The result of the election are now three weeks in and America is still in complete chaos. In the past I wrote about the election as it had just finished and the results were still raw to us Americans. Donald Trump is three weeks into his presidential transitions and things have only gotten worse. Every person he appoints to a job in office has a lot of history behind them and some feel like they will not benefit the country. America as a nation is split and it has you wonder where can we find democracy in our country.

Not everyone is being represented equally and as The presidential transition continues people will remain divided. Trump’s campaign is still being talked about all over the media everyday. The newest controversy is the call for a recount of votes in swing states. Trump has taken to social media to attack those in favor of a recount. He has stopped saying the election was rigged and is ready to be president. I feel that a recount will not have any success and that we have to face what is in store for the future of the country.

The TRump Presidency begins in less than two months. Until then he must find a way to smooth out the transition of power without causing uproar in America. He must unite Americans in order to gain full support and to do his job to the full potential.

As of the recent election of Donald J. Trump as the presidential elect, it would be an understatement to say that there has been some turmoil building up in our society. Namely, there has been many surrounding issues involving the growing racism, xenophobia and hate crimes in the United States after the election, as if the election of Trump has spurred the hatred in racist or xenophobic citizens in America. Already, one can observe a swollen build-up of hatred for people of foreign descent. The situation has mounted on so severely that the presidential elect had already asked for this slur of hatred to stop, yet puts no effort in to conceivably stop said hate crimes.
Although racism is comparably minute in New York City as opposed to the build-up of hatred in other states, the acts of racism has already spread to our neighborhoods. Perhaps our neighborhood isn’t quite safe from the reach of the growing intolerance for other cultures? Yet, considering the fact that many protesters has arisen to combat the influence of the election of Donald Trump, one may consider that the people of New York City are proudly adamant to growing racism. One can observe said adamant nature in the streets and train terminal in Union Square after the recent protests. These movements were all bolstered by Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has promised to shield the city against potential policies Trump may indict and protest further on the election of Donald Trump. So in the end, this internal struggle in the United States’ cultural infrastructure continues, worsened by the recent results of the elections.

People probably would not believe me if they knew that I woke up on Election Day singing “You’re a Grand Old Flag”. I was so excited to vote for the first time, and it was evident. I dressed in red white and blue and triple checked to make sure I took proper identification with me. I even packed my polaroid camera because I intended on taking a picture after my first time voting.

As the day went, I could not wait for classes to be over. I was so excited to get out and vote. My parents voted early in the day to avoid lines and I met up with my oldest sister and voted with her. The entire moment was especially meaningful because I got to vote in my elementary school. I had not been in the cafeteria of PS69 in years. Eight years later and I was back in the cafeteria voting for the president of the United States.

From what started off as a great day, ended as a very depressing one. With CNN playing in the background I was having multiple conversations. I was talking with my parents, my siblings, my roommate, my friends in college (even some who are in colleges in other countries). It was as if the world were coming to an end. We were freaking out. I could not take the suspense anymore and eventually fell asleep. The next day was the gloomiest day I had ever experienced in my life.

The next morning, New York City cried. It rained all day and every single New Yorker I saw was upset. It was a depressing day and I really had to think about what it means to have a Trump presidency. What was even more depressing was when we had our politics class a few days later. It was in this class that we truly uncovered everything at risk. The only thing this leaves me at currently is that people have to be more united than they ever have before. Education and unification is the key.

Since my last blog post, Donald Trump was elected President of the U.S., something I would have not predicted prior to the election. Since the election, there have been protests against the new elected president as well as a rise of hate crimes against minorities. Donald Trump’s campaign was one like no other in the history of America. He spoke of groups of people, such as Latinos, Muslims and women, in very degrading ways, threatening the safety of these minority groups. His campaign was on the basis not America is not “great” anymore and that the Obama presidency has failed the country, which reflected the uproar of many white, middle-class Americans living in non-urban environments. Even if Trump didn’t carry out his plans, he has caused half of the nation to uprise in extreme support of his outrageous proposal and with him in office, they expect these plans to be taken out. Trump has created a group of radicals that the Republican Party has not expected to carry out. Yet, while Trump has benefited himself by running in the Republican Party, he has put the Republican Party in a powerful position, that inevitability the party has to serve him to a certain extend to keep order of the half of the country that supports him deeply.  

Yet, this split of America, does not represent democracy. The two-party system, with extreme polarization, does emit democracy as it was meant to. Many Democrats and anti-Trump supporters, have expressed their strong opinion on the electoral college in this election. The electoral college is supposed to support democracy and in fact be the safety net to prevent such outrageous candidates in running and even becoming the elected President. Yet in this election, this was not the case as the electoral college, the system in which Donald Trump himself had publicly criticized it, had helped the candidate win the election. Trump is no longer stating that this system is diminishing democracy, yet millions of Americans still are. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, meaning that more people in the country voted for her, yet without winning 270 electoral votes, this means nothing to Clinton and the Democrats. Now, there are many petitions to eliminate the electoral college system as it is an outdated system that doesn’t ensure that everyone’s vote counts. Now to move on forward from this election, we need to become more involved with politics and push for change where it is needed.

