Donald Trump has once again gained the power of being the president of the United States, and Republicans are now cheering their wins in Congress. As the election news rang out in the early morning hours of Nov. 6, I felt some part of me break away.
I was never one that was interested in politics. I never consciously wanted to seek out information on our candidates and I really only learned information about our government or politics through social media advertisements. I never even wanted to register to vote, but thanks to my high school government teacher, I was forced to register to vote for a grade.
When I did register, I struggled to pick a party that would best represent my values and beliefs. I consider myself somewhere in the middle of the political spectrum. I am pro-choice, pro-Second Amendment, but I do believe that we need gun control and that Trump is not the president we need.
With my views being in the middle of the political spectrum, I also struggled to fully support either candidate in this election. I believe that President-elect Trump runs America like a business and that he is more worried about his own personal gain than the American people. Trump sees every American citizen with a dollar sign over their head, and their earnings determine their worth.
On the other hand, Vice President Kamala Harris had not fully gained my support either. She expressed mixed emotions about my generation and our work ethic, which offended me. Trump also accused Harris of changing her ethnicity just for the sake of a group’s vote.
A person’s worth should not be determined by the amount of money they bring home, and Trump should know that because we are still under his tax code. When the news came out that Trump would be president once again, my heart broke for each and every woman out there. Women had their rights stripped away on the morning of Nov. 6. In the next few months, I beg women to get a form of contraceptive while they can.
Women are going to continue to struggle like we have in the past years for basic rights. It will become harder for women to receive the proper health care that they need, and I have a feeling that we will be saying goodbye to more expectant mothers who just want to start a family. The proper support and care that a woman needs will soon be revoked by a man who has never once had to work or struggle for what he has.
Another piece of me breaks for all of the hard-working families out there. I know what it is like to live paycheck-to-paycheck and not know where your next meal is going to come from. It has been rumored that Trump is going to raise taxes on working families and continue to cut taxes for the richest one percent. Families who think they are going to have more economic freedom now that Trump has been elected will realize that they still need to pinch pennies in their daily lives. Trump does not care about these families because he does not know the struggle we have to go through everyday to survive.
Trump has no empathy for the American citizens that he is supposed to lead. He has no plan. He has “concepts of a plan,” as he described during his presidential debate with Harris. He is going to lead our country blindly, with no actual knowledge of what we need as a group.
The only thing that Trump is worried about is getting your money into his pocket. He takes from the American people and calls it his own success. He will continue to drain us dry and increase the national debt until America is broke.
I hope America can see the mistake they made by making Trump our president. He is not a truthful person and manipulates the American people to submit to his authority. He feeds off of unnecessary support that he receives and spreads lies about the condition of our country to its citizens. Trump is the puppeteer and we are just all waiting for him to pull the strings.
I am not a religious person whatsoever. I was not raised to go to church, but was told by my parents that I would be supported if I chose to go. Most importantly, I was raised to respect every religion, even if I did not understand or agree with it. I was raised to believe in others and believe that when the time comes, we will come together as one to overcome hardships. After this election, I do not believe that anymore. I do not believe that we, as Americans will rise together to fight for the greater good or a better country. After the results of this year’s election, my opinion of our country has changed. I no longer believe in unity for the greater good.
Another thing that has changed is that, for once, I prayed. I don’t expect to do it again, but I prayed for future mothers and women who will not have direct access to the proper health care that we need or to the rights that we have fought so hard for. I prayed for the union workers and migrants that have helped build our country. They work long, hard hours, sometimes in extreme environments, all for the sake of putting food on the table for their families.
And lastly I1 prayed that everyone, no matter their religion, race or ethnicity, will have equal opportunities. I prayed that everyone would be able to practice their own religion without backlash anymore. It pains me that we tear apart certain groups of people just because they believe in something different. To me, we all believe in some type of God, so why argue at all?
I once asked God when I was a child to help me out of a horrible situation and he didn’t. If America can give Trump a second chance, I only hope that God gives me one. And I hope that God listens to me this time. If God can’t help us, then who can?