Is Trump my President?

Is Trump my President?
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The silver lining in the election of President Donald Trump is perhaps the surge of everyday activism, including by those who have been on the sidelines. From the Women’s March, to protests against regressive immigration policies to last weekend’s “Not my President” rallies, people are exercising their democratic voice in cities and neighborhoods across the nation. This is what actually makes America great!

For those of us who have immigrated to this country escaping oppressive regimes, who have lost our homes, our family members, and our entire livelihoods to political persecution, democracy is a precious gift that has to be nurtured and protected. We, progressives, are in a long-game. But we have to tread cautiously and with inclusivity to sustain our energy, not just over the next four years, but in perpetuity as we build an activated citizenry.

While we celebrate this new level of activism, we should take caution in the rhetoric and path we choose as progressives. Whether we cast our votes for Donald Trump or otherwise, the reality is that he was elected through a democratic process. Now, are there fault lines in this political system? Absolutely! But we just spent eight years witnessing the mistreatment, misrepresentation, and utter disrespect of President Obama. This is not to make direct comparisons between President Obama and President Trump, but to underscore a deep divide in our political culture where our impulses to disassociate and dismiss consistently outweigh our will to build bridges.

Like most progressives living in urban cities, the outcome of the election not only shattered my expectations but unraveled the deeply isolated liberal bubble in which I had carefully constructed as my enclave. Whether based on real or alternate facts, 62 million people made a decision irreconcilable with my schema. And that presented a potentially dangerous crossroads, not just for me but for our country. We can continue to exist, divided by our walls of ideological differences and judgement or we can try to dismantle those to create a more inclusive democratic process.

As progressives, we should employ every tool in our arsenal to resist and fight the regressive and oppressive policies of the Trump administration that are inconsistent with core American values. Yet, we need to balance this delicately with the work of reaching beyond to understand and forge alliances with likeminded conservatives. I would further challenge us to take effort to connect with Trump supporters, to understand the issues they care about and how we can help to build a country where we can all coexist and thrive. Hi from the Other Side has already created a platform to facilitate this.

Being part of the resistance is not code for rejecting a democratically elected president. It is an acknowledgment of our democracy and the highest standards with which we should hold not just the office of the President but also of that of a citizen. It means that we respect the decisions of those who voted unlike us while remaining vigilant because our triumph is inevitable.

Honoring our democratic process thus begins with acknowledging that President Trump is our elected President. This is both the beauty and the pain of democracy. The system from which the resistance is born is also the very system that produced Donald Trump. We have to hold these two truths simultaneously in order to move forward as progressives and as a country into a better future.

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