We voted for hate and now we’re getting it

Gage Skidmore

A man wears the signature “Make America Great Again” hat in support of Donald Trump at a rally at Veterans Memorial Coliseum at the Arizona State Fairgrounds in Phoenix, Arizona. Many voters made their choice with this promise in mind, whatever it meant to them.

By Leslie Kivett
December 1, 2016

 

 

On the morning of election day, Nov. 8, I came in to the Student Voice newsroom early after having gone and voted for candidates and propositions I spent a year paying close attention to. I worked with my diverse team of writers, many of whom had done the same, and we talked about our hopes and fears for this election.

I drove home listening to KPCC’s election coverage as all the predictable calls were made: West Virginia for Trump, New York for Clinton, Florida always too close to call.

When I made it to my kitchen I made some food, cracked open a beer, and watched as history was made.

I had no idea what that would mean.

As the electoral vote map on NBC started to fill in with the speed of an absent minded toddler with only two colors at their disposal, it began to show a race much closer than anyone had anticipated. Traditionally blue states started blushing red and suddenly I wasn’t so sure I was even awake or that it’d be over quite as quick as I thought.

I took to Twitter for the safety of a mob, where it was mock anxiety across the microblogging site, because it was easier to laugh off the potentially damning evening than face it head on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even I got in on the jokes. Because despite how awful the mere notion of Trump’s candidacy was to me, it was still mildly amusing he’d gotten so far. It was amusing to watch and think, “Wow, how did we even get to this point?”

 

https://twitter.com/CheesyPlaysGame/status/796182478591434756

 

 

 

 

 

 

But it wasn’t that way for long. And it sure isn’t now.

I don’t need to recap how long it took for the clinching states to be called, how many painful hours I spent curled up in a ball in front of my TV hoping Pennsylvania wouldn’t be colored crimson. If you’re reading this you were probably watching. You probably understand, no matter what side you were on, how constricting that purgatory of uncertainty was.

Three weeks later I still just want to scream. If there ever was a time to scream it’s now. We should all be screaming.

As a nation we’ve done something I thought impossible. We’ve raised up a man who had taken to the heart of his campaign much of America’s deepest darknesses and made him our leader. No longer are his remarks about race, religion, and sex just flailing grabs at headlines or merely representative of a depraved corner of our culture that got way too much spotlight this election.

Now they’re the traits of a United States President. And we should all be scared out of our minds.

This isn’t about Democrats or Republicans. I’m an independent voter that wasn’t ready to vote for either presidential candidate. It’s barely even about Trump himself or many of his supporters, the mass of whom I will not, nor do I wish to, label as just a mob of intolerants.

No, we should be scared of the bigots among them. The racists. The phobics. Emboldened by the victory of a man they think, regardless of whether or not his upcoming policies reflect it, shares in their hate. And not just the most flagrant or loudest chauvinists among Trump supporters, I’m talking about the private sympathizers, perhaps more so.

A veil has been lifted from our country, revealing a land that is one of much greater antagonism than we could have understood before, something Hillary Clinton herself acknowledged.

“We have seen that our nation is more deeply divided than we thought,” said Clinton in her concession speech on Nov. 9.

And now we get things like this.

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>As I&#39;m stopped at a gas station this morning, a group of guys yell over: &quot;Time to get out of this country, Apu!&quot;<br><br>Day 1.</p>&mdash; Manik R (@ManikRathee) <a href=”https://twitter.com/ManikRathee/status/796408766518292480″>November 9, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src=”//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>

I am horrified that these kinds of people will now proudly announce their hate as a pennant of personal strength and solidarity with everyone who put Trump in the victory seat. They’ll see the country and Trump constituents, regardless of whether or not it’s true on individual level among them, as on their side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

George Washington University Economics professor Meraj Allahrakha mirrors this sentiment as a counselor for Muslim students at the school.

“People are just worried that now that this has become legitimized opinion many people who harbor these feelings privately will now come out publicly and may even act on them” said Allahrakha in an interview with Tom Gjelten on NPR.

It’s already happening.

Trump’s triumph just proved to these radical chauvinistic people that, despite decades of social progress, prejudices like the ones Trump displays are valid. That this country as a whole, no matter how close the popular vote was, is just as racist, homophobic and prejudiced as they are.

You needn’t look any further than the speech given by Richard Spencer, president of the white nationalist group the National Policy Institute, gave in Washington DC on Nov. 19.

In the name of the “alt-right,” a white nationalist fringe movement that, up until this point, operated in shadowy corners because of how obviously unacceptable their extremely prejudiced views would be received, Spencer said the following, to a room full of attendees and journalists.

“America was, until this past generation, a white country,” Spencer said. “Designed for ourselves and our posterity. It is our creation. It is our inheritance. And it belongs to us.”

Spencer concluded his speech by shouting “Hail Trump! Hail our people! Hail Victory!” to a standing ovation, among which many in the audience were outstretching their arms in a Nazi salute.

Fringe groups, or even private individuals with extreme views they rightly felt were too prejudicial to share, are now standing up in the wake of Trump’s win, confident that the country they live in is now firmly back in the hands of those who would return it to an era of intolerance and division. Or, as Mr. Spencer said that Saturday:

“We’ve crossed the Rubicon in terms of recognition,” said Spencer.

In other words, they think they’re right.

https://twitter.com/ManikRathee/status/796408766518292480

https://twitter.com/mindyisser/status/796403160503951360

https://twitter.com/maycesus/status/796247676027281408

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That last one terrifies me. I finally came to terms with my own bisexuality just this semester, finally allowing myself to accept and my friends to know about my sexuality, only to find myself in a country that champions a man against that acceptance feels like a punch to the stomach.

We tell ourselves, our friends, our families to stand up for each other. To protect and care for each other regardless of race, gender, religion or class. We tell ourselves we are good, inclusive people. But we let this man, this volatile eruption of centuries’ old hate that goes against all these beliefs, take our highest office.

As I said, this isn’t about political affiliation. This is about us as a nation voting for hatred, division and anger. These election results define our nation as antagonistic, intolerant and discriminatory.

I don’t think anyone is wondering how we got this far anymore. Because now it’s clear: America got this far because we wanted to. And that is a shame I, and we, cannot ever forget.

Whether you think Trump’s constituents are a mob of intolerants shouting down progress or that the prejudice among them is a snake cleverly sneaking it’s way in, the fact remains: the stances Trump took during his campaign, the baiting and slurring, the bigotry and hate filled sentiment weren’t deal breakers for over 50 million voting Americans.

We voted for prejudice. And no one should be laughing anymore.