Trump Was Elected… Now What?
posted by Misha Thomas | December 18, 2016 | In OpinionOfficially, on January 20, 2017 Donald Trump will be sworn in to presidency. Since the start of his campaign, the Republican presidential nominee has made countless proposals and delivered speeches that have come with incredibly offensive messages about specific American groups, including black people.
All the while, white nationalists have heard him loud and clear and have become determined to rebrand white supremacy as a mainstream idea. The movement, which is made up of mostly disgruntled white men and women, has become extremely vocal online over the course of Trump’s entire campaign. They have weaponized social media and identified new ways to attract interest among Trump supporters through their highly active online presence on the internet. Racism is the movement’s central premise; they are explicitly anti-Semitic and cynical of others differences and proud of their hate filled ideologies.
Following the election results Fayetteville State’s campus was extremely quiet. Professors and students alike comforted, consulted and vented their frustrations to one another, which shows the fear, shock and anxiety that we could see on one another’s faces.
Social media was entirely different story; the Internet was flooded with hate, fear, confusion and even suicidal threats. I was shook; I cannot say that even now I am worried about Donald Trump so much as I have witnessed the actions of his followers. His members praise him for creating a space to allow their hateful views to permeate current political discourse. According to the Huffington Post, former president Bill Clinton, himself, is quoted saying Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again,” is a “racist dog whistle.” I have to say I agree, he has provided white supremacists with a safety net and served as a catalyst for the rise in hate groups who are actively campaigning to help elect him into the White House. Just last month, the KKK’s newspaper printed a front-page endorsement of Trump, using his campaign slogan as the headline, also according to the Huffington Post.
Now Trump has tried to distance himself from the groups. Recently, CNN has quoted him as saying simply “stop it” when asked about his supporters harassing minorities.
For those who did not see this coming, for all the people of color who have seen the aggressive racial posts and tweets since the elections began, for those who voted Democrat, for those who did not vote at all and for those who would have rather seen Bernie Sanders win, I know what you are thinking. I know you did not want this to happen, but since it has we have work to do.
The main task now is to resist the right-wing takeover of the government and to criticize Trump when justified and apply rule of law to delay or halt any forms of executive overreach or autocratic behavior on his part. We currently have less than two months under the Obama Administration. Between now and then is a chance to make a commotion of Trump’s sexual assault trial, creating more friction between him and his party.
Secondly, we need to fight for media circus; creating friction within the party will force them to pick sides.
Not only that, but as of 2018 we have to vote. All 435 seats of the House of Representatives will be contested. 33 out of the 10 seats of Senate will be contested and 38 governorships will be contested. Time is ticking.
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