The Presidency Has Been Devalued

When Donald Trump became the President Elect almost two grim weeks ago, the entire world was paralyzed.

Yes, we knew that there are still many Americans who nurture racist and sexist views. And yeah, we were aware that many voters wanted change, and saw the opportunity for it in a man who was anti-establishment. We so deeply understood that America was desperate, afraid and broken. Yet, we were 85% certain that when the time came to cast its ballots, America would stand up for good.

We faced a painful revelation.

Why were we so surprised?

Because at the very least, we thought the American people would respect the presidency. We acknowledged the morbid appeal of Mr. Trump, recognized the prospering fear that stood assuaging under his policies, but never thought America would grant the coveted position of President to a man who not only has zero political experience, but has based his entire career on manipulation and sleazy business tactics.

Every generation has been raised to believe that hard work will lead to success. In a way, the American dream is based on this premise: regardless of circumstance or upbringing, the failure of your parents or the type of neighborhood you grow up in, success will, with hard work, be yours.

Of course, we know this isn’t true -- that success is often connected with privilege, that this country’s opportunities and those who create them are systemically entrenched in moral politics.

However, the hopeful premise continues to find itself in the thoughts of America’s youth. Why? Because we continue to dream.

I think many of my fellow millennials believe that the highest level of success is represented in the role of President of the United States. We haven’t been raised to tunnel-vision wealth, or to blindly find our way based on the distant scent of cash. Instead, we were taught that meaningful work was the goal. Doing something that we love. Making a difference in the world in whatever capacity we could. Unlike previous generations, we were raised in all of our historically subordinate variations to believe that this idealized change-making was indeed possible.

Barack Obama validated this notion. Hillary Clinton would have too.

But instead, Donald J. Trump has been elected America’s 45th president. A man driven by nothing but wealth. A man born into money, ushered into Ivy League education, and escorted by only the most expensive of cars into any one of his $850-million real estate ventures, humbly named after himself.

The presidency has been cheapened. No longer a platform for positive redesign or the advancement of good-intentioned political thought, it has been reduced to a stage on which Donald Trump can perform, this time, with a guaranteed audience.

How do we define success now that the pinnacle of such has come to symbolize something entirely antithetical to our generation’s values? Our country’s values? And while we’re trying, let’s take a good long look at ourselves, and ask are we so afraid, so disillusioned, so angry, that we not only accepted the prospect of a loosening democracy, but reevaluated the worth of what has historically been recognized as the most esteemed and impactful position to hold in modern global politics?

The presidency is not what it used to be. Filled by a man whose policies are buttressed by bigotry, and whose past represents an entitled ease, it is not, in its impending state, something to strive for, to dream about.

And so America enters into an identity crisis. We don’t know who our leaders are. We don’t even know ourselves. We are left only with the dim hope that we will one day recover faith in our fellow Americans, and in the position that, in theory, is intended to lead us all.