The 2016 Presidential Election:
A Brief Autopsy © 2016
People will talk for years about how divisive the 2016 presidential race was. But once the dust completely settles, they won’t point to Hillary Clinton as the cause of that division. They’ll point unequivocably to Donald Trump.
Trump, took politics, already a dirty “sport,” down into the basement of the gutter. He did it by openly appealing to racism in a manner that brought glee to the KKK. He did it by disrespecting women, by attacking Muslims, and by appealing to a celebrity-crazed public.
Though Trump enjoyed criticizing the media, the media naively were his partners to an extent. They gave him a platform and free publicity all in the name of ratings. But the heart, soul and character of a nation are more important than ratings.
When Trump’s opponents warned Americans just how divisive this man’s appeals were, too many of them didn’t listen. But emotion, anger, and bigotry, if not held in check, can do more harm to the country than ISIS, or any other external enemy.
The good news is that a broad spectrum of Americans oppose what Trump represents.
The bad news is they were not organized, they didn’t vote in sufficient numbers, they wasted votes on third-party candidates, who didn’t have a chance in hell of winning, and they believed the hype that Hillary was just as bad as Trump, or even worse.
The promise: Blacks, progressive Whites, Hispanics, Asians, Indians, and Muslims will have four years to organize and fix what went wrong in this election. Protests can play a role in expressing dissatisfaction. However, the vote is the most powerful protest we all can make. The results of this election should make this point more real.
A Brief Autopsy © 2016
People will talk for years about how divisive the 2016 presidential race was. But once the dust completely settles, they won’t point to Hillary Clinton as the cause of that division. They’ll point unequivocably to Donald Trump.
Trump, took politics, already a dirty “sport,” down into the basement of the gutter. He did it by openly appealing to racism in a manner that brought glee to the KKK. He did it by disrespecting women, by attacking Muslims, and by appealing to a celebrity-crazed public.
Though Trump enjoyed criticizing the media, the media naively were his partners to an extent. They gave him a platform and free publicity all in the name of ratings. But the heart, soul and character of a nation are more important than ratings.
When Trump’s opponents warned Americans just how divisive this man’s appeals were, too many of them didn’t listen. But emotion, anger, and bigotry, if not held in check, can do more harm to the country than ISIS, or any other external enemy.
The good news is that a broad spectrum of Americans oppose what Trump represents.
The bad news is they were not organized, they didn’t vote in sufficient numbers, they wasted votes on third-party candidates, who didn’t have a chance in hell of winning, and they believed the hype that Hillary was just as bad as Trump, or even worse.
The promise: Blacks, progressive Whites, Hispanics, Asians, Indians, and Muslims will have four years to organize and fix what went wrong in this election. Protests can play a role in expressing dissatisfaction. However, the vote is the most powerful protest we all can make. The results of this election should make this point more real.