The election of Donald J. Trump as President has thrown a wrench into the social progress being made in the United States of America. The U.S. has prided itself on its founding principles that are meant to lead it to the formation of a perfect union.
Has there been more social unrest in the U.S. since the election of Donald Trump?
If you look at the progress it’s made, strictly in the sense of social issues, from its founding to the year 2016, you will see an exponential curve of improvement. That curve has now experienced a sharp drop, not in the sense of legislation, but in the sense of people’s attitudes.
There was the Abolition Movement, the Women’s Rights Movement, the Labor Movement, the Civil Rights Movement, the Environmental Movement, the LGBT Movement, even the Modern Conservative Movement (emphasis on the word “modern”), and etc. Again, there has not been a lot of legislation that has acted against these efforts, but the election of trump has fanned the embers of people’ latent attitudes that may have contradicted some of these movements.
The utter shock of election night, that women and minorities around the country experienced, was a gross underestimation of what was actually going to happen.
Almost nine months have passed in the first year of this terrible 4-year investment. A list of notable events that have happened, just in the last 9 months, include but aren’t limited to: the 2017 Women’s March which that was the largest single-day protest in U.S.
history (organized in response to Donald Trump’s election), a travel ban was temporarily instituted against people from seven Muslim-majority countries, a white supremacists rally held in Charlottesville, Virginia, in order to “fulfill the promises of Donald Trump” as stated by David Duke turned violent and cost Heather Heyer her life, and there was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S.
history in Las Vegas which claimed the lives of 58 people. Every one of these events has caused more discourse in the U.S. regarding everything from race relations to gun laws.
What do the statistics say?
Trump’s approval rating during his first 9 months in office has been consistently the lowest since Gerald Ford whose term was from 1974-1977.
At day 269 in office, Trump’s approval rating is 37.7% among American citizens.
There’s no doubt that his presidency represents those 2 steps back people talk about when taking 1 step of progress. There is discourse not only in the general American public, but also within his own administration. At least 69 people have left white house advisory groups and at least 20 other notable “resignations” from his administration.
Any optimist would get discouraged at these stats, but there is a silver lining. Anyone can see that there has been a notable increase of protests in the U.S. since Trump was elected. Of course, these protest have taken place in response to certain things getting worse and a raising of tensions, but the amount of awareness being spread about social issues is reaching more ears than ever before (in recent years that is).
Times of discourse breed change, and it’s important for new generations of Americans to see just how bad things can get, because when the old ways die off there will be nothing but progress to be made.
