I had so much fun lampooning Donald Trump for the last year and a half and I know I will continue to do so in the future. But guess what? Donald Trump won and he will be my president and yours too.
Trump ultimately, captured the presidency by winning over a key block of working-class voters across the Rust Belt states that felt they've been abandoned for far too long. Trump appealed to them because he ran as a perceived outsider and as an FU to the establishment. They latched on at all cost—hoping for the best. (We’re sorry, Bernie.)
Yet, what is most troubling and most unsettling about this, is that these same working-class people who put Trump over the top in the Electoral College were able to ignore Trump's overt racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, serial lying, and overall disregard for human decency when voting for him. Maybe some were able to do so easily but for the majority of Trump voters, it was likely a struggle to set his bigotry aside.
All Trump voters, therefore, have a responsibility to take the lead in protecting each of the minority groups that were marginalized throughout this contentious campaign. And leading the charge must be our President-Elect Donald Trump. Tweets and a well-prepared speech won’t be enough. Trump must be able to publicly and genuinely express empathy towards those that are different from him and take real action to make it clear that the United States is a country for peoples of all races, genders, sexual orientations, and creeds.
Trump has the ability to accomplish this important undertaking. That’s because Trump is not as bigoted and hateful as he made himself out to be. Instead, he is a narcissistic con artist who bamboozled much of the American people into thinking he was a serious candidate. Trump’s ability to violate all the norms of politics, society, and decency electrified and rallied his most fervent supporters. It enabled him to dominate the news cycle which garnered him even more supporters and propelled him to the Republican nomination, thereby, legitimizing his unorthodox campaign. Trump was well aware that he was playing an ugly game but he won. And he won bigly.
Trump loves winning more than anything. His second love is being liked. Now that he’ll assume the most powerful office in the world, there is nothing left for Trump to win which means all of his efforts will go towards being liked. Any presidency scholar can tell you that wanting to be liked is not the most ideal presidential quality but it is one that will help Trump bridge the gap between a very divided country and create a more moderate, less hostile Trump administration. Moreover, our democratic system is far too great to be upended and destroyed by one man alone (Please keep a safe distance, Mike Pence).
The much larger problem with a Trump Presidency, however, isn’t necessarily what he does or doesn't do in office but rather what him being in office means for the rest of the country. Trump's presidential victory effectively normalizes the reckless and hateful behavior he exhibited on the campaign trail. It gives people permission to be unkind, close-minded, and bigoted. It pushes that 15-year-old boy further into the closet. It pushes that college girl to keep that date rape from last weekend to herself. And it emboldens the bullies of America to not fear accountability and behave in such a way that gravely threatens the rights of others.
Now, fortunately, First Lady Melania Trump (aka The Irony Lady) says she will make anti-bullying a priority during her time in the White House. And seriously, that's a start. But it's going to take much, much more. The office of the presidency has the ability to humble all who have the honor of serving in it.
We need to support our new president. We need to root for him to do well. We cannot succumb to the cynicism of the “Thanks Obama” mentality that so many begrudging Americans subscribed to for the last eight years. Yet, we must actively ensure that the tenants of our Constitution are honored and preserved by President Trump. And if he fails to do so, we must not hesitate to make our voices heard and show our new president that we will not stand for the bigotry his campaign embodied.
These aren’t circumstances we have to like but ones we have to accept. We need to work with President Trump and lend him a hand (because let’s be honest his aren’t big enough) to get the job done. Then in the next election, we can try harder to create the America we want. That’s democracy.
POST SCRIPT: If Trump does go full Hitler on us then believe me I’ll be the first angry white voter to try and take my country back. But let’s give him a chance first.