The past week, the United States as well as the international community have been shocked by the results of the American presidential election, in which controversial candidate Donald Trump won the electoral college vote and thus secured his position as president elect over opponent Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump has made his campaign famous by catering to the working-class, white population and marginalizing many other groups of Americans, including the LGBTQ+, Muslim, African American, and female communities. Immediately after the election results, many people across the country have been visibly and verbally upset, fearing for their fundamental rights and safety as an American living in one of the new president’s marginalized categories.
In the days following the election, I asked six collegiate women of different political and ethnic backgrounds who attend five different universities to comment on their thoughts and feelings. Here is what they said:
DL: Suffolk University, class of 2018
PV: BU, class of 2019
LK: University of Michigan, class of 2018
SS: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, class of 2017
PM: New York University, class of 2017
AB: University of Michigan, class of 2018
HC: Did you vote for the 45th president of the USA on November 8th?
DL: No, I am not a citizen of the US.
PV: Yes. I voted for Hillary Clinton. Having been a Bernie Sanders supporter, I made the choice after the primaries to support Hillary because I believed she was the most experienced and qualified candidate to lead our country. My opinions aligned with the majority of hers, and her policies resonated more with my belief system than Donald Trump’s. I wanted a president who would move the country forward, especially socially and economically, as Barack Obama has in his two terms.
LK: Yes, I did. It’s the first election I could legally vote in so I wanted to participate. I voted for Clinton because I didn’t agree with some of Trump’s policies and statements regarding women, race, etc.
SS: I did vote, however I did not agree with either of the two candidates and felt like I was voting for the lesser of the two evils. I voted for Hillary Clinton, because I thought she was the more qualified candidate.
PM: I did not vote, I did not have an absentee ballot.
AB: Yes, I voted.
HC: Did you watch the election results the night of November 8?
DL, PV, LK, SS, PM: Yes.
AB: Yes, I watched the election results. I didn’t intend to, but as I came home from a group project at about 9pm, and continuously refreshed the google exit polls frantically typing in, “FL vote” and “NC vote,” as they were not turning out how I expected, I decided that I had to spend the rest of my night occupied with the election results. I watched until 3:30 in the morning when Trump gave his victory speech and sat on the floor in front of my television with a bottle of wine in one hand and a tissue wiping my tears in the other.
HC: What was your reaction to the polls?
DL: I felt sad, betrayed and confused. As a minority woman, it felt as if my adopted country was rejecting me.
PV: When the first handful of states came through with their results, I was hopeful. I felt nervous and tense as I sat on the edge of my seat, watching the tight race in states like Florida and North Carolina. I remained wearily optimistic as I was so desperate to see Hillary dominate the key battleground states. However, once I saw the gap in Florida close, I began to really feel scared.
LK: I was shocked. I’m taking a political science class on the presidency right now and every poll had Clinton leading by a landslide.
SS: Extreme disappointment, shock, anger, and fear for our country’s future. My friends and I were genuinely upset to the point of tears.
PM: I was surprised when I saw the polls, and was a little scared when I saw that they were leaning towards Trump.
AB: As I described, saying that the exit polls took me by surprise is an understatement. As I kept checking my favorite resources, I saw that Nate Silver (who is nearly never wrong in predicting, and has had incredible accuracy in the past) put Trump ahead and so did 538. I was embarrassed to be a Michigan resident, as friends across the country called me asking what the hell was going on in my state. I also couldn’t help but to maintain the hope that Hillary could still pull ahead, sorting out the necessary state results in order to put her in the White House with my roommates. I even looked back at my notes from a class earlier in the day to explain what happens if there was a tie. I psychologically refused to give up until Trump came out and said that Hillary Clinton had called him, conceding.
HC: How do you feel as a woman after seeing the election results?
DL: I am worried, as a female, how this presidency is going to negatively impact us for years to come. I am scared that he is not a good choice for the people who are not privileged white men.
PV: I feel shocked and scared. I fear that my basic human rights and access to health care will be jeopardized. However, I fear far more for my friends who are of color, non-binary, and immigrants. I recognize that, as a white, middle-class citizen, I am in a place of more privilege than many millions of Americans.
LK: At first, I was disappointed. The way he tried to talk down sexual assault along with the derogatory comments he made about women are absolutely unacceptable.
SS: I’m frustrated and disappointed that someone who blatantly spoke about women in such a degrading and dehumanizing way could be elected into office. I feel like this has put us back so far.
PM: I felt disappointed as a woman. The polls told me that no matter how much experience you have, the USA is seemingly not ready for a woman president.
AB: I am angry, yet I am empowered. It is no surprise that I find Trump’s rhetoric regarding women demeaning and disgusting, but unlike many minority groups, his win did not elicit fear and anxiety from me. I think the bigotry toward other populations that is revealing itself is more worrisome, such as comments through Facebook posts and tweets displaying the public’s reaction, bullying Latino children in schools, painting swastikas, and even the man who pulled a lighter on a Muslim woman here in Ann Arbor. This disturbs me, and I think these individuals are the ones most at risk when this type of rhetoric becomes acceptable in society. What he’s said about women is terrible and I condemn him for it, of course, but I was not anxious and fearful of my safety once the results came out, I was angry. The day following the election my professor said, “Being angry is a privilege,” and this really spoke to me. We have to stand up for those living in fear because anger is a call to action, whereas anxiety can stop one from being able to act at all.
HC: What do you hope for America in the next four years?
DL: I hope that the trump supporters will get a reality check after seeing how dangerous Trump is as our president.
PV: My foremost hope is that this country will not regress. I hope the Republican-dominated government doesn’t turn the clock back decades on our country. I hope for the safety and respect of people of all races, sexual orientations, ethnicities, and religions.
LK: I’m hoping that Trump proves his opponents wrong and ends up being a president who, as he said, represents every person. I also hope that the Republican-led Congress is able to keep Trump in line if necessary, and that we continue to progress.
SS: As a Latina woman especially, I hope that we can come together as a country and prevent the spread of racism and bigotry that our president-elect has encouraged in the past.
PM: I hope that America comes together in order to steer our policies the right way. However, I still don’t know exactly what to expect — I am hoping for the best.
AB: I hope that RBG’s health is strong and the Supreme Court doesn’t shift 6-3 Conservative, and that the Democrats take the Senate in the midterm election in case Trump does have the opportunity to nominate more than one Supreme Court judge. I hope that Trump’s works to be more accepting of society as a whole, since he’s recently stated his support for LGBTQ rights, a belief that isn’t usually in the extreme conservative playbook. I believe Democrats will stand up and be heard louder than ever following this upset. As Hillary said, “It’s always worth fighting for what’s right, and I think there is more good in America than bad.” This was a reality check on the American psyche.
Images courtesy of: Forbes and KMBC