Opinions of American Politics: Disappointment

The presidential campaign that began March of last year was nothing other than bizarre, shocking, confusing and, in the end, extremely upsetting. And at the end of this road, I admit that I am thoroughly disappointed in the choice the rest of our country has made.Even though I think there was an obvious choice for who should be president, many people had a hard time deciding who to vote for. This difficult decision was even more onerous for teenagers who are now old enough to vote for the first time during this election. The heavily disliked candidates, their scandals and stressful campaigns did not help the decision the voters had to make.Santa Monica is a community of people with very liberal opinions. We have grown up in this area where the people around us share progressive ideals, with a society so diverse and that we have been living in a bubble separate from the other very uncultured and single-minded areas of the country. Samo is a school of millennials eager to bring positive change to the world and to share their liberal opinions, so naturally a lot of these students supported former nominee Bernie Sanders. As many students supported Sanders, some of them disliked former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, even when Sanders lost the Democratic nomination. Some people even began to interpret the choice between Clinton and Republican Nominee Donald Trump as a choice for the lesser of two evils. Although I don’t think that people against Clinton, at least in our bubble of Santa Monica, actually thought that Trump could win, the negative attitude towards her was a component to the downwards spiral that happened at the end of her campaign.I think that this whole “lesser of two evils” idea is ridiculous. On one hand, there is a candidate with years of experience in and out of the white house, helping people in third world countries and helping millions of hardworking americans. Yes, she has made questionable decisions in the past, but that does not make her evil. And on the other hand, there is a man with no experience with politics, who has been bankrupt multiple times, has refused to release his tax forms, has insulted every minority in the book and has been accused of sexual assault by multiple women. So in what world were both of these closely evil? People were so caught up in Clinton’s email scandal that they forgot that she kept her calm throughout all the accusations and fingers pointed in her face. People seemed to just accept the fact that Trump goes on a rampage on twitter when someone on a talk show insults his hair, and not treat it as irresponsible. The people of the United States apparently forgot that the president should be a person that is able to keep their cool in difficult situations. But some uneducated indecisive voters relied on social media way too much. They would see commercials from Trump’s campaign that call Clinton a “liar” and believe that she is untrustworthy and unfit to be president. I think that is far from the truth.So many people in Santa Monica were so sure and secure with the thought that Clinton would beat Trump. We just assumed that the most of the country agreed with our opinions regarding the outcome of the election, that we forgot about the ignorance that still burns strongly in some areas. We looked at states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio and Iowa that voted blue for Obama in 2008 and 2012, and assumed they would go for Clinton. But these states went instead to the white egomaniac that appealed to his voters with rage and hate towards other races and groups. A woman needs to be in power to show the nation the truth that women are just as capable as men. Men in power should not be able to get away with things like that. It makes me sick that there are even women anywhere in the country that would vote for a sexist white man that has said that allowing women to work is a “dangerous thing”. Him being anywhere close to the oval office would be the dangerous thing that could happen this race. Growing up in such a liberal community like Santa Monica, I never would have thought that there would ever be so many ignorant people that would vote for a man like Trump. But unfortunately, there are. And I am going to be honest, I am disappointed in America. The President of the United States should be a person that will be able to represent our country. Trump will not be able to do that. He represents the opposite ideals of what America has tried achieve in recent years. He represents the white man, because in his eyes, that is who should remain in power. He doesn’t even have a firm stance on most political matters. His responses in the political debates against Clinton were for the most part defensive, non-sequitur or just yelling the word “wrong”.A year ago it was a a sort of joke to think of Trump becoming president. I mean, the man has zero experience in politics and is triggered by a tweet. But apparently a large portion of America was dumb enough to support this trainwreck that has been his political campaign. I think that we have been blessed to have a man so calm, collected and reasonable like Barack Obama in office. But with Trump in the oval office, everything that Obama worked so hard to create would be ruined. Trump will be a terrible president. I know a lot of people did not like Hillary Clinton, but even President Obama himself admitted that she was even more qualified than him to be president. She worked so hard for every debate, every rally and every appearance, and in return, the people of the United States are spitting in her face by voting instead for a misogynistic white supremacist. America is capable of so much more than that. I was so excited this year because I thought that the United States would have its first female president. But America has disappointed me, and has disappointed everyone who has worked to improve this country. Growing up in this liberal bubble of Santa Monica made me always believe that different races and cultures could coexist, and that the racism and conflict of the past was dead and gone. Maybe our bubble has made me blind to the truth of our country, and that is extremely disheartening regarding the progress for our future. Especially since there will be a man in office who suggested exiling an entire race from our country. Doesn't  this sound familiar to a lider we learned about in history class?During the election, the news would show coverages of what both of the campaign headquarters looked like as the polls ran in. Trump’s headquarters is a room of white men. Trump supports the white race, and will keep the white man in power. This is something that will ruin our country. I thought we had come so far from periods of time where the white man had the most power, but if Trump is president, his policies and ideas will set back us back in time so much. All of this social growth that progressive American leaders have accomplished will be lost. In the end, this election wasn’t a matter of republican versus democrat. This was an election between what was really, really wrong for our country and the world, and what could improve our society. America chose poorly.