans, and this is so important to me.”
I’m willing to hold him to his word, after all he has made those crass statements and claims, but he has never once failed to roll it back and back-peddle out of those distasteful comments. Who knows? Maybe that’s what we need in our country right now, to bring us together: someone who goes wherever he gets the most feed.
Which brings us to our closing statement…I once saw a comment during the first few weeks of the presidential campaigns, on a news platform. And it read, simply, “Voting between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, is like deciding between Ebola and Cancer, respectively.” and what I have to say to that is: I guess we all settled for Ebola. After all, some may say it’s a more painless way to go.
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