It is hard to imagine a time when the United States was not so divided. It is hard to imagine a time when Donald Trump was not the sole talking point in every household in America. And it is really hard to imagine a country that welcomes him back with open arms, time and time again.
It may have just been wishful thinking, but the 34 felony counts he amassed through one of the four criminal cases against him should have done something. It should have been over when the first whistleblower came forward about the phone call Trump had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump should have been sent on his way when his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6 at his direction and introduced the first few cracks in our democracy.
In the wake of the 2024 presidential election, we must ask ourselves how we let this happen again.
When we voted him out in 2020, many Americans felt a sense of rejuvenation in the country, a flame of hope reignited after the four long, dark years of his first term. Through the Biden administration, the little flame of hope stayed alive, albeit now with a slight flicker when Trump and his supporters began to rear their heads again. Now, however, after failing yet another successful and overqualified woman in her upward battle for presidency, the little hope we have left has finally escaped us.
Vice President Kamala Harris should have been the one we elected to power. The White House should have opened its doors to not just any woman, but a woman of color who would have been the first to finally turn the tide of white male presidencies. As a country, we have not only disappointed her, but every woman in America.
We must now swallow an unfortunate, bitter pill: The United States is not what we hoped it would be. States are fiercely tied to a political party rather than a candidate, and the fate of an election lies solely on the backs of the seven swing states.
Millions of Americans were watching the votes come in Nov. 5, some hopeful for what the future might bring, and others already accepting their impending defeat. For those who are privileged enough to not care about how the election affects them, or worry about the state of their rights for the next four years, I hope you are able to take a step back and now provide your support to those who do have to worry.
Trump told the world exactly what he would do. Despite proving his ineptitude to the rest of the world, he was still re-elected. The fault does not lie with him, but with the people who provided him with a platform.
It lies with the working class who felt the economy slip away, the millionaires who only care about their taxes, the men of this country who believe that they have a right to control a woman’s body and the left-leaning Democrats who sat out on this election because of the genocide in Gaza.
Trump rose to power in 2016 due to a deeply rooted racist fear that struck the hearts of the white supremacists in this country. As the first “white president,” Trump took advantage of the festering rage that millions had when former president Barack Obama won the presidency not once, but twice. He rose as the next white savior, the pariah that would finally “Make America Great Again.”
To beat Harris, he made use of a similar strategy. He would bring back masculinity and appeal to the men of the country, who were irked by seeing a woman rise to power. Trump offered a sense of security and a return to “normalcy,” where men were back to making the important decisions about women. How else would a democracy work?
The next four years are going to be a struggle. There is no denying the irreparable damage that a second Trump presidency will bring.
There is also no sugarcoating the fact that the Senate and Supreme Court are now all in the hands of the Republican party.
For now, and perhaps even the next few days, we can grieve about what has happened to the country, but it is not to be given up on. We cannot change what has happened, and we cannot “fix” anyone’s mindset.
The 2024 presidential election was the closest we have ever been to breaking the glass ceiling. Despite not winning the popular vote as Hillary Clinton did in 2016 in her fight against Trump, Harris has proven through her campaign that a female presidency is not far in the future. As disappointed in the country as we may be, it is now entirely in our hands to keep democracy strong and hold him accountable for anything he may do in the next four years.
It will be a woman’s world yet.
Rachana Madhav is a fourth-year behavioral neuroscience major and opinion editor of The News. She can be reached at [email protected].
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