This year's presidential election was so disheartening because as a citizen of the United States of America, I didn't think that it was possible for enough ignorance and racism to exist in the best country in the world, to allow for such an atrocity to happen. Donald trump's victory represents the triumph of hate and discrimination, and our nation's regression as a society to what one cannot help but compare to a pre-civil rights movement era. This election really helped reveal the prevalence of hidden racism that is still present in our society.
Yesterday I was reminded that the civil rights movement of the 1960's was really not too long ago. Less than sixty years ago, signs hung on the walls of public places in our country which read "whites only." Trump's victory for presidency represents our nation's regression toward this type of hate. We now have a president that demonstrates a nazi-like intolerance for people of different religions and ethnicities.
What's most saddening
What's most saddening about these recent events however, is a reflection upon the fact that America is hailed as 'the best country in the world' because historically we are lauded as the "land of opportunity" and as a "melting pot," for the promotion of civil and social liberties- a nation where people from all walks and struggles of life, regardless of color, religion, or race, can live a life of hope, promise, and opportunity.
The President of the greatest country in the world should represent what America stand for: humanity, civility, and an unadulterated promotion of equality for all people because these are the "God given rights" that the forefathers of our great nation constructed our beautiful Constitution upon.
What does Trump's victory represent
Trump's victory and his anti-intellectual racist campaign represents the very thoughts that have long-distinguished us as a nation from third-world and poverty stricken nations around the world where people are unfortunately living lives torn by affliction, famine, abject poverty, social inequality, and injustice.
Ayn Rand sums up Trump's anti-intellectual campaign through the description of a "refusal to think" at best. I can only hope that our Constitution's system of checks and balances, which our nation's founding fathers so painstakingly constructed in order to prevent a potential threat to the liberty that was so courageously fought for and died for by so many during the American Revolution, withholds the test of time.
