K, Can.

I just wanna say some things. It’d be a lie to say that I’m just as disappointed as the next guy that Trump won the election, because honestly, I don’t really care. I mean, it’s fun to talk about and shit, but ultimately, I don’t care. I’m gonna forget about this in a week or two, but there’s just some stuff regarding the issue I wanna talk about.

First of all, I am supremely disappointed in the way that people have responded to the results of the election, especially those of us who aren’t Americans. I’m not that disappointed in the actual election, though I did hope that Hillary had won. No, I’m disappointed because the reactions to this fiasco is (I think) exactly the reason why we suck at conflict resolution. I have no proper sources for this, but a cursory look at facebook, reddit and other internet-place-thingies seem to suggest that the general sentiment is that Trump won because “stupid people voted for him”. That is abhorrent. I know how that feels because I remember a time not too long ago when I would have said the same thing, that only stupid people would have voted for Trump, and I don’t doubt that at least some of the people who voted for Trump are stupid, and voted for stupid reasons. But I’m willing to bet that a number of people who voted for Hillary are stupid as well, and voted for her for stupid reasons as well, just like the 11,000 people who voted for Harambe. HOWEVER, to say that the 59 million people who voted for Trump did so just because they were stupid? You think that 59 million people in a first world country are stupid because they voted for a candidate you disagreed with? That is stupid, and it’s the reason why we can’t make things work.

When you assume that people make the decisions they do due to stupidity (or some base, incurable negative trait like that), you close off the possibility of ever bringing those people over to your side. When you assume that 1/5 of the population of a first world country is stupid, on the basis of a single decision they made, you ignore the myriad reasons and justifications they may have had in making that decision. It’s easy to say that “these people voted Trump because they’re stupid”, because that 1. Instantly elevates yourself and 2. Makes it their problem, not yours. But you aren’t automatically better than 59 million people because you didn’t write “Trump” on a piece of paper, and guess what, those people and their problems are still your problems. To make it clear, I would never in a million years have voted for Trump, but I think it’s important to understand exactly WHY people did. This, EMPATHY, is the way we can make things work, not the sheer, disgusting bigotry we’ve seen from the Trump haters today. EVEN IF you hate Trump, and you hate his supporters, you can’t make them disappear just by saying “they’re stupid, just ignore them”. You can’t. Those 59 million people showed you that today.

How can we get rid of Trump, if that’s what we want to do? You can begin by finding out exactly WHY those people voted for him. They didn’t vote for him because they were stupid, they voted for him because they think that either he could do something in office to help them, or that voting for him might send a message to politicians to get their shit together, or something along those lines. This is not an outfit of the day, people don’t just pick presidents on a whim. There is a deep, boiling frustration in the American people that led them to this decision today, and understanding those frustrations is the only way you can ever dissolve the support for Trump.

Moving forward, now that Trump is president, it may not be all bad. For one thing, his acceptance speech seems to have set a tone that bodes well for his run. Of course, Trump haters would say that he’s gonna go back on his word, or he’s only putting on an act because he won and he’s happy about it. I don’t think that latter point is true, because honestly, if there ever was a time to be less gracious, that time is now. If I were Trump, I would be rubbing it in Hillary’s face, but he chose not to do that. And sure, maybe he will go back on the things he’s promised in his acceptance speech, but I say we give him a chance to show America and the world what he’s got before we condemn him. He’s done and said some pretty deplorable things over the years. So that’s bad. As an eternal optimist though, I’d like to believe that people can change, and maybe, just maybe, Drumpf is going to prove all of us wrong. If he shows himself to be the bigoted, racist, misogynistic, elitist jerk we think he is, the American people reserve the right to impeach him, or do better next time. And what if they don't? What if the people want Trump in power, and want him to do all the things he does? Well, that's democracy for you.