It's been a week since Donald Trump was announced as the winner of the 2024 presidential election. I've since gone through four of the five stages of grief, and am currently between depression and acceptance. The thing about it is, while I've accepted the fact Trump will be this country's next president, I can't for the life of me accept the fact so many people - people I personally know and love - voted for him. That's what I'm having trouble accepting.
In 2016, I was honestly shocked by Trump's election victory over Hillary Clinton. Sure, Clinton's approval rating was never exceptionally high, but Donald Trump was viewed by many as a joke of a candidate - a reality star just striving for attention. While I thought his presidency would be a disaster (I was right), I accepted people wanting a change from the status quo - a seemingly apolitical businessman to shake up the political in Washington.
Following a lie-, drama-, and crisis-filled 4 years in the Trump White House, the U.S. voted him out, in favor of political-veteran Joe Biden. Unlike the result in 2016, I accepted this immediately. It was a sense of relief. Biden may not have been my first choice, but good God, a toilet-paper roll would have been a better choice than Donald Trump. Still, Trump fared better on election day than polls had predicted, and it left me wondering, "Why?" While I could have somewhat understood voting for Trump in 2016, as he was the new face on the scene; didn't come across like most politicians; and possessed a long business background, after having to endure the painful 4 years of his first term, how could anyone in their right mind say, "Yeah, I want another 4 years of that!"?
Now, after 4 years without Trump leading the country, we've voted for him to do so again. I'm no longer simply asking; I'm shouting it - "WHY?!?"
All I can come up with is this: ignorance, prejudice, disinformation, fear, greed, and Stockholm Syndrome.
There are links between several of the aforementioned terms. For example, Trump has been quite successful in prompting fear through prejudice and taking advantage of ignorance via disinformation. At the end of the day, though, it's like this. The rich control everything. Whether it's out of ego, greed, or a combination of the two, they can never have enough. They want more. More houses, more cars, more power, more control. So, what better way to accomplish this than to influence elections? After the Supreme Court's Citizen's United ruling, there were no longer any caps in place on monetary political contributions by those at the very top of the economic ladder, and they have taken full advantage of it. They have aided Republican politicians in airing egregiously asinine ads ubiquitously. Their reason? Republicans want to cut their taxes, while Democrats want them to pay more. That's it. That's the only reason. Unfortunately, the constant barrage of fear- and prejudice-inducing disinformation is incredibly effective. It plays on misinformed voters' emotions, and especially when one is ill-informed, what one feels is much more impactful than what one thinks.
The spread of disinformation makes COVID look like polio in the modern age (well, unless RFK, Jr. leads the Department of Health and Human Services) - it's everywhere and can't be stopped. From social media to cable news to videos to emails to commercials and beyond, it has now become a shadow of humanity. A significant percentage of the population now believes photoshopped images and edited video clips over fact-checkers of said disinformation. Sadly, this is the era in which we currently live. The question is, how do we reverse these severely detrimental trends? Is there a way? Live fact-checks, not mandating bothsiderism so that debunked conspiracy theories receive as much air-time as facts, and not mincing words would all be helpful.
There is one commonality, amongst Trump's supporters, I feel most have failed to mention, and that's what's called 'Stockholm Syndrome.' In a hostage or an abuse situation, it is not uncommon for the victim to feel a sense of loyalty to the captor or abuser. Having closely observed Donald Trump's behavior and rhetoric since the outset of his presidential campaigns, I can't help but believe 'Stockholm Syndrome' has been a consistent, yet growing presence amongst his supporters. Trump has always been a bully. That's just who he is. He's been accused of sexually-abusing 40+ women; he's been continually derided by former employees, alleging him of maltreatment; the man speaks disparagingly about any and every demographic in recorded history. Yet he still wins over millions of voters - many of whom have been subjects of his insults. Sadly, many of these insult-subjects or simple observers to his abusive behavior feel protected by him. They feel like a bully in charge, even if they're harmed along the way, will be able to fend off even greater threats to their livelihoods. Expanding on this a bit, it's almost like a Jesus Complex. Many of Trump's supporters - due to the bullyesque persona - view him as omnipotent, and largely because of that, they feel he can do no wrong. It's really quite amazing. Trump was documented of lying 30,573 times during his first term in the White House, yet when I bring up this fact, the most common response I receive from his supporters is, "Name one! Just one lie!" I'm not kidding. That'd be like me saying, "Michael Jordan scored 32,292 points in his NBA career," and being told, "Oh yeah?!? Show me just 1 point, just 1 point he scored!" Easiest assignment ever.
Along with the United States' "democracy" possibly coming to an end, I think the most depressing part about this dark chapter in our history is the lack of opportunity for women and the lack of accountability for men. It's pretty rich so many men - young ("alpha") men, in particular - are now crying that their rights are under attack. Look who they voted for! When has Donald Trump ever truly been held accountable? Sure, he was convicted of 34 felonies, but now with him becoming president, you can rest assured he won't face any serious repercussions. He's been alleged by dozens of women of sexual improprieties - even found liable for raping one woman, yet he remains a free man. I'll fully admit, politically speaking, Democrats need to do a better job of reaching out to male voters, but let's be real here - men aren't lacking opportunity; they're lacking the privilege they once (well, and still do, in many circles) possessed, and are falsely equating that to a lack of opportunity. Stop it. On the flip-side, how do we tell our girls and young women about what just transpired? As parents, we want to tell our kids, "If you put your mind to it, you can do anything," but how can we look our little girls in the eyes and say that without crying? For the second time in three elections, we elected a pathological liar, a fraud, a 34x-convicted felon, a Hitler-admirer, and an adjudicated rapist over a highly qualified woman. No matter how daunting it may be, picture that. A majority of voters have just told our little girls, "We'd rather the president be a man who raped your mother than your mother."
'MAGA' is a mental illness, a cult, and must be stopped now, before our children's futures are forever lost.
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