Disclaimer: This is an opinion article. The views written in this article do not reflect Her Campus UConn Chapter as a whole, but instead reflect the views of the individual author.
The results of the presidential election on Tuesday sent shockwaves through the nation. People have used words such as ‘disgusted’, ‘betrayed’, and ‘stunned’ to describe how they’ve felt about Clinton’s loss.
Rallies and protests have been held to argue that this is not what the country wanted, that Trump was not supposed to be this country’s president.
The deed is done. Donald Trump is now this country’s President Elect. No rallies, protests, or social media posts will change the results. Trump managed to get the electoral votes he needed to win, and he won fairly. I commend both candidates for fighting hard until the very end, even though I did vote for Hillary Clinton.
That being said, I am not, and will not be upset about the results. I choose not to participate in rallies or anti-Trump protests. This country was given an impossible choice in this election. While both candidates proved to have redeeming presidential qualities, both also had major flaws. In the end, it all came down to personally choosing the lesser of the two evils.
Ultimately, we cannot succumb to the hate and depression around us. We cannot generalize people by their candidate. Just because I voted for Clinton does not make me someone who supports email hackings and cover ups of major scandals. Just because my own family members (legal immigrant parents, may I add) and friends voted for Trump does not make them a racist, sexist, or bigot. (Last time I checked, my parents still love me very much, so no hate there.) Obviously, many genuinely good people voted for each party. Their vote should not define them or change our view on who they are to us. We must move away from this mindset and look for the positives.
This country needs to go back to the basics. We must be kind, and respect each other’s differences in opinions, values, and beliefs. Not every person is the same, and that is what makes America so great: that we are a mixed bag of different people who support a great nation. We all need to understand that even though Trump is the one representing this country soon, he does not, and will not, define it. WE are the ones who define it by what we say, what we do, and how we live our lives.
In the end, the 2016 election was inedeed a historical race, and while many of you are saying Clinton didn’t break the glass ceiling, she certainly made strides up to it. She was the first female to receive the presidential nomination from a major party and she ran a very close and competitive race against Trump. We cannot use her loss as an excuse to mourn. We should use her experience to inspire those who will look up to her successes. We can only move forward from here.
Clinton said in her concession speech, “Donald Trump is going to be our president. We owe him an open mind and the chance to lead.” As a Clinton supporter, I choose to follow those words wholeheartedly. He is still human, and I choose to give him a chance to prove me wrong, and to really help make America great. We all must come to accept it at some point. Accepting Trump does not mean you are devaluing your beliefs, it just means that you are willing to believe that there is a silver lining out there if we all come together, united. Nothing we say and do will change the results now, so we should find a common ground with one another to overcome the odds. We owe it to our nation to do so.