As of right now, America is in a state of separation. The conservative and liberal factions of the country are currently clashing. Political polarization is at its worst. If the backlash against the latest election is any indication, we will have to rethink our current form of government. The change could be as small as removing the electoral college’s influence or something as big as a complete overhaul. If change is really about to happen, the question is, do we need Democracy right now?

Right now, our system of Democracy has a major weakness in that fact that it cannot attend to the needs of all the American people at once. It’s practically impossible to create a policy that doesn’t affect one side or the other. Improving welfare and increasing minimum wage? The rich will have to pay for that. Tax cuts for the wealthy? It looks like the poor will have to provide the money needed to sustain the government. This isn’t even taking into account the troubling polarization taking place in the senate. Our legislative branch can’t pass any policies because there is no willingness to compromise with each other. Both parties will argue for their side alone and the lack of a middle-ground will leave both sides at a stalemate.

Well, if we were to hypothetically abandon democracy, what type of government should we use? One of the first forms of government that comes to mind is communism. Yes, communism, the ideals that have frightened so many American in the past. It boasts a system in which all people are essentially treated equally. Everyone will have all the same possessions and opportunities open to them. There wouldn’t be any competition or conflict, no rich and no poor. But do we really want that? Without competition, there would be no reason to improve ourselves. The government would have complete control over our lives which is the very reason America was founded, to prevent that. If we are going to move forward as a country, we will have to rethink not how we want our government to work, but how we will get it to work. We have to unite as one group even if it seems to be impossible. Just remember, we don’t need democracy, right now, democracy needs us.

It has been 10 days since the election. There has been and still are lots of talk about the result of the election. Many people are not accepting Donald Trump as president. Thousands of protesters have taken their frustration over Trump’s victory  onto the streets. People are voicing concern that a Trump presidency would infringe on American civil rights and liberties. There are many ongoing protest in hope to impeach Donald Trump. At first, I was thinking if this is necessary.  Although I am not satisfied with the outcome of the election, I wondered how bad a Trump presidency can be.

I was completely wrong.

One day after Donald Trump was elected as president, there has been so many Trump-inspired incidents. One that shocked me the most happened in my neighborhood. A few students from Fresh Meadows Catholic high school made discriminatory comments towards other students on a MTA bus.  This is what happened:

“I was on the bus and this group of girls from St. Francis Prep get on. They look around and looked at me and said ‘Aren’t you people suppose to be sitting in the back of bus?’
I looked around and saw that there were mainly black and Hispanic people sitting in the middle of the the bus. I asked this girl to repeat herself and she says
‘Aren’t you supposed to be sitting in the back of the bus now? Like Trump is president!’”

I was utterly shocked when I saw this post.  It was ONLY ONE DAY after the election when this happened. I am truly frightened especially because this happened in my neighborhood. I am worried that my family and my friends might experience this. If my neighborhood, a place I lived in for more than 10 years , isn’t safe I do not know what I’m suppose to do.  I came to the realization that it is necessary and crucial to protest against Trump. Everyone should get more involved. More incidents like this is occurring.  Muslim women are getting attacked for wearing headscarves. Women are getting insulted and looked down on. There was one incident that I personally witnessed that was appalling.  As I was waiting for the 7 train, a man started insulting and pointing at every women in the station and said he is allowed to do this now that Trump is president. It’s ridiculous that women have to fear for their safety in America. Everyone should be allowed to exercise their rights and freedom without fear or influence. I am beyond frightened for what’s to come in the future.

The election happened last week and we finally can stop listening to the campaigning that has been going on. With the conclusion of this election, and Trump being elected president, I decided to read an article, written by Julie Hirschfeld Davis of the New York Times, on the meeting Donald Trump had with President Obama. I did not watch the entire video of their meeting but the parts that I saw was very civilized. Going into the meeting many people were skeptical as to what could happen, since the history between the two was slightly bitter. President Obama never believed that Trump would be able to run a country, deeming him unfit and not qualified by any means. This created a lot of tension going into the the meeting. Trump was also not a fan of Obama, questioning for the years that he was president if his birth certificate was legitimate and calling him weak in his approach of his presidency. Since Trump has no experience as a government official he had many questions and was able to get them answered with the help of Obama. I am the least bit excited for the Trump presidency but he said that Obama could play a crucial part throughout his term. That gave some hope that this won’t be the worst presidency and with enough help some things could possibly get done for the positive. Overall the meeting went over well and it was a great part of our democratic system. Many countries are not able to have a change of power through a peaceful manner. Since we are able to have a civil election where men and women of any race can vote, and then that decision can be transferred peacefully is a great representation of how are democratic system works very well. Even with the controversial election where the electoral college was different from the popular vote, there can still be a meeting where the President and President-elect can discuss plans and learn from one another to make our country stronger than before. Democracy although may not be foolproof it is a great system of government that we are able to carry out.

