BY: NADIA ZAIDI
Like it or not, Donald Trump is going to be the 45th president of the United States.
Trump’s journey into power may be the most contentious outcome in modern American politics. From media frenzy to civil outrage, the notorious President-Elect’s bombastic statements and inappropriate behaviour have ignited a climate of fear.
Resistance may need to fade into acceptance if the nation wants to move forward and towards unification.
But what good can come out of a decision so detrimental to have upended the fabrics of a country that long chose to ignore its fraying threads?
Perhaps the biggest irony facing the United States is the responsive participation post-election. A country so boastful about its electoral process and liberties now finds itself asking why its citizens didn’t exercise their right to vote.
As the country stands naked, anguished by its decision to elect a stooge with a defective moral compass, it now asks what went wrong. The answer has never been clearer in the minds of Americans: Trump.
And Trump alone.
But no, dear American. It’s time to accept your truth.
America is a broken mirror hanging by the cracks. It is fragmented, confused, conflicted.
Trump’s rhetoric is divisive. His provocative, blanket statements are ludicrous. He lacks decorum and diplomacy, among other things.
Let’s face it. He’s barely presidential.
Yet he’s the leader they elected: both those who voted, and those whose silence inevitably casted his ballot.
The media tirelessly agonizes over his semantics and disparaging propositions. But labelling him as reprehensible is the equivalent of saying the sky is blue – it’s apparent.
Americans must accept the disparities that have long existed and let this painful reality serve as a teaching moment. Trump is a reflection of their worst problems, and he must ultimately serve as a solution to ending them.
This is what we must take from his election:
- Power is often given, not earned. Our actions – or inactions – are consequential. Your vote does matter. It got him to the White House, didn’t it?
- Hope must always outweigh fear. Always.
- Tolerance should have long been replaced with acceptance. Nobody should ever be tolerated. People should be welcomed. Differences should be celebrated and acknowledged as diversity, not division.
- Trump’s pugnacious nature and unprofessionalism should reinforce the checks and balances we hold towards those in power.
- We must acknowledge our issues. Trying to push something against the waves only causes them to rise to the surface.
- Unification shouldn’t occur during opposition against something or someone. This often serves as the foundation for conflict and war.
- Disenfranchised groups aren’t the only people who have the right to complain, ask, or express. But nobody should ever doubt his or her challenges and experiences.
- It’s never just a woman’s issue; it’s a human issue.
- The white male is not the problem. He’s part of the solution. Unity is always better than division.
- Education is the keystone to progress.