President Trump.
Sounds “Hillary”iously horrifying doesn’t it? Well that is what happens when you combine stupidity with strategy and behold a result that ironically the whole of America is resenting, after they had a chance to vote.
In the Presidency Elections yesterday Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump by more than 50 points. She was at 228 (270 needs to win) as Trump went on to win it with 279 points. And so on January 20th 2017, Trump will officially take his place as the President of United States. Not such a good start to the year.
So how did Trump, a candidate who was considered comical than consequential, had the good perchance of winning the presidency while the steadfast Hillary lost it when she had more experience? The statistics show that Hillary didn’t fare quite as well as her Democratic predecessor Barack Obama, who had picked the right focus groups as his supporters, i.e., the Hispanics, women, young Americans and rural whites. With just 65% of votes from Hispanics (Obama had received 71% in 2012), 54% from women (55% for Obama) and just 55% of youngsters (60% for Obama) Hillary missed those crucial points that could have led her to victory. We may very well ask why would anyone in their right minds vote for Trump when he has on numerous occasions talked about degrading women, building a wall across U.S.-Mexico and equating Muslims to terrorists. But the truth of the matter is that Trump and his campaign showed the power of brainwashing and bitterness.
Trump has time and again talked about how U.S.A. is suffering due to its lenient immigration laws and there are terrorists walking amongst us. That mixed with the widespread fear of ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram and what-not, has instilled in Americans that it is in fact true that people of colour cannot be trusted. And although he has said that the immigration laws will be applicable to “potentially threatening” countries with “real terrorists”, we all know it is just a hop, skip and jump away to Indians and later people of other nationalities too. And what’s more, don’t we have hundreds of Muslim-Indians too, studying in the States, trying to contribute to its economy? On the point of economy, sources have told that whites without a college degree, both men and women, made up a third of the votes and Trump won them by 39%. These were the ones who showed deep racial and cultural anxiousness too. Stunningly, half of these people voted that they preferred a progress in the economy rather than caring about immigration. This fact might be vaguely explainable through the Great Recession that hit America in 1975, and almost 40 years since the working class hasn’t seen much headway.
In the end, it all comes down to one thing – the average American would rather side with a powerful but wrong bully than with a straightforward yet righteous ally. Unfortunately, Hillary’s wise vision towards a better America, a better world, were drowned by the chaos of “Make America Great Again!” It is heartening though to see that we haven’t lost it all and there are protests going on from New York to Los Angeles wherein thousands of people marched in solidarity with Hillary after the upsetting win of the billionaire, some carrying signs with slogans such as “Not our President” and “Love trumps hate.”
Hillary on her part has bloomed to be a true-blue presidential candidate – fierce till the finals and humble after the loss. She appealed to girls and women all over the world saying that they should not view this as a setback and “never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance in the world.” And although she was hurt at the loss to her contender, she urged everybody to be unified, no matter the result. Even President Barrack Obama spoke to the gathering stating that even though we lose elections, we shouldn’t lose the bond with our fellow citizens.
On the whole, yesterday was a thoroughly disappointing day for many and a thoroughly dazzling one for others. But the Electoral College have to still cast their vote and even though that hope might be tiny, the faith that we can have a better future must always burn bright especially in such times when the garish has TRUMPed good.
