How could Donald Trump possibly win the election? How could so many people be so sexist, so racist, so ready to take away the rights of oppressed groups across the country?
Those are the questions I hear on a daily basis now. Whether I’m scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed or strolling across the Beach, someone is railing against an unjust political system, against a campaign of hatred and bigotry or against the theoretical future loss of their rights. It’s understandable. After all, you’ve heard for more than a year that “Trump is literally Hitler.” It’s reasonable to be upset, shaken and afraid.
The truth is, Trump’s campaign rhetoric did not create this fear. Sure, he frequently misspoke, and sometimes he offended people, especially women. The media took those soundbites and pieced them together into a patchwork blanket of bigotry and racism to smother all opposition. Dissenting views were rejected as racist, sexist or xenophobic.
You accepted the narrative provided by the liberal mainstream media in which Hillary Clinton could not possibly lose. You reposted political memes, glanced at election polls and planned victory parties.
And then Donald Trump won.
Instead of accepting its loss and helping to unite the country, the media reacted the same way they did while covering the rest of the election cycle: fear mongering. They published stories originating on social media that detailed hate crimes committed by Trump supporters against minorities.
The only incident reported to the police was a robbery and car theft. The others, even those in which the posts said police were notified or arrived on the scene, have been systematically disproved by independent investigators who contacted the local police departments and discovered that no such crimes had been reported or that the accusers had admitted to fabricating the whole thing. But you won’t hear about it from the media.
According to the media, this election exposed a previously concealed racism in America. They blame white men and women for Trump’s election. In reality, the demographic of his supporters was almost identical to those of Mitt Romney in 2012.
This election revealed a different divide: between the voices you hear and the ones you ignore. Admitting to voting for Donald Trump gets you instantly labeled a sexist, racist xenophobe. Any debate is shut down when leftists jump into action, throwing away their vaulted acceptance and tolerance in favor of the very hate and discrimination they purportedly oppose.
They stage riots and protests to demonstrate their disappointment with the election’s outcome, spewing phrases like “I would have accepted anyone but Trump” and “any other Republican would have been fine.”
When Trump refused to accept the outcome of the election should he lose, those same people criticized his lack of respect for democracy. Now they post petitions to change the election process in America or to force the electorates into voting for Hillary Clinton in December. They reject the American democratic system.
However, when his actual policies are taken into account, Donald Trump is more moderate than most other Republican candidates.
According to the U.S. Constitution, the federal government has no authority to control most of the things it now does. These issues ought to belong to the states and local legislators who can more accurately represent the people in their communities. Trump has been portrayed as a fascist dictator for promising to do exactly what the Constitution demands: give rights back to the people. Most of what he is “against” is in fact skewed.
In truth he is against the federal government’s involvement in the people’s rights. For this view, he is branded “literally Hitler,” though Hitler, a socialist, enacted policies more similar to those proposed by both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.
The majority of American youth live in bubbles of liberalism. They are taught by the media and entertainment industries and the predominantly left-wing education system to support regressive social justice programs at the expense of actual human rights.
If you doubt what I am saying, look at Detroit. According to the Los Angeles Times’ “Who’s to blame for Detroit’s collapse?,” Detroit, once one of the wealthiest cities in America, is now an example of the end result of a hyper-liberal government regime, a stagnant economy, and a harsh racial divide. According to “Addressing Detroit’s illiteracy issue” from Detroit Urban Innovation Exchange, nearly 50 percent of its population is functionally illiterate. The unemployment rate is more than twice the national average, and a large percentage of its people are dependent on government handouts.
The majority of people living in Detroit will never vote against the Democrats, because they need the entitlements promised by the party. Many will not try to educate themselves or find work, because the government pays them to do absolutely nothing. Crime is rampant, but the police force was neglected and systematically targeted by the city officials. Throughout the election, the liberal media sought to enact this same change in the rest of the country by using race, gender and identity to divide America.
So, next time you call me sexist or racist because I want more than that for my future, decide what kind of country you want to live in. Do you want to live in one in which fear of social retribution determines your every word, the government dictates every decision you make, 90 percent of your income is taken from you in order to support a system of autonomous mediocrity or one in which you and I have a right to disagree.
Shelby Sprigg is a sophomore Writing Seminars major from San Diego.