Raymond Pietzak

Incase any one would like to watch the clip or read the article.

It’s almost been a week since Election Day and, during these past few days I have heard nothing but pessimistic thoughts and predictions about America’s future.

In Political Science, our professor told us that the electoral college was made to prevent candidates like Trump from taking the throne. He also told us about climate change- which still surprises me how there are still people that do not believe it exists or do not take it seriously- and how Trump plans to decrease funds in several projects. His presidency sounds like a balloon of poison waiting to burst. I initially thought that his presidency wouldn’t amount to much considering there was a system of checks and balances in the federal government but, even then he still has the potential to do so much damage.

To be frank, I don’t believe most people feel connected or involved in American government or its issues unless it directly affects their line of work. For all my years, I never felt relevant nor affected by whatever bill had been passed or the different laws between each state. But now it’s different; there is a pot of fear and anxiety boiling over in my stomach each time I hear of another intolerable behavior happening in a place like New York City- “a place like New York City,”  a place popular for its diversity, for its generally liberal stance on things- and now you got people punching the elderly for being a particular race or following a specific religion.

When we approached Election Day, the fact that one of our presidential candidates was Trump wasn’t what surprised me; it was the number of people at his rallies, the amount of hate crimes that spiked up because of his presence and empty speeches, it was the amount of videos posted online by people who got stopped and verbally (and sometimes physically) harassed by (often) a Trump supporter, it was the amount of blog posts that were written in lengths similar to that of sermon concerning evidence and reasons why you should not vote for Trump, it was the “Make America White Again” graffiti written with a swastika on a brick wall in the midst of the election.

It was a reminder that because we lived in a democracy, that people like members of the Ku Klux Klan had the right to assembly and to practice their beliefs. It was only (sort of) fine if they didn’t physically nor verbally harassed the other side but now with his presidency, people have become more outspoken about their prejudice. And now we have a president that supports that kind of behavior.

Joy.

The most storied election in United States history has come to end. For 60,981,118 people, their vote was not powerful enough. Yep, that is right, 60,981,118 people voted for Hillary Clinton, almost 600,000 more people than those voted for Donald Trump. Yet our new president-elect is not Hillary. Why is that? We can thank the Electoral College created some 150 years ago.

The winner of the election doesn’t have to be the most popular but just has to win more votes within states. And sometimes that can even lead to a loss. If you didn’t know what the Electoral College was before the election, you sure do now. Each state has a certain number of electoral vote which are given to the winner of that state. Donald Trump won more electoral votes and thus is our future president. People are outraged at such an outcome and even have created petitions to reverse the process and unelect Trump.

After reading more about the Electoral College, it really made me wonder where is the democracy in the process? The people voted Hillary. After the final vote count she will have won by more than a million votes so why is she not our president. The popular vote should be final. Trump won the election by undermining the process and attacking the flaws. He was able to get the people he needed to vote to win. He knew what people were the most important in the electoral college and what battleground states he needed to focus on. He gave up on New York and Califonia and put his time and effort on Iowa, Florida and Pensylvania. His effort prevailed and he is now the future of our America

President Trump. This entire mess is something that we are going to have to endure a while. After receiving 276 electoral votes, it seems our country has exercised its democratic voice and elected Trump as our leader. Throughout this entire race, people always feared and toyed with the absurd hypothetical notion that Trump–a reality TV star–may be our future leader. Although Clinton does have her fair share of haters, many assumed that our former Secretary of State would win this election by a landslide. However, in our present reality, this is not the case.

Did America, as a democracy, really just fail itself? Trump, who has effectively split not only the country, but also his own party, ran his campaign as an open racist, bigot, and misogynist. What does this say about us, specifically our central states, considering the fact that we were the ones who voted him in to be our leader? I recall my father, a registered Republican, telling me that he did not vote because he also does not think Trump is fit to be our president. “The stock market does not like uncertainty,” my father additionally kept uttering this remark as he was positive that the DOW would considerably drop should Trump be elected, and lo-and-behold he was right.

Should we re-evaluate our very essence of democracy? Trump, the very man who has called our system rigged, has just won in this “rigged system” and that is something we should be concerned about. According to Google, Clinton received 59,436,370 votes while Trump received 59,244,709 votes. Despite this, Trump got more electoral votes, but I wonder–since Trump won, will he do anything about this so-called “rigged system” of a democracy? Or, will he claim that America’s system is no longer rigged, since he won.

No matter the outcome of our next few years, in regards to voicing democracy, this could definitely be considered by some to be a colossal democratic failure. But who is to blame?